Şemseddin Sami

Shamseddin Sami was an author of journalism, dictionary, linguistics, theatre and novel writing during the Ottoman Empire, and the author of the book Kamusu'l-Alam, an encyclopedia of history, geography and famous men (Volume 4, p. 102). The first volume of Kamusü'l-Alam was published in 1889, and the sixth volume in 1898 (Volume 4, p. 102). The work introduces place and person names in alphabetical order, and contains many articles relating to Kurds directly or indirectly (Volumes 4, p.102; Volumes 4, pp. 103). In the Akçadag article, the Kurdish tribe called Zeynanlı is mentioned as living in the mountains of the cave and most of its family of about 20,000 people is Kurdish; in the Albak article, Ertuş and Şekak tribes are recorded as being related to this accident (Volume 4, p. 104). The Dersim article describes the area as "the cradle of the Kurdish tribes since the beginning"; the Duhok article states that most of the tribe is Kurdish (Volume 4, p. 107). Kurds in Iranian geography are also reflected in the work: the Ardelan article describes the province that forms the southeastern part of Iranian-held Kurdistan and has its center in the city of Sinai; the Azerbaijani article records the presence of Kurds predominantly in the southwest of the province, near Lake Rumiye (Volume 4, p. 103). According to the Iranian article, the largest ethnic group in the country after the Turkmen are Kurds, with about half a million inhabitants living in the south of Azerbaijan, around Lake Urmia and Ardelan; some of the Kurds and Arabs are Sunnis (Volume 4, p. 105). The Huzistan article states that the inhabitants of the mountains in the northeastern part of the state are of the Kurdish (Lur) race; the Lor article states the region is named after the Kurds from the Lor tribes; and the Loristan article indicates that the majority of the population is Kurdish. The article of Idriss-i Bitlisi considers him to be one of the "Kurdish Ummers and Muveriks"; the article of Ibrahim Pasha (Kurd) describes his escape from Shah Ismail and his invasion of the Ottoman Empire, his writing of the Heşt Behişt in the name of Bayezid II, and his service in the transition of Kurdistan to Ottoman rule (Volume 4, p. 106). The article describes the city as "a city in Kurdistan", with a third of the population being Kurds and the center of a very small Kurdish government in the Middle Ages (Volume 4, p. 105). These articles of the source value of Kamusü'l-Alam, with population figures, administrative classification, tribal names, language and sect records, provide first-hand evidence of how Kurds and Kurdistan were defined by Ottoman science at the end of the 19th century (Volume 4, p. 103; Volume 4, p 105).