Şeyh Ubeydullah

Sheikh Ubeydullah was a Kurdish religious and political leader who was influential in the Ottoman-Iranian border region in the second half of the 19th century, recorded in period reports as the son of Sheikh Tahir of the Nakshibendi sect; he is remembered in sources for his efforts to establish an independent Kurdistan with the support of Kurdish tribes (Volume 4, p. 81). Among the well-known Kurdish personalities whose historical and political roles can be examined in the Ottoman archives are Bedirhan Bey, Musa Bey, Han Mahmud, Said-i Kurdi, Celadet Bedirchan and Mevlanzade Rıfat (Volume 3, p. 75). ## Identity and Family: Records of Collection Sources Modern research literature links Sheikh Ubeydullah's lineage to the Nehri sheikh family: his father is Nakshibendi Sheikh Seyyid Taha al-Hakkari, who fought against the Russians in cooperation with Sheikh Shamil during the Crimean War; his uncle Sheikh Salih also fought the Russions at the head of the troops he formed in Azerbaijan and Eastern Anatolia region (Collection: Sword, Sheikh Ubydullah Insurgency, PDF p. 53). Zekî Beg also mentions the movement's predecessor as "the late Nakshibendi Sheikh Ubeydullah, who was very famous", and records the region of the River/Shemdinan, which is attached to Hakkari as his homeland (Collection: Zekîbeg, Kurds and Kurdistan History, PDF, p. 228, 181). After the Ottoman-Russian war of 1877-78, the flames of a new Kurdish dispute began to rise in the region of Shemdinan, which "was not like the famous Kurdish movements of the past", separated from them in terms of origin and purpose (Collection: Zekî Beg, Kurds and Kurdistan History, PDF p. 228). The movement in research literature, covering Hakkari, Van, Urmiye and its surroundings, is studied around 1880 and is referred to in the work of Jalilê Jalil as the "1880 Sheikh Ubeydullah River Kurdish Uprising" (Collection: Sword, Sheikh Ubydullah Insurrection, PDF s. 14, 26). ## Background Plan of the Era: Reports from the time of Abdülhamid II of the Kurdish tribes on the Ottoman-Iranian border give a table of the border region where Sheikh Ubeydullah's movement was born. These reports include the state of the Haydaranlu, Sebiki, Semsiki, Celali, Hemedanlu, Zilanlu and Mifri tribes in the Ottoman-Iranian territory and their border violations; the fact that the movements of migrant Kurdish tribes have caused problems between the two states and the problem of their splitting; and the rebellious attitudes of the Celali tribe against the Ottomans and the moves of the Cafiret tribe near Sine towards Iranian Kurdistan. The impact of foreign powers on the Armenian, Kurdish and Jewish peoples is also among the topics of the same reports (Volume 4, p. 81). ## Independent Kurdistan Establishment Effort One of the most striking headlines of the reports that gave this table is that in the report written by one of the Yaver-i Ekrem of the period, Sheikh Ubeydullah, son of Sheikh Tahir of the Nakshibendi sect, sought the support of the Kurdish tribes to establish an independent Kurdistan and that this initiative created a major problem between Iran and the Ottomans (Volume 4, p. 81). The fact that the entry concerned the two empires simultaneously indicates that the issue gained an interstate dimension; as in the Ottoman archive, Sheikh Ubeydullah and correspondence with Iran regarding a possible "Kurdish Question" form a separate documentary group (Volume 3, p. 95). The Military Exposure Letter (Y.PRK.ASK.), which covers the years 1830-1899 and includes correspondence between the military authorities and the Star Palace, is mentioned at the beginning of the topics covered by this fund in the context of Kurdish history (Volume 3, p. 96). The Mabeyn Başkitabi (Y.PRK.BŞK), which contains telegraphic images of the governor, mutasarrıf, commander, envoy and inspectors, contains reports that the Kurds drew support from Sheikh Ubeydullah and his sons (Volume 3, p. 94). The documents of the Family and the Next Cluster Archives show that Sheikh Ubeydullah's family also played a role in regional politics in later generations. The catalogues contain telegrams by Sheikh Siddik, son of Sheikh Ubydullah, signed by the Kurdish Battalion Commander to the Interior Minister Talat Bey (Volume 3, p. 139). ## Importance of Research In the Ottoman archives, thousands of documents can be accessed in the search with the Kurdish word and derivatives; for documents that do not contain the Kurdic word but concern the Kurds, it is suggested to search by the names of persons, places and tribes, and Sheikh Ubeydullah is shown as one of the main key names of these searches (Volume 3, p. 75).