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32-582: Ancient Medieval Modern Although the Sharafnama is a work of Kurdish history , it was written in Persian . Given the context of Sharaf Khan's time, this choice was, in a sense, inevitable. After his father, Shams al-Din Khan, sought refuge at the court of Safavid Shah Tahmasp I ( r.   1524-1576), it is not surprising that Sharaf Khan, who received a high-quality education alongside

64-559: A group within Northwest Iranian during the Medieval Period (roughly 10th to 16th centuries). The Kurdish people are believed to be of heterogeneous origins, both from Iranian-speaking and non-Iranian peoples, combining a number of earlier tribal or ethnic groups including Lullubi , Guti , Cyrtians , Sumerian and Carduchi . The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows, at least roughly, drawing

96-750: A high-quality education alongside the princes in Shah Tahmasp’s palace in Qazvin and mastered Persian like a native speaker, chose to write this work in that language. His decision was driven both by the desire to reach a wide audience across the Persian-speaking regions and to enhance his dynasty’s legitimacy in the broader world. Upon completing his book, Sharaf Khan sent copies to the Kurdish leaders of Kilis (Husayn Jānbūlād) and Ardalan ( Halo Khan ). This gesture could have been aimed at demonstrating

128-658: Is a book written in 1597 by Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi (a medieval Kurdish historian and poet) (1543–1599) in Persian . Sharafnama is regarded as an important, and the oldest, source on Kurdish history . It deals with the different Kurdish dynasties such as, Saladin the Great and his Ayyubid Dynasty , ancient and Medieval Kurdish principalities in the Middle-East and the Caucasus , as well as some mentioning about

160-521: Is given in the famous textbook of Sharafnama written by Prince Sharaf al-Din Biltisi in 1597. The most prominent among these was Ardalan which was established in the early 14th century. The state of Ardalan controlled the territories of Zardiawa (Karadagh), Khanaqin , Kirkuk , Kifri , and Hawraman , despite being vassals themselves of the various in Persia centred succeeding Turkic federations in

192-690: The English Orientalist Godfrey Rolles Driver , the term Kurd is related to the Sumerian Karda which was found in Sumerian clay tablets of the third millennium B.C. He wrote in a paper published in 1923 that the term Kurd was not used differently by different nations and by examining the philological variations of Karda in different languages, such as Cordueni , Gordyeni , Kordyoui , Karduchi , Kardueni , Qardu , Kardaye , Qardawaye , he finds that

224-768: The Hasanwayhids (959–1015), the Annazid (990–1117) (in Kermanshah , Dinawar and Khanaqin ) and in the West the Marwanid (990–1096) of Diyarbakır . Later in the 12th century, the Kurdish Hazaraspid dynasty established its rule in southern Zagros and Luristan and conquered territories of Kuhgiluya , Khuzestan and Golpayegan in the 13th century and annexed Shushtar , Hoveizeh and Basra in

256-705: The Hasanwayhids , the Marwanids , the Rawadids , the Shaddadids , followed by the Ayyubid dynasty founded by Saladin . The Battle of Chaldiran of 1514 is an important turning point in Kurdish history, marking the alliance of Kurds with the Ottomans . The Sharafnameh of 1597 is the first account of Kurdish history. Kurdish history in the 20th century is marked by a rising sense of Kurdish nationhood focused on

288-651: The Middle East . They have historically inhabited the mountainous areas to the south of Lake Van and Lake Urmia , a geographical area collectively referred to as Kurdistan . Most Kurds speak Northern Kurdish Kurmanji Kurdish (Kurmanji) and Central Kurdish (Sorani). There are various hypotheses as to predecessor populations of the Kurds , such as the Carduchoi of Classical Antiquity. The earliest known Kurdish dynasties under Islamic rule (10th to 12th centuries) are

320-469: The 14th century. One of these dynasties may have been able, during the decades, to impose its supremacy on the others and build a state incorporating the whole Kurdish country if the course of history had not been disrupted by the massive invasions of tribes surging out of the steppes of Central Asia . Having conquered Iran and imposed their yoke on the caliph of Baghdad , the Seljuq Turks annexed

352-417: The 16th century, there seems to develop an ethnic identity designated by the term Kurd among various Northwestern Iranian groups , without reference to any specific Iranian language. Sherefxan Bidlisi in the 16th century states that there are four divisions of "Kurds": Kurmanj , Lur , Kalhor and Guran , each of which speak a different dialect or language variation. Paul (2008) notes that

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384-635: The 16th-century usage of the term Kurd as recorded by Bidlisi, regardless of linguistic grouping, might still reflect an incipient Northwestern Iranian "Kurdish" ethnic identity uniting the Kurmanj, Kalhor, and Guran. Kurdish is a language of the Northwestern Iranian group which has likely separated from the other dialects of Central Iran during the early centuries AD (the Middle Iranian period). Kurdish has in turn emerged as

416-544: The 2000s. There are different theories about the origin of the name Kurd . According to one theory, it originates in Middle Persian as كورت kwrt- , a term for "nomad; tent-dweller". After the Muslim conquest of Persia , this term was adopted into Arabic as kurd- , and was used specifically for nomadic tribes. The ethnonym Kurd may ultimately derive from an ancient toponym in the upper Tigris basin. According to

448-664: The Bidlis ruler’s dynastic authority and gaining broader recognition, while also indicating that Persian was read and written in the courts of other Kurdish rulers. In 1873–1875, François Charmoy , a French scholar, translated it from Persian into French and published it in Saint Petersburg , Russia . At the right, it is a Kurdish–French dictionary, made by Alexandre Jaba , and published in 1879 in Saint Petersburg, too. The Sherefname has been translated into

480-477: The Bidlis ruler’s dynastic authority and gaining broader recognition, while also indicating that Persian was read and written in the courts of other Kurdish rulers. In 1873–1875, François Charmoy , a French scholar, translated it from Persian into French and published it in Saint Petersburg , Russia . At the right, it is a Kurdish–French dictionary, made by Alexandre Jaba , and published in 1879 in Saint Petersburg, too. The Sherefname has been translated into

512-515: The Kurdish principalities one by one. Around 1150, Ahmad Sanjar , the last of the great Seljuq monarchs, created a province out of these lands and called it Kurdistan . The province of Kurdistan, formed by Sanjar, had as its capital the village Bahar (which means lake or sea), near ancient Ecbatana ( Hamadan ). It included the vilayets of Sinjar and Shahrazur to the west of the Zagros mountain range and those of Hamadan, Dinawar and Kermanshah to

544-655: The Kurds, apparently for the same reasons that hindered their acceptance in iran proper. In a Persian statistical overview of tribes dating from the period of Shah sultan Husayn in the early 18th century, it is said that the Kurds of Zafaranlo tribe refused to carry the Tufang, because they considered it unmanly to do so, as a result of which most continued to fight with lance and sword, and some with arrow and bow. Sharafnama The Sharafnama ( Kurdish : شەرەفنامە Şerefname, "The Book of Honor", Persian : Sharafname, شرفنامه)

576-462: The Middle Ages, in many cities outside of Kurdistan, Kurdish quarters were formed as a result of an influx of Kurdish tribal forces, as well as scholars. In these cities, Kurds often also had mosques, madrasahs and other edifices. For many centuries, starting in the early modern period with Ismail I , Shah of Safavid Persia, and Ottoman Sultan Selim I , the Kurds came under the suzerainty of

608-437: The approximate borders of the areas where the main ethnic core of the speakers of the contemporary Kurdish dialects was formed. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the ethnic territory of the Kurds remains D.N. Mackenzie's theory, proposed in the early 1960s. Developing the ideas of P. Tedesco and regarding the common phonetic isoglosses shared by Kurdish, Persian , and Baluchi , D.N. Mackenzie concluded that

640-561: The central areas of Western Iran, and the Kurds (Proto-Kurds), in the wording of G. Windfuhr (1975: 459), lived either in northwestern Luristan or in the province of Isfahan . In the second half of the 10th century there were five Kurdish principalities: in the north the Shaddadid (951–1174) (in parts of Armenia and Arran ) and Rawadid (955–1221) in Tabriz and Maragheh , in the East

672-589: The east of this range. An autochthonous civilization developed around the town of Dinawar (today ruined), located 75 km North-East of Kermanshah, whose radiance was later only partially replaced by that of Senna , 90 km further North. Marco Polo (1254–1324) met Kurds in Mosul on his way to China , and he wrote what he had learned about Kurdistan and the Kurds to enlighten his European contemporaries. The Italian Kurdologist Mirella Galetti, sorted these writings which were translated into Kurdish. One of

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704-531: The goal of an independent Kurdistan as scheduled by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. Partial autonomy was reached by Kurdistan Uyezd (1923–1926) and by Iraqi Kurdistan (since 1991), while notably in Turkish Kurdistan , an armed conflict between the Kurdish insurgent groups and Turkish Armed Forces was ongoing from 1984 to 1999, and the region continues to be unstable with renewed violence flaring up in

736-1229: The languages German , Arabic , English , Ottoman , Russian , and Turkish . In 1972 the Kurdish scholar Abdurrahman Sharafkandi , translated the book from Persian into Kurdish . History of the Kurds Ancient Medieval Modern Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European The Kurds are an Iranian ethnic group in

768-684: The periods where Kurds were at the peak of their power was during the 12th century, when Saladin , who belonged to the Rawadiya branch of the Hadabani tribe, founded the Ayyubid dynasty, under which several Kurdish chieftainships were established. The dynasty ruled areas extending from the Kurdish regions to as far as Egypt and Yemen . Kurds established several independent states or principalities such as Ardalan , Badinan , Baban , Soran , Hakkari and Badlis . A comprehensive history of these states and their relationship with their neighbors

800-427: The pre-Islamic ancestors of the Kurds. Ancient Medieval Modern Although the Sharafnama is a work of Kurdish history , it was written in Persian . Given the context of Sharaf Khan's time, this choice was, in a sense, inevitable. After his father, Shams al-Din Khan, sought refuge at the court of Safavid Shah Tahmasp I ( r.   1524-1576), it is not surprising that Sharaf Khan, who received

832-484: The princes in Shah Tahmasp’s palace in Qazvin and mastered Persian like a native speaker, chose to write this work in that language. His decision was driven both by the desire to reach a wide audience across the Persian-speaking regions and to enhance his dynasty’s legitimacy in the broader world. Upon completing his book, Sharaf Khan sent copies to the Kurdish leaders of Kilis (Husayn Jānbūlād) and Ardalan ( Halo Khan ). This gesture could have been aimed at demonstrating

864-821: The region, namely that of the Kara Koyunlu , and the Ak Koyunlu specifically. The capital city of this state of Ardalan was first in Sharazour in Iraqi Kurdistan , but was moved to Sinne (in Iran ) later on. The Ardalan Dynasty was allowed to rule the region as vassals by many of the sovereign rulers over the wider territory, until the Qajar monarch Nasser-al-Din Shah (1848–1896) ended their rule in 1867. In

896-462: The similarities undoubtedly refer to a common descent. It has been argued that "Kurd" may ultimately reflect a Bronze Age toponym Qardu , Kar-da , which may also be reflected in the Arabic (Quranic) toponym Ǧūdī (re-adopted in Kurdish as Cûdî ) The name would be continued in classical antiquity as the first element in the toponym Corduene , and its inhabitants, mentioned by Xenophon as

928-649: The speakers of these three languages form a unity within Northwestern Iranian. He has tried to reconstruct such a Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the central parts of Iran. According to his theory, the Persians (or Proto-Persians) occupied the province of Fars in the southwest (proceeding from the fact that the Achaemenids spoke Persian), the Balochs (Proto-Balochs) inhabited

960-601: The tribe of the Carduchoi who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC. This view is supported by some recent academic sources which have considered Corduene as proto-Kurdish region. However, some modern scholars reject these connections. Alternatively, kwrt- may be a derivation from the name of the Cyrtii tribe instead. According to some sources, by

992-534: The two most powerful empires of the Near East and staunch arch rivals, the Sunni Ottoman Empire and the various Shia Empires. It started off with the rule of Ismail I , who ruled over all regions that encompass native Kurdish living areas, and far beyond. During the years 1506–1510, Yazidis revolted against Ismail I (who had Kurdish ancestry himself). Their leader, Shir Sarim ,

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1024-494: Was defeated and captured in a bloody battle wherein several important officers of Ismail lost their lives. The Kurdish prisoners were put to death "with torments worse than which there may not be". In the mid-17th century the Kurds on the western borders disposed of firearms, According to Tavernier , the mountain people between Nineveh and Isfahan would not sell anything but for gunpowder and bullets. Even so, firearms were incorporated neither wholesale nor wholeheartedly among

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