NALÎ (Pers. Nāli), the pen-name of Mela Khidrî Ehmedî Šaweysî Mikâʾîlî (b. Ḵāk o ḵol, 1797 or 1800; d. Istanbul, 1855 or 1856), Kurdish poet who contributed immensely to making Sorani the literary language of southern Kurdistan, that is, most of present-day Iraq and the neighboring districts in Iran (FIGURE …

MAWLAWI, ʿAbd-al-Raḥim Maʿdumi (b. 1806, d. near Ḥalabja, 1882-83), a leading Kurdish poet of the 19th century who wrote in the Gurāni dialect of southeastern Kurdistan (FIGURE 1). He used the pen name Maʿdumi, but he is better known as the Kurdish Mawlawi (Mawlawi-e Kord). He was born in the …

    Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were executed during a systematic attempt to exterminate the Kurdish population in Iraq in the Anfal operations in the late 1980s. They were tied together and shot so they fell into mass graves. Their towns and villages were attacked by …

The Marwanids, a Kurdish dynasty to have governed in al-Jazira (Upper Mesopotamia) from 983 to 1085, merit special and separate mention in Diyarbakır’s history. The near-century-long rule of the Marwanids in this area is, in many ways, a unique parenthesis that may be deemed ahead of its time for the …

The family of Baban (1649–1850) ruled a Kurdish principality which encompassed areas of present-day Iraqi Kurdistan and western Iran from the early 17th century until 1850. The Baban principality played an active role in Ottoman-Persian conflict. The founder of the princely Baban family is thought to be Ahmad Faqih or Faqi Ahmad from the district of …

Portrait of emir Muhammed rewanduz pasha   Mir Muhammad or Emir Muhammad or Mir Muhammad Rawandizi or Muhammed Pasha (b. 1783 in Rawandiz – d. 1838 in the hakkari region) was the last and greatest ruler of Soran emirate. Mir Muhammad was the son of emir of Soran Mustafa Beg. …

As-salih Ayyub Al-Malik as-Salih Najm al-Din Ayyub ( Cairo, 5 November 1205 – 22 November 1249 in Al Mansurah), nickname: Abu al-Futuh (أبو الفتوح), also known as al-Malik al-Salih, was the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt from 1240 to 1249. Early life: In 1221 as-Salih became a hostage at the end …

By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli Sharafkhan Bidlisi (Kurdish: Mír Sheref el Dín Bitlísí) was born to a ruling family from the tribe of Rozaki (Rozakí) in North Kurdistan in 1543. This background provided him with both opportunity to get excellent education in the sciences of his time, and also to become …

Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916 WRITTEN BY: The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Sykes-Picot Agreement, also called Asia Minor Agreement, (May 1916), secret convention made during World War I between Great Britain and France, with the assent of imperial Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French- and British-administered areas. …

The Medes were an people of Aryan origin who inhabited the western and north-western portion of present-day Iran. By the 6th century BC (prior to the Persian invasion) the Medes were able to establish an empire that stretched from Aran (the modern-day Republic of Azerbaijan) to Central Asia and Afghanistan. Today’s population …