Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji (Kurdish: شێخ مه‌حموود بەرزنجی‎) or Mahmud Hafid Zadeh(1878 – October 9, 1956) was the leader of a series of Kurdish uprisings against the British Mandate of Iraq. He was sheikh of a QadiriyahSufi family of the Barzanji clan from the city of Sulaymaniyah, which is now in Iraqi Kurdistan. He was styled King of Kurdistan during several of these uprisings. …

Hamidiye Cavalry After Sheikh Ubeydullah’s downfall, Kurdish insurrections lessened in occurrence and were only limited to local outbreaks. The cost of rebellion had become too high for many residents, and few leaders emerged to expand the tensions with the government beyond local issues. Certain groups resorted to brigandry and resistance …

Sheikh Abdulsalam Barzani and Kurdistan Independence The glimpse of information from Russian, Ottoman Turkish, and British government sources from early 20th century give us a different look and appreciation the role of Sheikh Abdulsalam Barzani in Kurdistan liberation movements’ history in multiple aspects. The available sources indicate he had a great …

Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari   By Prof. M. R. Izady The year 1996 marks the 1,100th anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest Kurdish and Islamic minds of all times, Abu-Hanifa Ahmad Dinawari. Among the founders of the Islamic sciences as we know them today, he was born in Dinawar circa AD …

Understanding the Truth, Issue 1, January 1, 1918 Têgeyştinî Rastî (Understanding the truth) was a semiweekly newspaper published by the command of the British army in Iraq in 1918–19. At the time, Britain was at war with the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Iraq since the 16th century. When British forces …

Mahabad – the first independent Kurdish republic By Mufid Abdulla:   One of an occasional series of articles on aspects of Kurdish history The first independent Kurdish republic was in Iran. The ‘State of Republic of Kurdistan’ was founded in Mahabad in January 1946 and, although it survived for less …

BEDIR KHAN BEDIR KHAN (Badr Khan; d. 1867), last ruler of the principality of Cizre-Botan and by extension also the name of a well-known Kurdish clan that has played important political, social, and cultural roles in Kurdish history since the mid-13th/19th century. The princi­pality of Cizre-Botan was, like those of Bābān and the …

The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925 By Robert Olson, University of Texas Press, Austin The Sheikh Said rebellion was the first large-scale nationalist rebellion by the Kurds. The role of the Azadi was fundamental in its unfolding. Kurdish intellectuals and military officers lay at the …