KURDISTANICA.com

.KU for sharing knowledge on Kurdistan since 1992

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 heart of the nationalist movement, in terms of organization and recruitment. The paramount influence of the more secular or non-cleric Kurdish nationalist organizations must be separated from the rebellion itself and its "sheikhly" leadership. The Sheikh Said rebellion was led largely by sheikhs, a deliberate determination by the leadership of Azadi from 1921 onward.

By Prof. M.R. Izady

Kurdistan can be divided historically, and on a socio-economic, cultural, and political basis, into five major subdivisions: southern Kurdistan centered historically on the city of Kirmanshâh, central Kurdistan centered on Arbil, eastern Kurdistan centered on Mahabad, northern Kurdistan centered on Bâyazid, and western Kurdistan centered on Diyârbakir. The two large, detached Kurdish enclaves in Khurdsân and central Anatolia merit separate treatment.

By Prof. M. R. Izady

This detached exclave of Kurdish inhabited land is found on the modern northeastern borders of Iran with Turkmenistan in what has been historically known as northern sector of the province of Khurasan (the “land of rising sun”).  

One thing that Individuals/organisations can do to support projects like KAL and KURDISTANICA is to ask their friends, colleagues or fellow organizational members to get involve in turning hard copy material into electronic (scanning, typing etc.). If you are conversant in other relevant languages, you can help translate texts from English into Persian, Turkish, Arabic (and vice versa), as well as proof-reading English translations. These types of contribution make the information available to all others whose linguistic knowledge is limited.

The followers of Yârsânism, also known as the Yârisân, Aliullâhi, Ali-llâhi (i.e., "those who deify Ali"), Alihaq, Ahl-i Haqq ("the People of Truth") or Ahl-i Haq ("the People of the Spirit" [Hâk or Haqj), Sha Ytânparass (devil-worshippers), Nusayri ("the Nazarenes," i.e., Christians), etc-, are concentrated in southern Kurdistan in both

The Treaty of Zohab
"17 May 1639"

Text of the Letter by Envoys of Sultan Murat IV to the Envoys of Shah Safi I, containing the Ottoman Boundary Claims with Persia

Reaffirmed, 4 September 1746, 28 July 1823, 31 May 1847
Translation is from the text composed for the Ottoman delegation
[British and Foreign State Papers, 105: 763-66, 1847]

Manifesto of the Kurdish People
for the Creation of a Free, Independent and Unified Homeland 1996

Justice dictates that all nations are inherently equal and entitled to the same natural rights. That some nations are under the involuntary dominance of others presents an unnatural state and a source of imbalance in the lives of people and nations. Insomuch as voluntary unions are moral, legitimate and a source of prosperity and harmony, forced unions are immoral, illegitimate and harbingers of poverty and strife. Nations have the fundamental and natural right to determine the course of their own future.

7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists

Circles of elaborately carved stones from about 9,500BC predate even agriculture

Nicholas Birch in Istanbul (The Guardian, Wednesday April 23, 2008)

The 1,100th Anniversary of a World-Class Kurdish Scholar

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.