The Cambridge History of the Kurds

The Cambridge History of the Kurds

Author: Hamit Bozarslan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2021-04-22

Total Pages: 1027

ISBN-13: 1108583016

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The Cambridge History of the Kurds is an authoritative and comprehensive volume exploring the social, political and economic features, forces and evolution amongst the Kurds, and in the region known as Kurdistan, from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century. Written in a clear and accessible style by leading scholars in the field, the chapters survey key issues and themes vital to any understanding of the Kurds and Kurdistan including Kurdish language; Kurdish art, culture and literature; Kurdistan in the age of empires; political, social and religious movements in Kurdistan; and domestic political developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Other chapters on gender, diaspora, political economy, tribes, cinema and folklore offer fresh perspectives on the Kurds and Kurdistan as well as neatly meeting an exigent need in Middle Eastern studies. Situating contemporary developments taking place in Kurdish-majority regions within broader histories of the region, it forms a definitive survey of the history of the Kurds and Kurdistan.


Kurds and the State in Iran

Kurds and the State in Iran

Author: Abbas Vali

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-04-11

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 0857733311

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In early 1946, Kurds declared an independent republic in north-west Iran. The Mahabad Republic, as it became known, was the first time that the Kurds experienced self-rule in the modern era. Although short-lived, the Republic had a formative influence on the subsequent development of Kurdish nationalist movements in Iran and the wider region. Here, Abbas Vali disputes the conventional view that the Kurdish Republic was the result of a Soviet conspiracy to dismember Iran, a side-effect of the Cold War. Instead he emphasizes the diversity of the internal Iranian and Kurdish factors that led to the formation of the Republic, arguing that the Republic represents the culmination of a new and modern Kurdish national identity. This was an identity which emerged in response to the exclusionary effects of the political and discursive processes and practices of the construction of a modern Iranian nation-state and national identity since the Constitutional Revolution of 1906, which often excluded and attempted to override a Kurdish one. Vali contends that this process, largely due to the socio-economic and cultural impact of the rule of Pahlavis, in reality forced the Kurdish people of Iran to form and reinforce their own ethno-linguistic and ethno-national community. The expressions of this separate identity can be traced through the formation and dissolution of Kurdish national parties, such as the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI). 'Kurds and the State in Iran' offers an analysis of the formation and effects of the concepts of the state, the nation, nationalism and ethnic identity, which go beyond current ethnicist and constructivist theories, thus making it essential reading for anyone interested in the Kurds or the development of national and state identities in the Middle East.


Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State

Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State

Author: Hakan Ozoglu

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 0791485560

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Kurdish nationalism remains one of the most critical and explosive problems of the Middle East. Despite its importance, the topic remains on the margins of Middle East Studies. Bringing the study of Kurdish nationalism into the mainstream of Middle East scholarship, Hakan Özogálu examines the issue in the context of the Ottoman Empire. Using a wealth of primary sources, including Ottoman and British archives, Ottoman Parliamentary minutes, memoirs, and interviews, he focuses on revealing the social, political, and historical forces behind the emergence and development of Kurdish nationalism. Contrary to the assumption that nationalist movements contribute to the collapse of empires, the book argues that Kurdish leaders remained loyal to the Ottoman state, and only after it became certain that the empire would not recover did Kurdish nationalism emerge and clash with the Kemalist brand of Turkish nationalism.


The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran

The Political Development of the Kurds in Iran

Author: F. Koohi-Kamali

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2003-09-30

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 0230535720

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This book looks at Kurdish Nationalism in Iran and examines the links between the structural changes in the Kurdish economy and its political demands. Farideh Koohi-Kamali argues that the transition of the nomadic, tribal society of Kurdistan to an agrarian village society was the beginning of a process by which Kurds saw themselves as a community of homogenous ethnic identity. The political movements of Kurds in Iran are discussed to illustrate that the different phases of economic development of Kurdish society played a great role in determining the way in which Kurds expressed their political demands for independence.


The Sharafnama, Or, The History of the Kurdish Nation, 1597

The Sharafnama, Or, The History of the Kurdish Nation, 1597

Author: Sharaf Khān Bidlīsī

Publisher: Mazda Publishers

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13:

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"In the pages of the Sharafnama are present the Kurdish nation, already unified 400 years ago within a common culture, national ethos, a defined homeland and an integrated history stretching into antiquity. In the text of this unique history the empires of the Kurds parallel those of the Arabs, Persians and Turks, some, according to Bitlisi, reaching back over 4,000 years. As the Kurds continue their arduous journey to regain their proper position as the fourth largest ethnic group in the greater Middle East, it is clear why the Sharafnama has gained the status of a national document and the locus classicus of Kurdish authenticity. The great prestige of the Sharafnama as a national history among the Kurdish literati and rulers has lasted for centuries. To gain the honor of being mentioned in the Sharafnama enticed later Kurdish dynasties to shuffle their own dynastic history into the pages of the book long after Bitlisi's death. Meanwhile, due to the pristine condition of its surviving manuscripts, the Sharafnama has and continues to serve as a primary resource to compare and correct the scribal errors found in other histories written in Persian language before 1597. The Sharafnama also contains invaluable information on the Kurds' neighboring peoples and dynasties who interacted with the Kurds, as well as the empires that emerged and weathered in the area."


Nation and Class in the History of the Kurdish Movement

Nation and Class in the History of the Kurdish Movement

Author: Nicola Degli Esposti

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-10-11

Total Pages: 269

ISBN-13: 3031102479

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This book covers over a century of history, from the emergence of Kurdish nationalism in the interwar period to the 2010s when, for the first time in modern history, Kurdish forces controlled two autonomous political entities in Iraq and Syria, as well as over a hundred municipalities in south-eastern Turkey. In these years of momentous advance for Kurdish forces across the region, Kurdish politics remains deeply divided into competing movements pursuing irreconcilable projects for the future of the nation. The author investigates the origins of the present divide in the history of Kurdish nationalism. The book turns the historical sociology to study nationalism as embedded in social conflicts through a comparative analysis of the history of the Kurdish movement in Iraq and Turkey, by reassessing the literature on Kurdish politics and filling its gaps with numerous interviews with witnesses and scholars.


A Modern History of the Kurds

A Modern History of the Kurds

Author: David McDowall

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-03-25

Total Pages: 729

ISBN-13: 0755600770

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David McDowall's ground-breaking history of the Kurds from the 19th century to the present day documents the underlying dynamics of the Kurdish question. The division of the Kurdish people among the modern nation states of Iraq, Turkey, Syria and Iran and their struggle for national rights continues to influence the politics of the Middle East. Drawing extensively on primary sources - including documents from The National Archive and interviews with prominent Kurds - the book examines the interplay of old and new aspects of the struggle, the importance of local rivalries and leadership within Kurdish society, and the failure of modern states to respond to the challenge of Kurdish nationalism. In this new and revised edition, McDowall also analyses the momentous transformations affecting Kurdish socio-politics in the last 20 years. With updates throughout and substantial new material included, this fourth edition of the book reflects the developments in the field and the areas which have gained importance and understanding. This includes new analysis of the Kurdish experience in Syria; the role of political Islam in Kurdish society and Kurds' involvement in Islamist Jihad; and issues surrounding women and gender that were previously overlooked, from the impact of the women's equality movement to how patriarchal practices within the Kurdish community still limit its progress. The foundation text for Kurdish Studies, this book highlights in detail the changing situation of the Kurds across the Middle East.


Kurdish Nationalism on Stage

Kurdish Nationalism on Stage

Author: Mari R. Rostami

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-06-27

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1788318692

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Since its emergence in the 1920s, Iraqi-Kurdish theatre was used as a tool of national identity building and modernisation. It promoted literacy, education and women's rights and became one of the most visible forms of Kurdish cultural nationalism by exploring folklore, myths, legends and local history and by celebrating heroes of the past. As time went on, by staging anti-feudalist and anti-monarchist plays, theatre became engaged in representing and legitimising the wider political movement in Iraq that ultimately led to the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958. Between 1975-1991, even under strict censorship during the Baath rule, Kurdish theatre continued to promote Kurdish nationalism and resistance through the use of Kurdish folk culture and literature. This book is based on dramatic texts from the period, interviews with Kurdish theatre artists, Kurdish theatre histories, historical documents, and journalistic accounts. It illustrates the ways in which theatre participated in the Kurdish national struggle and how it responded to political changes in different historical periods. It is the first book dedicated to Kurdish theatre and complements the latest research that examines theatre in its wider socio-political context.