He received B.Sc. in political science and public administration (Ankara), M.A. in history (Texas-Austin), and Ph.D. in history (Freiburg). He was a visiting scholar at Bogaziçi, Bilkent, Berlin-Freie, Rowan, EHESS-Paris, and American University of Iraq-Sulaimani and recipient of DAAD, Fulbright, Iranian Studies, and TÜBİTAK fellowships. He studied Arabic in Damascus and Farsi in Tehran. He is currently an associate professor in Middle East history at Social Sciences University of Ankara and editor-in-chief of Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Kurds. Supervisors: Maurus Reinkowski and Hamit Bozarslan Address: Social Sciences University of Ankara, Ulus, Ankara, Turkey
Kurdish (Sorani) translation (trans. by Mohammed Hamasalih Tofiq) of my chapter, titled “Negotiat... more Kurdish (Sorani) translation (trans. by Mohammed Hamasalih Tofiq) of my chapter, titled “Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East: Kurdish Emirates between the Ottoman Empire and Iranian Dynasties (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries),” in The Cambridge History of the Kurds, eds. Hamit Bozarslan, Cengiz Gunes, and Veli Yadirgi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, April 2021), 45-72.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa, eds. D. Potts, E. Harkness, J. Neelis, and R. McIntosh, 2023
Scholarly debates on the origins and early development of the Kurds continue. Some claim that the... more Scholarly debates on the origins and early development of the Kurds continue. Some claim that the Kurds are mentioned in ancient Greek and Persian sources. Other scholars have considered the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, as the ancestors of the modern-day Kurds. The Kurds lived in the mountains of Upper Mesopotamia and western Iran, mostly as settled and semi-nomadic tribes, when they came into contact with Muslim Arabs for the first time in 637. After Muslim rule was established, the Kurds turned in large groups to Islam. The conversion of the Kurds to Islam in the early periods of Muslim conquest opened new avenues for many of them to integrate into the courtly, military, scholarly, and political ranks in the Islamic Empire. After the mid-tenth century, when the power of the Abbasids was in decline, a number of Kurdish tribal leaders seized control in their regions and established a series of dynastic emirates and states.
Manbij (Ar. Manbij; Kurd. Minbic; Ott. and Mod. Turk. Menbic; Assyr. Nappigi/Nampīgi; Gr. Bambyce... more Manbij (Ar. Manbij; Kurd. Minbic; Ott. and Mod. Turk. Menbic; Assyr. Nappigi/Nampīgi; Gr. Bambyce, Hierapolis) is an ancient city located in northern Syria, to the northeast of Aleppo and west of the river Euphrates. Because of its location at an important crossroads, it controls access routes from northern Syria towards the Jazīra and Iraq, from crossing-points on the great bend of the Middle Euphrates to the north upstream and the south downstream.
Sharaf al-Dīn Bidlisī (949–c.1008/1543–c.1599; Kurd. Şeref Xan, Turk. Şerefhan, Pers. Sharaf Khān... more Sharaf al-Dīn Bidlisī (949–c.1008/1543–c.1599; Kurd. Şeref Xan, Turk. Şerefhan, Pers. Sharaf Khān), known as Sharaf Khān, was a prince and historian of Kurdish dynasties and the Ottoman Empire. Sharaf Khān was at the Ṣafavid court for a few months during the reign of Ismāʿīl I (r. 907-30/1501-24), after which he became a Ṣafavid military commander in various districts, including Shīrwān and Gīlān. A member of Diyādīnid dynasty, he was the amīr of Kurdish Rōjikī (Rojiki, Rozhiki, Rawzhaki, Rūzagī, Ruzhakī, Rūzakī, Ruzbenis, Ruzgan) tribal confederation and ruled the region from Bitlis (Bidlīs), which was located in the east of the Ottoman Empire. He is best known for his Sharafnāma, a history of Kurdish dynasties and ruling houses, written in Persian in 1005/1597.
International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2022
This paper focuses on Kurdish elites and their quest for a Kurdish state during the Peace Confere... more This paper focuses on Kurdish elites and their quest for a Kurdish state during the Peace Conference that took place in Paris after the First World War. Cross-examining the British, French, Kurdish, and Ottoman sources, this paper shows that despite the failure to establish a Kurdish state in the aftermath of the disintegration of the Ot - toman Empire the Kurdish elites, with their diplomatic and political experience and networking had equal, sometimes better, capacity to the leaders of other delegations in the Peace Conference. To demonstrate this, I fo - cus on Kurdish elites, who were experienced in the imperial statecraft, especially Şerif Pasha, Sheikh Abdulkadir, Emin Ali Bedirhan, and Süreyya Bedirhan, lay out the complex relations amongst them and describe their efforts to represent the Kurds from the beginning of the Peace Conference until ratification of Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920. In spite of what the available literature suggests, Kurdish elites, using all the available tools at their disposal, negotiated effectively for a Kurdish state. The contribution shows that the Kurdish elites not only presented a series of arguments during the Peace Conference but also laid down the basis for the Kurdish nationalism of the decades to come, with a historical narrative and a cartographic imaginary.
Āqā Khān Kirmānī (1270-1314/1853-4-96), also known as Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Bardsīrī, was a reform... more Āqā Khān Kirmānī (1270-1314/1853-4-96), also known as Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Bardsīrī, was a reformist intellectual of nineteenth century Qājār Iran. He was born in Mashīz (Bardsīr), a village to the west of the city of Kirmān. His father was a landowner and follower of Ahl al-Ḥaqq, and his mother was a Ṣūfī from a scholarly family. His great grandfather was a prominent Zoroastrian leader who had converted to Islam, which played a part in raising his great respect for Zoroaster and interest in the study of pre-Islamic Iran. He initially pursued a traditional education in Persian and Arabic literature, grammar, Islamic theology, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, jurisprudence, and history in Kirmān. Later, he became preoccupied with philosophy, which he studied under Āqā Sādiq, one of the pupils of Mullā Hādī Sabziwārī (d. 1873), and Hajji Sayyid Javād Karbalāʾī (d. 1882), who taught him the philosophy of Mullā Sadrā (d. 1045-50/1635-40). Sayyid Javād was an eminent Bābī scholar who introduced Āqā Khān Kirmānī to Bābism. In 1301/1883, a short-lived career as a tax collector in the district of Bardsīr came to an end because of a disagreement he had with the governor of Kirmān. As a result, he secretly left for Isfahan with one of his close friends, Shaykh Aḥmad Rūḥī (d. 1896), where he stayed for two years and attended a literary group that discussed progressive ideas. Afterwards, he moved to Tehran for a few months, where he continued his education. As a result of repeated attempts by the governor of Kirmān to have him extradited to Kirmān, Āqā Khān Kirmānī and Aḥmad Rūḥī ed Iran via Rasht and Baku to Istanbul in late 1303/1886. Soon after, he and Rūḥī went to Cyprus where they met Ṣubḥ-i Azal (d. 1912), the leader of the Azalī Bābī religious faction, and each married one of his daughters. After a journey through Iraq and Syria, they both returned to Istanbul, where they lived and worked until their deportation and subsequent execution in 1896.
Many Kurds participated in the war as irregular cavalry on both sides. One of the most interestin... more Many Kurds participated in the war as irregular cavalry on both sides. One of the most interesting Kurdish leaders during this period was Yezdanşêr of Cizre. He succeeded to attract more than 20,000 rebels, including Kurds, Yezidis, Armenians and Nestorians. After revisiting the Turkish, Kurdish and Russian historiography on the rebellion, this study attempts to reconstruct the complexity of the Yezdanşêr revolt by employing the Ottoman, British and the Russian sources in combination. Yezdanşêr revolt is important because for the first time the Russian and the Kurdish leaders attempted to collaborate in political and military means. It is also important as the European powers initiated interest in Kurds as a strategic partner. British and French diplomats were actively involved in the revolt by extending diplomatic protection to Yezdanşêr and his entourage. As the Ottoman Empire financially became dependent on European great powers, the latter became more indispensable in politics in Kurdistan. Russian, British and Ottoman officials prepared detailed reports on Kurds. Even though the revolt took place as a reaction to the centralization policies of the empire rather than having a nationalist agenda, it pushed the European states and the Ottomans to recognize the emergence of “Kurdish Question”.
Bājalān (Ar. Bājwān; Ott. Baclan, ʿaşīret-i Bāclān, Bacvanlū; Kurd. Bacilān, Becilān, Bacelān) is... more Bājalān (Ar. Bājwān; Ott. Baclan, ʿaşīret-i Bāclān, Bacvanlū; Kurd. Bacilān, Becilān, Bacelān) is a Kurdish tribe dispersed around the Iraq-Iran border. Its members in Iraq comprise more than 180 villages, located mostly in Bin Kudra, Qazānīyya, Qūratū, Jalūlāʾ, Saʿdiyya, and Khānaqīn.
Bābān (Tr. Babanlar, Babanzadeler, Kurd. Ott. and Per. Bābān) is a princely Kurdish dynasty (also... more Bābān (Tr. Babanlar, Babanzadeler, Kurd. Ott. and Per. Bābān) is a princely Kurdish dynasty (also called emirate Ar. imarā, Tr. emirlik, Kurd. mīratī) located in the Sulaymāniyya (Kurd. Silemanī, Tr. Süleymaniye) province of modern Iraqi Kurdistan during the Ottoman period.
This interview with David McDowall records his intellectual quest on the Kurds for over thirty ye... more This interview with David McDowall records his intellectual quest on the Kurds for over thirty years and his book A Modern History of the Kurds. Initially trained as a historian of modern Syria, his interest started when he was asked to write a report on the Kurds as a minority group. He later expanded his research on the Kurds, which culminated in one of the most comprehensive books on the modern history of the Kurds. In this interview he talks about the process of research for his book, the Kurdish national movement, intra-Kurdish relations, the Kurdish diaspora, and the transformation of the Kurdish Question in the last three decades.
1870-71 yıllarında İran Kürdistan’ında görülen veba salgını Osmanlı yönetimi tarafından büyük bir... more 1870-71 yıllarında İran Kürdistan’ında görülen veba salgını Osmanlı yönetimi tarafından büyük bir ciddiyetle ele alınmıştır. İmparatorluğun doğu sınırının ötesindeki salgını kontrol altına alma isteği modern devletin inşası, sınırlara hükmetme ve toplumu yeniden dizayn etme projesinin bir parçası olarak yürütülmüştür.
Modern Kurdish historiography, which examines resistance to provincial centralization in Ottoman ... more Modern Kurdish historiography, which examines resistance to provincial centralization in Ottoman Kurdistan, focuses largely on Bedir Khan’s Bohtan emirate and his revolt in the 1840s, while ignoring the rest of the other Kurdish emirates such as Baban emirate. While both states, Qajar Iran and Ottoman Empire, were endeavoring to solve their conflicts in the 1840s (a process which culminated in the treaty of Erzurum in 1847) the future of the Baban emirate and its territories emerged as one of the major issues during the course of negotiations. The Baban emirate was the last emirate to give up its struggle against the Sublime Porte’s centralization reforms. The legacy of the Kurdish emirates is important to understand better the relations between the center of the Ottoman Empire and its eastern periphery, a much less studied subject in Ottoman historiography. This article will highlight the impact of the centralization policies in Kurdistan, more specifically on territories of the Bohtan and Baban emirates. It will be demonstrated that the changes wrought by the Tanzimat reforms were partially successful in transforming the Kurdish notables, who later became a part of the state bureaucracy. Though, the reform minded officials, who were appointed after the Kurdish emirs were removed from the region, failed to persuade the locals in favor of the new administration thus transforming their lives.
Since the 1990s, there has been a surge of interest in connecting microhistory to world history. ... more Since the 1990s, there has been a surge of interest in connecting microhistory to world history. Despite the apparent contrast between them, stories of individuals, events, and places are now seen as part and parcel of a much larger history. This trend is termed by some historians as “global microhistory." The books under review here are part of this surging interest in many fields of history. The lives of such individuals and groups allow historians to draw connections between their micro and macro worlds. Historians frame the story of their subjects within the story of the Ottoman Empire, which comprised many ethnic, religious, and language groups. Each individual mentioned in these three works reflects this diversity in the empire: a Greek Orthodox in the Ottoman bureaucracy studied by Christine Philliou’s "Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution"; a Circassian Muslim who worked closely with the Young Turks and later opposed the establishment of the modern Turkey presented by Benjamin C. Fortna in his work "The Circassian: A life of Eşref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent"; and a Damascene barber who decided to write a book on his observations of rulers and notables of his city examined in "The Barber of Damascus: Nouveau Literacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Levant" by Dana Sajdi.
This is a short biography of Şerif Pasha (1865-1951), who started his career as a diplomat during... more This is a short biography of Şerif Pasha (1865-1951), who started his career as a diplomat during the reign of Abdulhamid II (r. 1876-1909) and ended up as an antagonist to the Committee of Progress and Union (1908-1918).
Kurdish (Sorani) translation (trans. by Mohammed Hamasalih Tofiq) of my chapter, titled “Negotiat... more Kurdish (Sorani) translation (trans. by Mohammed Hamasalih Tofiq) of my chapter, titled “Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East: Kurdish Emirates between the Ottoman Empire and Iranian Dynasties (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries),” in The Cambridge History of the Kurds, eds. Hamit Bozarslan, Cengiz Gunes, and Veli Yadirgi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, April 2021), 45-72.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient History: Asia and Africa, eds. D. Potts, E. Harkness, J. Neelis, and R. McIntosh, 2023
Scholarly debates on the origins and early development of the Kurds continue. Some claim that the... more Scholarly debates on the origins and early development of the Kurds continue. Some claim that the Kurds are mentioned in ancient Greek and Persian sources. Other scholars have considered the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, as the ancestors of the modern-day Kurds. The Kurds lived in the mountains of Upper Mesopotamia and western Iran, mostly as settled and semi-nomadic tribes, when they came into contact with Muslim Arabs for the first time in 637. After Muslim rule was established, the Kurds turned in large groups to Islam. The conversion of the Kurds to Islam in the early periods of Muslim conquest opened new avenues for many of them to integrate into the courtly, military, scholarly, and political ranks in the Islamic Empire. After the mid-tenth century, when the power of the Abbasids was in decline, a number of Kurdish tribal leaders seized control in their regions and established a series of dynastic emirates and states.
Manbij (Ar. Manbij; Kurd. Minbic; Ott. and Mod. Turk. Menbic; Assyr. Nappigi/Nampīgi; Gr. Bambyce... more Manbij (Ar. Manbij; Kurd. Minbic; Ott. and Mod. Turk. Menbic; Assyr. Nappigi/Nampīgi; Gr. Bambyce, Hierapolis) is an ancient city located in northern Syria, to the northeast of Aleppo and west of the river Euphrates. Because of its location at an important crossroads, it controls access routes from northern Syria towards the Jazīra and Iraq, from crossing-points on the great bend of the Middle Euphrates to the north upstream and the south downstream.
Sharaf al-Dīn Bidlisī (949–c.1008/1543–c.1599; Kurd. Şeref Xan, Turk. Şerefhan, Pers. Sharaf Khān... more Sharaf al-Dīn Bidlisī (949–c.1008/1543–c.1599; Kurd. Şeref Xan, Turk. Şerefhan, Pers. Sharaf Khān), known as Sharaf Khān, was a prince and historian of Kurdish dynasties and the Ottoman Empire. Sharaf Khān was at the Ṣafavid court for a few months during the reign of Ismāʿīl I (r. 907-30/1501-24), after which he became a Ṣafavid military commander in various districts, including Shīrwān and Gīlān. A member of Diyādīnid dynasty, he was the amīr of Kurdish Rōjikī (Rojiki, Rozhiki, Rawzhaki, Rūzagī, Ruzhakī, Rūzakī, Ruzbenis, Ruzgan) tribal confederation and ruled the region from Bitlis (Bidlīs), which was located in the east of the Ottoman Empire. He is best known for his Sharafnāma, a history of Kurdish dynasties and ruling houses, written in Persian in 1005/1597.
International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 2022
This paper focuses on Kurdish elites and their quest for a Kurdish state during the Peace Confere... more This paper focuses on Kurdish elites and their quest for a Kurdish state during the Peace Conference that took place in Paris after the First World War. Cross-examining the British, French, Kurdish, and Ottoman sources, this paper shows that despite the failure to establish a Kurdish state in the aftermath of the disintegration of the Ot - toman Empire the Kurdish elites, with their diplomatic and political experience and networking had equal, sometimes better, capacity to the leaders of other delegations in the Peace Conference. To demonstrate this, I fo - cus on Kurdish elites, who were experienced in the imperial statecraft, especially Şerif Pasha, Sheikh Abdulkadir, Emin Ali Bedirhan, and Süreyya Bedirhan, lay out the complex relations amongst them and describe their efforts to represent the Kurds from the beginning of the Peace Conference until ratification of Treaty of Sèvres on 10 August 1920. In spite of what the available literature suggests, Kurdish elites, using all the available tools at their disposal, negotiated effectively for a Kurdish state. The contribution shows that the Kurdish elites not only presented a series of arguments during the Peace Conference but also laid down the basis for the Kurdish nationalism of the decades to come, with a historical narrative and a cartographic imaginary.
Āqā Khān Kirmānī (1270-1314/1853-4-96), also known as Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Bardsīrī, was a reform... more Āqā Khān Kirmānī (1270-1314/1853-4-96), also known as Mīrzā ʿAbd al-Ḥusayn Bardsīrī, was a reformist intellectual of nineteenth century Qājār Iran. He was born in Mashīz (Bardsīr), a village to the west of the city of Kirmān. His father was a landowner and follower of Ahl al-Ḥaqq, and his mother was a Ṣūfī from a scholarly family. His great grandfather was a prominent Zoroastrian leader who had converted to Islam, which played a part in raising his great respect for Zoroaster and interest in the study of pre-Islamic Iran. He initially pursued a traditional education in Persian and Arabic literature, grammar, Islamic theology, rhetoric, logic, mathematics, jurisprudence, and history in Kirmān. Later, he became preoccupied with philosophy, which he studied under Āqā Sādiq, one of the pupils of Mullā Hādī Sabziwārī (d. 1873), and Hajji Sayyid Javād Karbalāʾī (d. 1882), who taught him the philosophy of Mullā Sadrā (d. 1045-50/1635-40). Sayyid Javād was an eminent Bābī scholar who introduced Āqā Khān Kirmānī to Bābism. In 1301/1883, a short-lived career as a tax collector in the district of Bardsīr came to an end because of a disagreement he had with the governor of Kirmān. As a result, he secretly left for Isfahan with one of his close friends, Shaykh Aḥmad Rūḥī (d. 1896), where he stayed for two years and attended a literary group that discussed progressive ideas. Afterwards, he moved to Tehran for a few months, where he continued his education. As a result of repeated attempts by the governor of Kirmān to have him extradited to Kirmān, Āqā Khān Kirmānī and Aḥmad Rūḥī ed Iran via Rasht and Baku to Istanbul in late 1303/1886. Soon after, he and Rūḥī went to Cyprus where they met Ṣubḥ-i Azal (d. 1912), the leader of the Azalī Bābī religious faction, and each married one of his daughters. After a journey through Iraq and Syria, they both returned to Istanbul, where they lived and worked until their deportation and subsequent execution in 1896.
Many Kurds participated in the war as irregular cavalry on both sides. One of the most interestin... more Many Kurds participated in the war as irregular cavalry on both sides. One of the most interesting Kurdish leaders during this period was Yezdanşêr of Cizre. He succeeded to attract more than 20,000 rebels, including Kurds, Yezidis, Armenians and Nestorians. After revisiting the Turkish, Kurdish and Russian historiography on the rebellion, this study attempts to reconstruct the complexity of the Yezdanşêr revolt by employing the Ottoman, British and the Russian sources in combination. Yezdanşêr revolt is important because for the first time the Russian and the Kurdish leaders attempted to collaborate in political and military means. It is also important as the European powers initiated interest in Kurds as a strategic partner. British and French diplomats were actively involved in the revolt by extending diplomatic protection to Yezdanşêr and his entourage. As the Ottoman Empire financially became dependent on European great powers, the latter became more indispensable in politics in Kurdistan. Russian, British and Ottoman officials prepared detailed reports on Kurds. Even though the revolt took place as a reaction to the centralization policies of the empire rather than having a nationalist agenda, it pushed the European states and the Ottomans to recognize the emergence of “Kurdish Question”.
Bājalān (Ar. Bājwān; Ott. Baclan, ʿaşīret-i Bāclān, Bacvanlū; Kurd. Bacilān, Becilān, Bacelān) is... more Bājalān (Ar. Bājwān; Ott. Baclan, ʿaşīret-i Bāclān, Bacvanlū; Kurd. Bacilān, Becilān, Bacelān) is a Kurdish tribe dispersed around the Iraq-Iran border. Its members in Iraq comprise more than 180 villages, located mostly in Bin Kudra, Qazānīyya, Qūratū, Jalūlāʾ, Saʿdiyya, and Khānaqīn.
Bābān (Tr. Babanlar, Babanzadeler, Kurd. Ott. and Per. Bābān) is a princely Kurdish dynasty (also... more Bābān (Tr. Babanlar, Babanzadeler, Kurd. Ott. and Per. Bābān) is a princely Kurdish dynasty (also called emirate Ar. imarā, Tr. emirlik, Kurd. mīratī) located in the Sulaymāniyya (Kurd. Silemanī, Tr. Süleymaniye) province of modern Iraqi Kurdistan during the Ottoman period.
This interview with David McDowall records his intellectual quest on the Kurds for over thirty ye... more This interview with David McDowall records his intellectual quest on the Kurds for over thirty years and his book A Modern History of the Kurds. Initially trained as a historian of modern Syria, his interest started when he was asked to write a report on the Kurds as a minority group. He later expanded his research on the Kurds, which culminated in one of the most comprehensive books on the modern history of the Kurds. In this interview he talks about the process of research for his book, the Kurdish national movement, intra-Kurdish relations, the Kurdish diaspora, and the transformation of the Kurdish Question in the last three decades.
1870-71 yıllarında İran Kürdistan’ında görülen veba salgını Osmanlı yönetimi tarafından büyük bir... more 1870-71 yıllarında İran Kürdistan’ında görülen veba salgını Osmanlı yönetimi tarafından büyük bir ciddiyetle ele alınmıştır. İmparatorluğun doğu sınırının ötesindeki salgını kontrol altına alma isteği modern devletin inşası, sınırlara hükmetme ve toplumu yeniden dizayn etme projesinin bir parçası olarak yürütülmüştür.
Modern Kurdish historiography, which examines resistance to provincial centralization in Ottoman ... more Modern Kurdish historiography, which examines resistance to provincial centralization in Ottoman Kurdistan, focuses largely on Bedir Khan’s Bohtan emirate and his revolt in the 1840s, while ignoring the rest of the other Kurdish emirates such as Baban emirate. While both states, Qajar Iran and Ottoman Empire, were endeavoring to solve their conflicts in the 1840s (a process which culminated in the treaty of Erzurum in 1847) the future of the Baban emirate and its territories emerged as one of the major issues during the course of negotiations. The Baban emirate was the last emirate to give up its struggle against the Sublime Porte’s centralization reforms. The legacy of the Kurdish emirates is important to understand better the relations between the center of the Ottoman Empire and its eastern periphery, a much less studied subject in Ottoman historiography. This article will highlight the impact of the centralization policies in Kurdistan, more specifically on territories of the Bohtan and Baban emirates. It will be demonstrated that the changes wrought by the Tanzimat reforms were partially successful in transforming the Kurdish notables, who later became a part of the state bureaucracy. Though, the reform minded officials, who were appointed after the Kurdish emirs were removed from the region, failed to persuade the locals in favor of the new administration thus transforming their lives.
Since the 1990s, there has been a surge of interest in connecting microhistory to world history. ... more Since the 1990s, there has been a surge of interest in connecting microhistory to world history. Despite the apparent contrast between them, stories of individuals, events, and places are now seen as part and parcel of a much larger history. This trend is termed by some historians as “global microhistory." The books under review here are part of this surging interest in many fields of history. The lives of such individuals and groups allow historians to draw connections between their micro and macro worlds. Historians frame the story of their subjects within the story of the Ottoman Empire, which comprised many ethnic, religious, and language groups. Each individual mentioned in these three works reflects this diversity in the empire: a Greek Orthodox in the Ottoman bureaucracy studied by Christine Philliou’s "Biography of an Empire: Governing Ottomans in an Age of Revolution"; a Circassian Muslim who worked closely with the Young Turks and later opposed the establishment of the modern Turkey presented by Benjamin C. Fortna in his work "The Circassian: A life of Eşref Bey, Late Ottoman Insurgent and Special Agent"; and a Damascene barber who decided to write a book on his observations of rulers and notables of his city examined in "The Barber of Damascus: Nouveau Literacy in the Eighteenth-Century Ottoman Levant" by Dana Sajdi.
This is a short biography of Şerif Pasha (1865-1951), who started his career as a diplomat during... more This is a short biography of Şerif Pasha (1865-1951), who started his career as a diplomat during the reign of Abdulhamid II (r. 1876-1909) and ended up as an antagonist to the Committee of Progress and Union (1908-1918).
The Production of Imperial Space: Empire and Circulations, 18th-20th Centuries, 2017
When Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi came back to the Ottoman Iraq from a long soul searching trip to ... more When Mawlana Khalid al-Baghdadi came back to the Ottoman Iraq from a long soul searching trip to India at the beginning of the nineteenth century no one sensed that he would transform the religious and political landscape of the empire forever. He reintroduced Naqshbandiyya Sufi order to the Ottoman citizens and created a trans-national network expanding from the Caucasus to North Africa, which was later named as Khalidiyya. The historiography claims that the order reaffirmed the boundaries of the Sunni world vis-à-vis the Shia and non-Muslim domains. As part of a new project, in which I compare the Khalidiyya order in the Ottoman Empire and Qajarian Iran I discuss that Khalidiyya, as a trans-national and a trans-sectarian Sufi network, expanded its realm beyond the Sunni world and engaged with Shi'is and people of other sects. Through social process the Khalidiyya order reconstituted the frontier between two states as a buffer zone for sectarian groups who did not wish to submit to the official doctrine of either state. Thus, for those who went astray the Sufi order created a new space on the Ottoman-Iranian frontier, where imperial power remained fragile.
The letter bellow was written by Münif Pasha while he was appointed for the first time to the Ott... more The letter bellow was written by Münif Pasha while he was appointed for the first time to the Ottoman Embassy in Tehran between 1872 and 1876. It indicates that the Ottoman Empire cooperated with the Qajar administration on the modernization of Iran in terms of economy and infrastructure. While describing the efforts, somehow with amusement, Münif Pasha gives information on the situation of minting, types of coins, depreciation of the money in value, and the corruption allegations surrounding the finance minister. He also makes comparison between the coinage minted in the Ottoman Empire and Iran and accuses them for imitation.
Zones of autonomy and resistance make up the region historically called Kurdistan - areas that ca... more Zones of autonomy and resistance make up the region historically called Kurdistan - areas that can include parts of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Armenia - depending on whom you ask. This region, whose territory spans the boundaries of nation-states created after the First World War, continues to host conflict between powerful states and their opponents. Who ruled these areas in the past, and how did they become the rebel lands they are today? In this episode, we speak with Metin Atmaca about the rise and fall of Kurdish emirs who ruled in the Ottoman-Iranian borderlands, from their rise in the 1500s to their fall in the 1850s. We also discuss the afterlife of the Kurdish dynastic families who, in exile, re-invented themselves as political leaders, bureaucrats, and rebels in the Ottoman and post-Ottoman world.
Vehbi Koç Ankara Studies Research Center of Koç University (VEKAM), Social Sciences University of... more Vehbi Koç Ankara Studies Research Center of Koç University (VEKAM), Social Sciences University of Ankara (ASBÜ) The French Institute of the Near East (Ifpo), and the Center for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan and Central Asian Studies (CETOBaC) at EHESS, are organising a summer school devoted to reading and analysing Ottoman manuscript sources. This is the third edition, following the summer school of 2016 in Amman, Jordan and 2017 in Beirut, Lebanon.
During the five-day programme we will introduce young researchers (mostly MA and PhD candidates, but postdocs may also apply) to reading, combining and analysing manuscript sources from various archives of the Ottoman era, produced at local, provincial and imperial levels. We concentrate mainly on materials from the 16th and 20th centuries, but welcome also explorations into earlier archives. Since this edition of the summer school will be held in Ankara we will incorporate a limited number of studies from the early period of modern Turkey. Our summer school offers future researchers introductory presentations of the archival situation, various types of sources and basic research tools and workshops with a focus on the actual work with texts. The aim is to overcome the initial difficulties researchers often face when working with archival material from the Ottoman period, one of which is an administrative terminology no longer in use today.
Our programme emerged from several observations. First, young historians often feel helpless when faced with difficult Ottoman archival material in Ottoman Turkish or other languages used in the Empire if they have not had proper training in palaeography and philology. Moreover, there is not enough dialogue and exchange between the different schools of Ottoman history, particularly between those focusing on the analysis of imperial dynamics (who are generally specialists in the Ottoman language) and those who concentrate on the provinces of the Empire and who therefore work on sources produced in local languages. Our summer school will focus on the study of archives in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic, in case also in Anatolian and Balkan languages, so as to provide future historians with the skills necessary to use such sources within the framework of their research projects.
The objective of including these languages of the empire in one summer school is two-fold: firstly, to foster an exchange around theory and methodology among specialists of different regions of the empire. Secondly, these languages are important for a comprehensive analysis of local dynamics in various provinces, either for administrative, economic and social dynamics or more specifically in religious studies and belles-lettres. An additional aim is to encourage the use of source materials in different languages by facilitating the identification and understanding of diverse archival holdings. Bringing together specialists of different regions and subjects will encourage the exchange of information on archival holdings, their history, catalogues and finding aids.
Syrian-Kurdish Intersections in the Ottoman Period by S. Winter and Z. HajHasan, 2024
In this chapter, I focus on the Naqshbandi Sufi order in Damascus, tracing the migration of Mawla... more In this chapter, I focus on the Naqshbandi Sufi order in Damascus, tracing the migration of Mawlana Khalid and his family from Sulaymaniyya to Baghdad and ultimately to Damascus in the 1820s. There, they established their own distinctive Naqshbandi branch, which primarily attracted Shafiʿi Kurdish scholars and Sufis. This branch became one of the leading currents of reformist Islam in Syria, with its last notable representative being the late Grand Mufti Ahmad Kaftaru (d. 2004). Although Hanafism remained the dominant juridical school in Ottoman Syria, the Kurdish newcomers and other followers of the Khalidi-Naqshbandi branch received official patronage, integrated into the city's scholarly networks, and became a key channel for the Shafiʿi establishment in Damascus.
Contributions to Zagrology: V. F. Minorsky and C. J. Edmonds Correspondence (1928-1965), 2024
This volume is an annotated correspondence, of nearly forty years, between two prominent scholars... more This volume is an annotated correspondence, of nearly forty years, between two prominent scholars of Iranian and Kurdish studies, V. Minorsky and C.J. Edmonds. The letters cover a range of topics related to Kurdish history, culture, and language as well as people surrounding Zagros Mountains. They also offer a glimpse into the personal lives and careers of the two scholars and give valuable insights on the development of the field of Kurdish Studies.
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During the five-day programme we will introduce young researchers (mostly MA and PhD candidates, but postdocs may also apply) to reading, combining and analysing manuscript sources from various archives of the Ottoman era, produced at local, provincial and imperial levels. We concentrate mainly on materials from the 16th and 20th centuries, but welcome also explorations into earlier archives. Since this edition of the summer school will be held in Ankara we will incorporate a limited number of studies from the early period of modern Turkey. Our summer school offers future researchers introductory presentations of the archival situation, various types of sources and basic research tools and workshops with a focus on the actual work with texts. The aim is to overcome the initial difficulties researchers often face when working with archival material from the Ottoman period, one of which is an administrative terminology no longer in use today.
Our programme emerged from several observations. First, young historians often feel helpless when faced with difficult Ottoman archival material in Ottoman Turkish or other languages used in the Empire if they have not had proper training in palaeography and philology. Moreover, there is not enough dialogue and exchange between the different schools of Ottoman history, particularly between those focusing on the analysis of imperial dynamics (who are generally specialists in the Ottoman language) and those who concentrate on the provinces of the Empire and who therefore work on sources produced in local languages. Our summer school will focus on the study of archives in Ottoman Turkish and Arabic, in case also in Anatolian and Balkan languages, so as to provide future historians with the skills necessary to use such sources within the framework of their research projects.
The objective of including these languages of the empire in one summer school is two-fold: firstly, to foster an exchange around theory and methodology among specialists of different regions of the empire. Secondly, these languages are important for a comprehensive analysis of local dynamics in various provinces, either for administrative, economic and social dynamics or more specifically in religious studies and belles-lettres. An additional aim is to encourage the use of source materials in different languages by facilitating the identification and understanding of diverse archival holdings. Bringing together specialists of different regions and subjects will encourage the exchange of information on archival holdings, their history, catalogues and finding aids.