The Kurds and the Caucasus:

Zorabe  Budi (Aloiane)

Cultural and Religious Links in Early Modern and Modern Periods

The Kurds are essentially linked to the Caucasian region by geography,

history and culture.

Although all these have centuries-long history (for instance, Kurdish

ruling dynasties in

Transcaucasia in the 9th-13th centuries), the following article summarises

cultural, historical

and religious links between the Kurds and the Caucasus in Early Modern

and Modern

periods.

Cultural and historical links between the Kurds and the Caucasus

There is a common linguistic heritage: at least one more language in

the region, Ossete,

together with Kurdish belong to the same Iranian group and Kurdish

and the Caucasian

languages alike have experienced a certain impact of Arabic, Persian

and Turkish.

The shared cultural heritage is reflected in music (especially in Kurdish

and Armenian one)

and folk stories. Thus, a Kurdish popular hero Mirza Mahmud has a Georgian

wife; the

Armenian legend speaks of a certain Kurd named Shavo, after whom a

mountainous path is

named, and an Azeri popular poem glorifies the daughter of Kurdistan.

Moreover, a Sufi

Shaikh San‘an gave up his religion for an Armenian lady and became

poetically immortalised

by the Kurdish classic Faqi Tayran.

An interesting evidence for Caucasian idea in the Kurdish society are

proper names. There

are several wide-spread names amongst the Kurds which allude to various

Caucasian ethnic

groups such as:

Gurco [Georgian], a male name;

Ecem [originally Persian, but also Azeri], a male name;

Chachane [probably, Chechen], a female name;

Cherkez [Circassian], a male name;

Lezgîn [Lezgin], a male name.

According to Vladimir Minorsky, from the very ancient times the Kurds

were living in

Transcaucasia. T. Aristova, a Moscow ethnographer, dates some Kurdish

villages in the

Nakhichevan and the borderland between Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh

and Armenia by

the 10th century AD. However, larger waves of Kurdish arrival to the

region fall on the 19th

century as a result of Gulistan and Turkmanchay peace treaties between

Russia and Persia.

The further increase of the Kurdish population in the Caucasus took

place after Russia's

victorious wars against Turkey in 1828-1829 and 1877-1878. The process

of migration

continued until 1925.

The Kurds moved to rural settlements in Armenia and Azerbaijan and settled

in Tbilisi and

some other Georgian cities. In 1923-1930 there was a short-living Kurdish

autonomy in

Azerbaijan, bordering Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and in 1930-s and

1944 as a result

of Stalin’s policy a part of the Caucasian Kurds were displaced to

the Central Asia and

Kazakhstan. In late 1980-s and early 1990-s because of wars and economic

hardships

thousands of Transcaucasian Kurds migrated to North Caucasus: Krasnodar

and Stavropol

regions and some autonomous republics within the Russian Federation.

In a word, the 19th-20th centuries made a part of the Kurds live in

all over the Caucasus and

have a contact with dozens of local nationalities.

It goes without surprise that Soviet scholars of Kurdish descent have

been dealing with the

history and culture of their people both in the Caucasus and beyond.

Much more remarkable

is the interest towards the Kurds displayed by the Armenian, Georgian,

and Russian

scholars, many of whom had personal impressions of the Caucasian Kurds:

Niko Marr,

Vladimir Minorsky, Basile Nikitine and even the current Russian foreign

minister Yevgeni

Primakov (due to his Caucasian childhood and his unofficial role of

the Soviet envoy to

Mustafa Barzani´s movement). Moreover, at present many Kurdish

scholars from

Transcaucasia work in academic centres in Paris, Vienna and Brussels.

ARMENIA. It would not be an exaggeration to state that the Armenians

were in many cases

pioneers and promoters of Kurdish studies. As early as in the 17th

century Simeon Lehazi,

an Armenian from Lvov, visited the Middle East and left an extensive

report on the Kurds. A

century later Artemi of Ararat would write new ethnographic notes on

the Kurds.

The classic of the modern Armenian literature, Khachatur Abovian (1809-1848),

in his

studies indicated on elements characteristic of both the Armenians

and the Kurds. In the 19th

century there were several outstanding Kurdologists such as S.A. Egiazarov

whose works on

Transcaucasian Kurds remain very useful and S. Aykuni who collected

Kurdish folklore. This

tradition was continued in the Soviet period when Armenia became a

heaven for Kurdish

studies and culture:

- about 80-90 % of Soviet Kurdish intelligentsia was educated in Armenia;

- The Soviet Kurdish newspaper, Riya T'eze (The New Path), daily radio

broadcasting and

book-publishing were centred in Yerevan;

- The first all-Soviet Conference on Kurdish studies was held in Yerevan

in July, 1934;

- The Institute of Oriental Studies and other institutions in Armenia

were extensively dealing

with the Kurds, their history, religion, language, and culture.

Besides, many scholars of Armenian descent substantially contributed

to Kurdology such as

A. Saphrastian, the director of the Hermitage I. Orbeli (who set up

the Kurdish Department at

the Institute of Oriental Studies in Leningrad) and Zh. Musaelian who

has recently published

the most extensive Bibliography on Kurdology.

On the other hand the positive image of Armenia is attested in Kurdish

tradition. Thus,

Mohammad Mokri, a modern Iranian Kurdish scholar and politician (who

even was the first

ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Moscow and was running

for presidency in

Iran) published his study entitled Armenia in Kurdish folklore.

GEORGIA. With regard to Georgia, in 1970-s and 1980-s the interest

towards Kurdish theme

increased and Tbilisi soon became another centre for Kurdish cultural

life with classes at

schools, a theatre, musical groups, publication of books, weekly radio

broadcasting and the

Kurdish section in the Writers' Association of Georgia. The local scholars

were and are

dealing with Georgian sources related to the Kurds. Thus, the latest

monograph of V.

Macharadze is dedicated to Georgian documents on relationships between

the Georgians,

Kurds, Assyrians and Russians during the reign of the King Irakli II

of Georgia (the 18th

century). Another Georgian author, A. Menteshashvili, has published

in 1984 one of the most

comprehensive studies on the Kurdish social life.

Another interesting point is that while the absolute majority of the

Georgia's Kurds speak in

Northern (Kurmandji) dialect, the Soviet Kurdologist Q. Kurdoev recorded

two short texts in

Zaza dialect from the residents of a Zaza village near Batumi (Adzharian

Autonomous

Republic in Georgia).

AZERBAIJAN. Apart form autonomy experience in Azerbaijan in 1920-s,

there were made

major studies on the dialect and folklore of the Kurds living in Azerbaijan.

In 1931 the

Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan and the local Research Institute

jointly sponsored an

expedition headed by A. Bukshpan to the villages of the former autonomous

district. That

material was disclosed in A. Bukshpan's work on the Kurds of Azerbaijan

published in Baku

in 1932. Then, during the Soviet period N. Marr, O. Vilchevsky, B.V.

Miller and Ch. Bakaev

published their studies on the dialect and culture of the Kurds of

Azerbaijan.

Another source of the mutual Azeri-Kurdish sympathy is linked to 1946

revolution in Iranian

Azerbaijan and Kurdistan. It is reflected in literature, for instance,

by the two most prominent

Iranian Kurdish authors, Hajar and Hemin.

In recent years there are hints on the revival of Kurdish cultural

life in Azerbaijan, namely

newspapers, books and organisations. Another interesting point is a

small Kurdish-speaking

Khalaj minority in Azerbaijan whose name and culture could be traced

back to the famous

mystic al-Hallaj.

The Kurds in the Caucasian context from religious prospective

In terms of religion, the waves of the Kurdish migration to the Caucasus

since the 18th

century were as follows: the Sunni Muslim Kurds settled districts with

Muslim majority

(alongside Adzharian and Meskhetian Muslims in Georgia and Turkic groups

in Armenia and

Azerbaijan), whereas the Yezidi Kurds found refuge in predominantly

non-Muslim, or

Christian districts of Georgia and Armenia. Now, after the tragic events

connected with the

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, all the Muslim Kurds had to leave Armenia,

and the republic’s

Kurdish population is exclusively Yezidi. Moreover, because of reasons

which I intend to

study, there is a new ideology shared by some Armenia´s Yezidi

Kurds and allegedly

sponsored by certain local circles which claim that the Yezidis constitute

a separate, non-

Kurdish ethnic group. In general, in terms of number Yezidis and Sunni

Muslims constitute

two equal parts among 250,000 Caucasian Kurds.

Needless to say that the Northern Caucasus is the most expressive region

for Islamic

mysticism in the post-Soviet space. After Russia's wars in the 1850-s

the Qadiriya order

spread over the Northern Caucasus due to the shepherd Kunt Hadji Kishiev

who received the

khirqa from ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani in his dream. As is known, al-Gilani

and the tariqa

Qadiriya play a very essential role in the Kurdish tradition, too:

even the Yezidi religion

venerates the image of ´Abd al-Qadir. However, soon Naqshbandiya

Mudjadadiya Khalidiya

replaced Qadiriya as an ideology of resistance to Russian expansion.

This means another

Kurdish thread stretched to the Northern Caucasus.

The rise of the Khalidiya branch in both Kurdistan and North Caucasus

goes back to

Mawlana Khalid Baghdadi (d. 1827). He was a Kurd from Sulaymania, forced

by local amirs

in the Qadiriya-based Baban principality to leave the city. Besides

his religious devotion,

Khalid remained faithful to his homeland and his mother tongue, in

which he poetically

described his homesick feelings.

The Khalidiya supplanted almost entirely all other branches of the Naqshbandiya

in the

Middle East, and in Kurdistan it wrested supremacy from the Qadiriya

to become the chief

order of the region. Although the principal Kurdish khalifas of Mawlana

Khalid resided in

Ottoman empire, their influence was considerable among the Iranian

Kurds, too. Before long

Khalid´s Kurdish followers started to express both religious

and Kurdish national aspirations.

The latter was reflected in the great Kurdish uprising of 1880 led

by Shaykh Ubayd Allah of

Shamdinan, who, as a token of a higher political devotion, rejected

the Ottoman attempts to

stir him up against the Armenian and Assyrian Christians.

Furthermore, the immediate pretext for the ban of Sufi orders in Kemalist

Turkey was the

1925 Kurdish national uprising led by the Khalidi Shaikh Sa‘id. After

his defeat many of his

followers emigrated to the territory of Soviet Armenia and Azerbaijan,

from where they were

displaced by Stalin’s order to Kazakstan. Another example of Naqshbandi

opposition to the

Turkish Republic was Shaikh Muhammad As'ad (Mehmed Esad, d. 1931),

a native of Arbil

and descendant of Mawlana Khalid. He became a leading shaikh in Istanbul,

but in 1931 he

was arrested on charges of complicity and died in prison hospital.

Descendants of Mehmed

Esad and other Khalidi shaikhs continue to be active in Turkey by integrating

themselves into

such political structures as the National Salvation Party (Milli Selamet

Partisi) and its

successor, the Prosperity Party (Refah Partisi).

Since in general active opposition and action, not just a contemplation,

is a feature of

Naqshbandiya, its Khalidiya branch expanded from Kurdistan to Talish,

and later to the

Northern Caucasus. This kind of religious inspiration for national

resistance became very

topical in Chechniya and Daghestan during the Caucasian wars of the

19th century and

during the Chechens´ forced migration to Kazakstan and Central

Asia in 1944-1957.

The future will demonstrate whether the Refah Partisi-type and Naqshbandiya-based

Islamic

politics could gain essential grounds in Turkey, Kurdistan and the

Northern Caucasus.

 

2.

Zorabe  Budi (Aloiane)

European and East-European Links to the Kurds in the Past

The Kurds are rightfully viewed and studied in the context of the Middle

East. It is not

surprising, therefore, that the topic of the role of the European theme

in the Kurdish tradition

has been never the subject of special studies. Certainly, I leave out

the political implication of

the Kurdish issue which the European powers since the 19th century

were preoccupied with.

However, Europe was not an alien region to the Kurdish people. In other

words, the Kurds

did not appear in Europe from 'nowhere' and Europe was never a terra

incognita for the

Kurdish people. This statement is well based on oral and written sources.

Thus, according to one of the legends concerning the origin of the

Kurds, once King Solomo

who ruled over supernatural world called his angelic servants and ordered

them to fly to

Europe for the sake of bringing five-hundred beautiful women to him.

When his servants

were back they learned that their master had already passed away. Then

they retained those

women for themselves, and that was the origin of the Kurdish nation.

Kurdish folklore has more indications on contacts with the European

peoples and lands and

there are many such sources both recorded and preserved in an oral

way. I.A. Orbeli wrote

about links between Kurdish culture and cultures of some European peoples.

As an example

he wrote about parallels between the early medieval Kurdish epic story

of Mam u Zin, French

chivalrous novel of Tristan and Isolda and the story of the Persian

poet of the 11th century

Fakhr ad-Din Asad Gurgani Vis and Ramin.

In this respect, there are the two most popular and wide-spread traditions

linking the Kurds

with the Europe: stories of Alexander the Great and the image of Constantinolpe

and

Byzantium in legends concerning Kurdish saints, warriors and brigands.

The latter tradition

was excessively recorded by European, Eastern and Kurdish scholars

and this material is

available in many publications. Moreover, with regard to the Kurdish

saints, there are written

sources in Arabic and Persian. The continuity of the Byzantine Empire

in Kurdish views was

so apparent that even now they call Turkey 'the Black Rome' (Roma Resh)

as a contrary to

'not black Rome', i.e. Byzantium.

As is known, the most prominent Kurd in the world history was Saladin

who, with the support

of his countrymen took over the position of the ruler and unifier of

the Islamic world.

According to Orientalists, Saladin (or Salah ad-Din) Ayyubi was the

second most significant

personality in Islamic history - after the Prophet Muhammad. Saladin's

image was elaborated

in the European literature and quite often his Kurdish descent also

was referred to (e.g. in

Lessing's Natan the Wise, Walter Scott's ´´Richard the

Lion Heart´´). Moreover, according to

Voltaire, Saladin was of greater dignity and significance for humanity

than Alexander the

Great.

While Europe experienced transition from the Middle Ages, the Middle

East was becoming

less advanced politically and economically and there the Middle Ages

lasted, no doubt,

longer. With the creation and advance of the Ottoman empire, many of

the Kurdish

aristocrats and men of letter supported the Turks and played an important

role in the

Ottoman army, administration and European campaigns. Thus, we know

that the Kurdish

rulers of Kilis region (modern Turkey) were with the Ottomans during

the Belgrade campaign

(1521), occupation of the Rodos (1522) and Moldavian war (1538). Moreover,

the members

of the same family accompanied Sultan during his campaign in Sziget,

Hungary, (1557) due

to which one of them Ali b. Polad-bek was later appointed an Ottoman

representative in

Transylvanian Kolozsvar (present-day Cluj-Napoca, Romania).

Members of another Kurdish noble family participated in the battle

at Eger and the famous

Hungarian novel ´´Egri csillagok´´ (Stars of

Eger) by Géza Gardonyi several times mentions

the Kurds who came with the Ottomans. One of the Kurdish nobelmen,

according to the

novel, revolted against the Ottoman authorities and was chained. Another

hero, a certain

Dzhekidzh from Bitlis, was captured by the Hungarians and was later

released.

The ruler of the ancient Kurdish province of Jazira fell into disgrace

of the Sultan and the

latter in 1583 sent him to Buda where he was supposed to live without

coming back to his

former possessions.

There are many other indication of the Kurds participating in the Turkish

military and political

matters in the Central Europe and one of the best examples of this

is the kunya (nick-name)

al-Busnawi (Bosnian) of the Kurdish ruler of Diyarbakir.

Another aspect of European theme amongst the Kurds is also worthy of

note.

The Baban aristocratic family which until the midst of the 19th century

controlled much of the

Southern Kurdistan (presently in Iraq) links its origin to the half-legendary

Bedeh-khan.

According to the Baban's genealogical tree, Bedeh-khan was a son of

Faki Ahmad who

escaped from Bilbas tribe and went to serve the Ottoman Sultan. Faki

Ahmad was in the

Ottoman army during the midst-17th century's wars with 'infidels'.

In one of the battles he

captured a French young lady who fought in the knight's dress. According

to the Baban

tradition, Faki Ahmad married her and they had two sons one of whom,

Baba Sultan, founded

a Sulaymani Baban branch, whereas Bedeh-khan was the founder of Bekzade

dynasty.

Besides ´´kings and aristocrats´´, Kurdish

theme is reflected in European spiritual life as well.

For instance, the Hungarian-born scholar Hugo Makas in the end of the

19th century

collected Kurdish texts for St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and

his collection was

published after the October Revolution: Hugo Makas, ´´Kurdische

Texte im Kurmanji Dialecti

aus der Gegend von Mardin´´, Leningrad, 1926. Hugo Makas

recorded the texts from a

Kurdish merchant Muhammad Emin who came to the Moravian city of Brno

for commercial

purposes. Moreover, Hugo Makas was also dealing with ´´Mem

u Zin´´ by A. Khani and thus

contributed to Kurdish literary studies.