Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East

doi:10.1017/9781108623711.003

2 - Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East

Kurdish Emirates between the Ottoman Empire and Iranian Dynasties (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries)

from Part I - Historical Legacies

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2021

Edited by

Cengiz Gunes and

Hamit Bozarslan: Affiliation:
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Cengiz Gunes: Affiliation:
The Open University, Milton Keynes
Veli Yadirgi: Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

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Summary

From the arrival of the Ottomans and the Safavids to Kurdistan until the removal of the Kurdish emirates in the mid-nineteenth century, the Kurdish nobility was actively involved in regional and trans-border politics. The struggle between the Ottomans and the Safavids, especially during the first half of the sixteenth century, when the division between ‘Iranian Kurdistan’ and ‘Ottoman Kurdistan’ was consolidated, was pivotal in shaping the political landscape in Kurdistan. However, for the successive centuries some of the Kurdish lands would keep changing hands after each war between two states. At other times Kurdish lords would switch their loyalty for another ruler or simultaneously pay tribute and tax to both states. Tools of politics used by both states and the Kurdish emirs varied from time to time but remained mainly the same in essence. While the Ottoman Empire and Iranian dynasties planned their imperial project on Kurdistan the Kurdish nobility played an active role in regional and trans-border politics. The policies of both states had lasting effects in the region while Kurdish lands remained a ‘buffer zone’ between two states until the mid-nineteenth century, when finally the Ottomans and Qajar Iran removed the Kurdish notables from their position and incorporated their lands into the central administration.

Keywords

Kurdish emirates early modern Kurdistan Ottoman Empire Safavids Qajars borderland Middle East history

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge History of the Kurds , pp. 45 - 72

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108623711.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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