Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities
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Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries Hakan Özo˘glu Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State SUNY series in Middle Eastern Studies Shahrough Akhavi, editor Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries Hakan Özoglu State University of New York Press Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2004 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, N.Y. 12207 Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Özoglu, Hakan, 1964– Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state : Evolving identities, competing loyalties, and shifting boundaries / Hakan Özoglu. p. cm. — (SUNY series in Middle Eastern studies) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-7914-5993-4 (alk. paper). 1. Kurds—History—19th century. 2. Kurds—History—20th century. 3. Kurds— Politics and government—19th century. 4. Kurds—Politics and government—20th century. I. Title. II. Series. DR435.K87O96 2004 320.54'089'91597056—dc 21 2003045674 10987654321 To Yurdanur and my children Contents Acknowledgments xi Note on Transliteration and Translation xiii List of Illustrations xv 1. Introduction 1 The Role of Kurdish Nationalism in the Emergence of the Turkish Republic 2 A Brief Discussion of Nationalism 3 Different Interpretations of Nationalism 4 Ethnicity, Nationalism, and the Development of Identity 7 Nationalism in the Kurdish Case 10 Nationalism and Notables in the Ottoman Empire 11 Boundaries of the Research 13 Organization and General Arguments of the Chapters 14 2. Evolution of Group Identity: The Kurds and Kurdistan in Historical Texts 21 Origin of the Kurds 22 Kurds and Kurdistan in Medieval Sources 27 Serefhan Bitlisi 27 The Seventeenth Century: Ahmed-i Hani 31 Evliya Çelebi: A View of an Ottoman Traveler 33 Kurds and Kurdistan in the Late Ottoman Period 35 Kürdistan: The First Kurdish Newspaper 35 Semseddin Sami 37 The Post-World War I Period 38 Conclusion 40 vii viii Contents 3. State-Tribe Relations: Ottoman Empire and Kurdish Tribalism Since the Sixteenth Century 43 Tribe, Emirate, and the Kurds 43 Theoretical Framework 44 Definition of Kurdish Tribes 45 Kurdish Tribalism Prior to the Ottoman Conquest 46 Ottoman-Safavid Relations and “Kurdistan” 47 Ottoman Administration in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 51 Classical Ottoman Administration 51 Ottoman Administration in Kurdistan 53 Decreasing Level of Autonomy 57 Ottoman Administrative Policies in Nineteenth- Century Kurdistan 59 Conclusion: Consequences of Ottoman Rule 63 4. Kurdish “Protonationalism”?: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries 69 The Nationalist Dimension of Kurdish Militancy 70 Bedirhan Pasha and His Revolt of 1847 70 The Naqshbandi Semdinan Family and Sayyid Ubeydullah 72 A Transformation to Nationalism: Two Kurdish Cultural and Political Organizations, 1908–20 77 Kürt Teavün ve Terakki Cemiyeti, or the Society for the Mutual Aid and Progress of Kurdistan (SMPK) 78 Kürdistan Teali Cemiyeti, or the Society for the Advancement of Kurdistan (SAK) of 1918 81 5. The Role of Preexisting Ties and Notables in the Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism 87 The Naksibendi Semdinan Family 88 Sayyid Abdulkadir 88 The Bedirhani Family 95 Emin Ali Bedirhan 95 Celadet Ali and Kamuran Ali Bedirhan 100 Other Members of the SAK in the Bedirhani Family 102 The Cemilpasazade Family 103 Ekrem Cemilpasa 104 Kadri Cemilpasa (Zinar Silopi) 106 Shaykh Sefik Efendi 108 Contents ix Mehmet Serif Pasha 110 Bediüzzaman Said Nursi 113 Hizanizade Bitlizli Kemal Fevzi 115 Conclusion 117 6. Concluding Remarks and Suggestions for Further Research 121 Directions for Further Research in the Republican Period 125 Notes 131 Bibliography 159 Index 179 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to my teacher and friend Stephen Dale for his support, encouragement, and guidance throughout the long years of this research. I feel truly fortunate to know him and privileged to call him a friend. This book would not have been written if I did not have at my disposal the guidance and expertise of friends and colleagues at the University of Chicago including John Woods, Robert Dankoff, Cornell Fleischer, John Perry, Heshmat Moayyad, and Bruce Craig. At different stages of this work, I also benefited from the knowledge of Victoria Holbrook, Jane Hathaway, Selim De- ringil, and Resat Kasaba. I am also grateful to Yurdanur Serhat for introducing me to several Kurd- ish families through whom I collected much needed oral information about the previous generation of Kurds. Without her help, I would still be searching for the location of these people, let alone be able to convince them to sit down for an interview. With gratitude, I must also mention that the American Research Institute in Turkey partly funded this research. I am also indebted to Cambridge University Press and to Taylor-Francis Press (www.tandf.co.uk) for allowing me to utilize my previous articles in preparation of this book. In closing, I would like to thank my wife and daughters for providing me with the emotional support that enabled me to cope with the vicissitudes of such a long commitment. Needless to say, I accept full responsibility for the shortcomings of this book. xi Note on Transliteration and Translation Transliteration into English of words that were originally spelled in Ara- bic script poses a special challenge. To provide uniformity, this study has tried to establish a consistent pattern in spelling Ottoman, Persian, and Arabic words. Except for terms common in English, regardless of origin, all words used in an Ottoman context are spelled according to Modern Turkish orthog- raphy. Therefore, all Turkish and Kurdish proper names are rendered in Mod- ern Turkish forms (Mehmet, not Muhammad; Serefhan, not Sharaf Khan; Ahmed-i Hani, not Ehmede Xani). For all non-Turkish/Ottoman names, this study has followed common scholarly spelling. In Arabic and Persian names, diacritics are omitted. Common Ottoman and Islamic titles were spelled in English, such as shaykh, pasha, and sayyid. I preferred pasa to pasha if it was part of a name (such as Ekrem Cemilpasa) or spelled as such in modern Turkish publications. A particular problem with this particular title arose when the same author’s name was spelled as “pasha” in English language publications and pasa in Turkish; Serif Pasha is the best example. Therefore, the reader will occasionally encounter different spellings for this word. For the rest, Turkish transliteration is used, such as mutasarrif and kaymakam. The Turkish system of alphabetization is also utilized for the place-names in Turkey, such as Diyarbakir. For places outside Turkey, the English spelling is preferred; e.g., Azerbaijan and Baghdad. All dates are according to the Grego- rian calendar; however, in some instances Islamic dates are added to the text. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations to English are mine. xiii Illustrations Maps 2.1. The Karduchi territory in Xenephon’s Time 24 2.2. Kurdistan according to Serefhan 29 2.3. A map of Kurdistan by Serif Pasa39 2.4. A map of Kurdistan according to Emin Ali Bedirhan 40 3.1. Ottoman Safavid border prior to 1514 and Kurdish tribes 50 4.1. Approximate areas controlled by Emir Bedirhan in 1846 and by Sayyid Ubeydullah in 1880 85 Figures 3.2. Kurdish tribalism prior to Ottoman control 55 3.3. Kurdish tribalism under the Ottomans in the Sixteenth century 55 3.4. The list of Kurdistan governors 62 3.5. Kurdish tribalism during the mid-Seventeenth to Nineteenth centuries 66 3.6. The result of the Ottoman centralization in the late Nineteenth century 66 5.1. The Semdinan Family 89 5.2. The Bedirhan Family 96 5.3. The Cemilpasazade Family 105 5.4. The Arvasi Family 109 xv 1 Introduction Entering the twenty-first century, the problem of Kurdish nationalism re- mains one of the most explosive and critical predicaments in the Middle East. With an estimated population of 20–25 million Kurds living mostly in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, there is a little doubt that the Kurds constitute one of the largest ethnic groups in the world without a state of their own. In their efforts to establish their own state, Kurdish nationalist movements in the twentieth century were involved in many clashes with the governments of the states in which they resided. These confrontations claimed tens of thousands of lives, mainly those of civilians during the same period. In Turkey alone, the death toll for the most re- cent Kurdish uprising—that within the last decade and a half of the twentieth century—amounted to more than thirty thousand. At present, Kurdish national- ism is still regarded as a direct threat to the territorial integrity of the above- mentioned states by their respective governments; and the fear is not entirely unjustified. The Kurdish question is evidently transnational in the modern Mid- dle East, but it is also international. Sizable Kurdish diaspora communities live and actively participate in nationalist politics in many European countries, most notably in Germany, France, and Norway. Hence, the nationalist aspirations of the Kurds are of keen interest to the greater international community. Despite the pressing need to understand and explain the nature and origin of Kurdish nationalism, the subject regrettably remains poorly studied. There are several reasons for the lack of interest in studying Kurdish nationalism by mainstream scholarship in Middle Eastern Studies.