Historical Dictionaries of Peoples and Cultures Jon Woronoff, Series Editor 1. Kurds, by Michael M. Gunter, 2004. Out of print. See No. 8. 2. Inuit, by Pamela R. Stern, 2004. 3. Druzes, by Samy Swayd, 2006. 4. Southeast Asian Massif, by Jean Michaud, 2006. 5. Berbers (Imazighen), by Hsain Ilahiane, 2006. 6. Tamils, by Vijaya Ramaswamy, 2007. 7. Gypsies, 2nd ed., by Donald Kenrick, 2007. 8. Kurds, 2nd ed., by Michael M. Gunter, 2011. 9. Jews, by Alan Unterman, 2011. 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd i 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd iiii 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM Historical Dictionary of the Kurds Second Edition Michael M. Gunter Historical Dictionaries of Peoples and Cultures, No. 8 The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Oxford 2011 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd iiiiii 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2011 by Michael M. Gunter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gunter, Michael M. Historical dictionary of the Kurds / Michael M. Gunter. — 2nd ed. p. cm. — (Historical dictionaries of peoples and cultures ; 8) Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8108-6751-2 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-7507-4 (ebook) 1. Kurds—History—Dictionaries. I. Title. DS59.K86G86 2011 956.6’7003—dc22 2010024484 ϱ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd iviv 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM To my wife, Judy, my daughter, Heidi, my son, Michael, and his wife, Linda, their children, Ansleigh and Malachi. And to Lynx. 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd v 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd vivi 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM Contents Editor’s Foreword Jon Woronoff ix Maps xi Preface xv Acronyms and Abbreviations xix Chronology xxiii Introduction 1 THE DICTIONARY 27 Bibliography 315 About the Author 409 vii 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd viivii 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd viiiviii 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM Editor’s Foreword In today’s world of sovereign nations, there is not much tolerance for people without one, even when the population in question is more than that of many countries. This applies most decidedly to the Kurds, some 25 to 30 million strong, who are divided among four large multipeople states in the Middle East and a growing diaspora in Europe and North America. The Kurds also developed a sense of nationhood too late, after their homeland had been carved up, which alarmed the established countries in the area. The reaction was often repression, if not outright warfare, rather than accommodation and provision of reasonable au- tonomy. Finally, the Kurds, while recognizing one another as branches of the same family, are still deeply divided in their own allegiances and sometimes quarrel with one another more bitterly than they fight those who seek to dominate them. Since the first edition of this book, how- ever, the situation has improved considerably, with the fall of Saddam Hussein and the emergence of the Kurdistan Regional Government, in which Iraqi Kurds of many different orientations are learning to cooper- ate in practical and helpful ways. Writing about a people is not as easy as writing about a country. It is necessary, first, to show where the people resided at various times in the past, what holds them together and what divides them, and how they manage to survive as a coherent community in a world composed of sovereign nations. Only then can you concentrate on the people, places, and events marking their history or consider how they get along economically; maintain privileged social bonds with one another and relate to outsiders; and preserve their culture, language, and religion. Thus, while writing about a people is hard to do, it can be done; indeed, it has been done very successfully in this Historical Dictionary of the Kurds, with its chronology, introduction, dictionary, and bibliography. ix 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd ixix 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM x • EDITOR’S FOREWORD Aside from the sheer difficulty in gathering basic information when writing about a people—especially the Kurds—it is necessary to main- tain a proper balance between different groups and factions and between the people and their neighbors. This is often harder for an insider than for an outsider, and an outsider must also have a keen understanding of and strong affinity for the subject. That is certainly the case for the author of both editions of this book, Michael M. Gunter, who has been studying and teaching about the region for almost four decades. He is presently a professor of political science at Tennessee Technological University, having earlier taught at Kent State University, and still gives summer courses at the International University in Vienna. Dr. Gunter has written numerous articles and chapters as well as several books on the Kurdish question, the latest being The Kurds Ascending: The Evolv- ing Solution to the Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey. Jon Woronoff Series Editor 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd x 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd xixi 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd xiixii 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd xiiixiii 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd xivxiv 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM Preface Seven years have passed since I wrote the first edition of this Historical Dictionary of the Kurds. For this second edition I have reviewed every entry, expanded many of them, and added a number of new ones. I also dropped a few entries that seemed no longer relevant. In addition, I have updated the historical narrative and expanded the bibliography to reflect the tremendous explosion in material published on the Kurds. This new edition contains mainly historical and political entries, with an emphasis on topics closer to the present day. Nevertheless, I have sought to include the most important earlier names and events, too. In addition, I have included a number of entries on important cultural, economic, and social topics, among others. As an aid to readers, many of the entries have extensive cross-references in boldface type or a See also at the end. Yet, inevitably, there is a certain amount of subjectiv- ity when choosing topics for entries. Furthermore, I am sure that I have simply neglected to provide entries on topics that deserved to be included. Therefore, I welcome suggestions from readers for additional entries in any future edition. In writing a dictionary on the Kurds in the English language, I have attempted to simplify the transliteration of names and terms as much as possible. Given the rich variety of spellings among Western schol- ars and the linguistic differences among the Kurds themselves, it was not possible to be completely consistent in my transliterations. Rather, I have used spellings that are most comfortable to me, an English- speaking reader and writer. Although the purist might object, the result should be that readers will be easily able to identify quickly what they are reading about. In some cases, Kurds and those who write about them most com- monly use the Kurdish term, while in others they use the English. To xv 110_509_01_Front.indd0_509_01_Front.indd xvxv 99/16/10/16/10 9:289:28 AAMM xvi • PREFACE compound the inconsistency, Kurdish acronyms are sometimes com- monly employed with full English terms. The Kurdistan Workers Party, commonly known by its Kurdish acronym, PKK, is a good example. By contrast, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) are usually known by both their English full names and their English acronyms. Therefore, by seeking to use the terms that seem to me most common, I have not been consistent in regard to language. Nevertheless, the result is that I have used terms that readers should most easily recognize. In most entries, I have sought to use both full Kurdish and English names upon first mention. Another problem of consistency involves the birth and death years in some of the entries on persons. Because of the unsettled conditions usually prevailing in Kurdistan, even today, many Kurds simply do not know when they were born. Therefore, I have not been able to list dates for all my person entries. This problem becomes even greater for historical figures. Nevertheless, I have been able to establish the dates for a number of persons and have entered them when I could. The re- sult is an obvious inconsistency in my entries, although they have the merit of giving as much information as they can. In a few cases I have listed slightly different dates in this edition from the first edition based on new data I have gathered. Again I would welcome comments from my readers, some of whom may undoubtedly help fill in a few of the numerous gaps here.