Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Kurds
- The Cambridge History of the Kurds
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Additional material
- Introduction
- Part I Historical Legacies
- 1 The Rise and Fall of the Kurdish Emirates (Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries)
- 2 Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East
- 3 The End of Kurdish Autonomy
- 4 The Kurdish Movement and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1880–1923
- 5 Religious Narrations of the Kurdish Nation during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 6 The Political Economy of Kurdistan
- Part II Regional Political Developments and the Kurds in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Part III Domestic Political Developments and the Kurds in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Part IV Religion and Society
- Part V Kurdish Language
- Part VI Art, Culture and Literature
- Part VII Transversal Dynamics
- Index
- References
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
- The Cambridge History of the Kurds
- The Cambridge History of the Kurds
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Additional material
- Introduction
- Part I Historical Legacies
- 1 The Rise and Fall of the Kurdish Emirates (Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries)
- 2 Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East
- 3 The End of Kurdish Autonomy
- 4 The Kurdish Movement and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1880–1923
- 5 Religious Narrations of the Kurdish Nation during the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
- 6 The Political Economy of Kurdistan
- Part II Regional Political Developments and the Kurds in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Part III Domestic Political Developments and the Kurds in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries
- Part IV Religion and Society
- Part V Kurdish Language
- Part VI Art, Culture and Literature
- Part VII Transversal Dynamics
- Index
- References
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.
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- The Cambridge History of the Kurds , pp. 45 - 72Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021