Tales of Woe, Ruthless Foes, and Patriotic Heroes: A Historical-Literary Study of Kurdish (Dis)unity in the Early Modern Era
Résumé
It is a common discursive trope that the Kurds are not united, a trope that one often encounters in discussions of contemporary events in Kurdistan. Little known is the fact that this trope goes back to the earliest times of Islam and has been associated with prejudices against the Kurds by neighbouring peoples, as well as efforts by dominant powers of the region to rule over them. Through the study of foundational texts like Idrīs Bidlīsī’s Selīmnāme, Sharaf Khān’s Sharafnāma, Ehmede Xanî’s Mem û Zîn, and Feqiye Teyran’s Şerê Dimdim, this article traces early modern discursive practices around ideas of Kurdish unity and disunity; and discusses their development in relation to imperial attempts at maintaining control over Kurdistan, on the one hand, while referencing a Kurdish ethos of bravery and righteousness, on the other.