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78-608: Ancient Medieval Modern Simko Shikak born 1887, was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shekak tribe. He was born into a prominent Kurdish feudal family based in Chihriq castle located near the Baranduz river in the Urmia region of northwestern Iran . By 1920, parts of Iranian Azerbaijan located west of Lake Urmia were under his control. He led Kurdish farmers into battle and defeated

156-493: A Kurd himself. You've bitten off more than you can chew and you have brought death to yourself. O son of a Kurd, raised in the tents of the Kurds, who gave you permission to put a crown on your head? The usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group. Similarly, in AD 360,

234-640: A Yezidi rebellion which went on from 1506 to 1510. A century later, the year-long Battle of Dimdim took place, wherein the Safavid king Abbas I (r. 1588–1629) succeeded in putting down the rebellion led by the Kurdish ruler Amir Khan Lepzerin. Thereafter, many Kurds were deported to Khorasan , not only to weaken the Kurds, but also to protect the eastern border from invading Afghan and Turkmen tribes. Other forced movements and deportations of other groups were also implemented by Abbas I and his successors, most notably of

312-416: A country or during peacetime. Riots in the wake of the 2020 George Floyd protests in numerous American cities led to increased amounts of looting, as looters took advantage of the delicate political situation and civil unrest surrounding the riots themselves. Up to 175 Target stores closed Nationwide during the disturbances. During the ongoing Kashmir conflict , looting of Kashmiris trapped between

390-532: A frontier commissioner and a brigand. On order of the governor-general in 1905, he was killed in Tabriz. After the murder of Ja'far Agha, Simko became the head of Shikak forces. In May 1914, he attended a meeting with Abdürrezzak Bedir Khan who at the time was a Kurdish politician supported by the Russians . The Iranian government was trying to assassinate him like the other members of his family. In 1919, Mukarram ul-Molk,

468-455: A good example being during the 1967 First Invasion of Onitsha , where the victorious Nigerian troops were encircled and annihilated while looting. In other cases, for example, the Wahhabi sack of Karbala in 1801 or 1802, loot has contributed to further victories for an army. Not all looters in wartime are conquerors; the looting of Vistula Land by the retreating Imperial Russian Army in 1915

546-570: A people with a distinct language by Arab geographers such as Al-Masudi since the 10th century. Many Kurds are either bilingual or multilingual , speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic, Persian , and Turkish as a second language alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities often speak three or more languages. Turkified and Arabised Kurds often speak little or no Kurdish. According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at

624-701: A population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries, about half of them in Germany . A special case are the Kurdish populations in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia , displaced there mostly in the time of the Russian Empire , who underwent independent developments for more than a century and have developed an ethnic identity in their own right. This groups' population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims who adhere to

702-437: A repressive era toward non- Persian minorities. In a nationalistic perspective, Simko's revolt is described as an attempt to build a Kurdish tribal alliance in support of independence. According to Kamal Soleimani, Simko Shikak can be located "within the confines of Kurdish ethno-nationalism". According to the political scientist Hamid Ahmadi: Though Reza Shah’s armed confrontation with tribal leaders in different parts of Iran

780-477: A result of Reza Shah’s ethnocentric policies, no valid documents have been presented to prove this argument. Recent documentary studies (Borzū’ī 1999; Zand-Moqaddam 1992; Jalālī 2001) convincingly show that Reza Shah’s confrontation with Baluch Dust Mohammad Khan , Kurdish Simko and Arab Sheikh Khaz‘al have merely been the manifestation of state-tribe antagonism and nothing else. (...) While the Kurdish ethno-nationalist authors and commentators have tried to construct

858-506: A significant increase in the looting of antiquities from archaeological sites in Egypt, as the government lost the ability to protect the sites. Other acts of modern looting, such as the looting and destruction of artifacts from the National Museum of Iraq by Islamic State militants, can be used as an easy way to express contempt for the concept of rules of war altogether. In the case of

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936-663: A small number of Christian traditions have been preserved. Several Christian prayers in Kurdish have been found from earlier centuries. In recent years some Kurds from Muslim backgrounds have converted to Christianity . Segments of the Bible were first made available in the Kurdish language in 1856 in the Kurmanji dialect. The Gospels were translated by Stepan, an Armenian employee of the American Bible Society and were published in 1857. Prominent historical Kurdish Christians include

1014-467: A sudden change in a country or region's government, it can be difficult to determine what constitutes looting as opposed to a new government taking custody of the property in question. This can be especially difficult if the new government is only partially recognized at the time the property is moved, as was the case during the 2021 Taliban offensive , during which a number of artifacts and a large amount of property of former government officials who had fled

1092-517: Is Ahura Mazda . Leading characteristics, such as messianism , the Golden Rule , heaven and hell , and free will influenced other religious systems, including Second Temple Judaism , Gnosticism , Christianity , and Islam . In 2016, the first official Zoroastrian fire temple of Iraqi Kurdistan opened in Sulaymaniyah . Attendees celebrated the occasion by lighting a ritual fire and beating

1170-740: Is based on the belief of one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy Beings. The leader of this heptad is Tawûsê Melek , who is symbolized with a peacock . Its adherents number from 700,000 to 1 million worldwide and are indigenous to the Kurdish regions of Iraq , Syria and Turkey , with some significant, more recent communities in Russia , Georgia and Armenia established by refugees fleeing persecution by Muslims in Ottoman Empire . Yazidism shares with Kurdish Alevism and Yarsanism many similar qualities that date back to

1248-498: Is either the result of direct orders, despite to Russia's claims to the contrary, or due to Russian soldiers not being issued with adequate food and other resources by their commanders. The term "looting" is also sometimes used to refer to antiquities being removed from countries by unauthorized people, either domestic people breaking the law seeking monetary gain or foreign nations, which are usually more interested in prestige or previously, "scientific discovery". An example might be

1326-573: Is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million. Kurds speak the Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages , which belong to the Western Iranian branch of the Iranian languages . Kurds do not comprise a majority in any country, making them a stateless people . After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire , the victorious Western allies made provision for a Kurdish state in

1404-599: Is nowadays Iran's West Azerbaijan Province , marked the start of the Ottoman-Persian Wars between the Iranian Safavids (and successive Iranian dynasties) and the Ottomans . For the next 300 years, many of the Kurds found themselves living in territories that frequently changed hands between Ottoman Turkey and Iran during the protracted series of Ottoman-Persian Wars. The Safavid king Ismail I (r. 1501–1524) put down

1482-451: Is said to have encountered Mar Abdisho , a deacon and martyr, who, after having been questioned of his origins by Mar Qardagh and his Marzobans , stated that his parents were originally from an Assyrian village called Hazza, but were driven out and subsequently settled in Tamanon, a village in the land of the Kurds , identified as being in the region of Mount Judi . Early Syriac sources use

1560-523: The Afsharid Empire ruled by Nader Shah at its peak. After Nader's death, Iran fell into civil war, with multiple leaders trying to gain control over the country. Ultimately, it was Karim Khan , a Laki general of the Zand tribe who would come to power. The country would flourish during Karim Khan's reign; a strong resurgence of the arts would take place, and international ties were strengthened. Karim Khan

1638-788: The Armenians , the Georgians , and the Circassians , who were moved en masse to and from other districts within the Persian empire. The Kurds of Khorasan, numbering around 700,000, still use the Kurmanji Kurdish dialect. Several Kurdish noblemen served the Safavids and rose to prominence, such as Shaykh Ali Khan Zanganeh , who served as the grand vizier of the Safavid shah Suleiman I (r. 1666–1694) from 1669 to 1689. Due to his efforts in reforming

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1716-555: The Assassins . The Ayyubid dynasty lasted until 1341 when the Ayyubid sultanate fell to Mongolian invasions. The Safavid dynasty, established in 1501, also established its rule over Kurdish-inhabited territories. The paternal line of this family actually had Kurdish roots, tracing back to Firuz-Shah Zarrin-Kolah , a dignitary who moved from Kurdistan to Ardabil in the 11th century. The Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 that culminated in what

1794-616: The Gulf War , Saddam Hussein 's soldiers caused significant damage to both Kuwaiti and Saudi infrastructure. They also stole from private companies and homes. In April 2003, looters broke into the National Museum of Iraq, and thousands of artefacts remain missing. Syrian conservation sites and museums were looted during the Syrian Civil War , with items being sold on the international black market . Reports from 2012 suggested that

1872-463: The High Middle Ages , the Kurdish ethnic identity gradually materialized, as one can find clear evidence of the Kurdish ethnic identity and solidarity in texts of the 12th and 13th centuries, though, the term was also still being used in the social sense. Since 10th century, Arabic texts including al-Masudi 's works, have referred to Kurds as a distinct linguistic group. From 11th century onward,

1950-591: The Indian and Pakistani militarized zones is common and widespread. In 2022, international observers accused Russia of engaging in large scale looting during the Russo-Ukrainian War , reporting the widespread looting of everything from food to industrial equipment. Despite the publication of numerous photos and videos by Ukrainian journalists and civilians, numerous Russian commanders have denied these claims. International observers have theorized that this looting

2028-626: The Kurmanj , Kalhur , and Guran . Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran , Iraq , Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan . Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic , is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language. The Kurds are recognized as

2106-680: The Ottoman Army he organized the massacre in Haftevan in February 1915 during which 700–800 Armenians and Assyrians were murdered. In March 1918, under the pretext of meeting for the purpose of cooperation, Simko arranged the assassination of the Assyrian Church of the East patriarch, Mar Shimun XIX Benyamin , ambushing him and his 150 guards, as Mar Shimun was entering his carriage. The patriarchal ring

2184-691: The Ottoman–Persian War (1775–76) , Karim Khan managed to seize Basra for several years. Plunder During modern-day armed conflicts , looting is prohibited by international law , and constitutes a war crime . During a disaster, police and military forces are sometimes unable to prevent looting when they are overwhelmed by humanitarian or combat concerns, or they cannot be summoned because of damaged communications infrastructure. Especially during natural disasters, many civilians may find themselves forced to take what does not belong to them in order to survive. How to respond to that and where

2262-564: The Sassanid era , in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan , a short prose work written in Middle Persian, Ardashir I is depicted as having battled the Kurds and their leader, Madig . After initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V , which is also featured in the same work, he is referred to as being

2340-523: The Shafiʽi school , while a significant minority adhere to the Hanafi school and also Alevism . Moreover, many Shafi'i Kurds adhere to either one of the two Sufi orders Naqshbandi and Qadiriyya . Beside Sunni Islam, Alevism and Shia Islam also have millions of Kurdish followers. Yazidism is a monotheistic ethnic religion with roots in a western branch of an Iranic pre-Zoroastrian religion. It

2418-476: The battle of sari Taj in 1922, Simko's forces could not resist the Iranian Army's onslaught in the region of Salmas and were finally defeated and the castle of Chari was occupied. The strength of the Iranian Army force dispatched against Simko was 10,000 soldiers. Simko's revolts are seen by some as an attempt by a powerful tribal chief to establish his personal authority over the central government throughout

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2496-750: The early modern period and reaching its peak in the New Imperialism era, European colonial powers frequently looted areas they captured during military campaigns against non-European states. In the 1930s, and even more so during the Second World War , Nazi Germany engaged in large-scale and organized looting of art and property , particularly in Nazi-occupied Poland . Looting, combined with poor military discipline , has occasionally been an army's downfall since troops who have dispersed to ransack an area may become vulnerable to counter-attack,

2574-562: The ethnonym Kurd might be derived from a term kwrt- used in Middle Persian as a common noun to refer to ' nomads ' or 'tent-dwellers', which could be applied as an attribute to any Iranian group with such a lifestyle. The term gained the characteristic of an ethnonym following the Muslim conquest of Persia , as it was adopted into Arabic and gradually became associated with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranianized tribes and groups in

2652-731: The frame drum or 'daf'. Awat Tayib, the chief of followers of Zoroastrianism in the Kurdistan region, claimed that many were returning to Zoroastrianism but some kept it secret out of fear of reprisals from Islamists. Although historically there have been various accounts of Kurdish Christians , most often these were in the form of individuals, and not as communities. However, in the 19th and 20th century various travel logs tell of Kurdish Christian tribes, as well as Kurdish Muslim tribes who had substantial Christian populations living amongst them. A significant number of these were allegedly originally Armenian or Assyrian , and it has been recorded that

2730-452: The region . Although elements of Kurdish nationalism were present in this movement, historians agree these were hardly articulate enough to justify a claim that recognition of Kurdish identity was a major issue in Simko's movement. It lacked any kind of administrative organization and Simko was primarily interested in plunder . Government forces and non-Kurds were not the only ones to suffer in

2808-797: The 11th-century Kurdish dynasties crumbled and became incorporated into the Seljuk dynasty. Kurds would hereafter be used in great numbers in the armies of the Zengids . The Ayyubid dynasty was founded by Kurdish ruler Saladin , as succeeding the Zengids, the Ayyubids established themselves in 1171. Saladin led the Muslims to recapture the city of Jerusalem from the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin ; also frequently clashing with

2886-738: The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres . However, that treaty was not ratified. When the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey three years later, no such provision was made, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries of Turkey, Iraq, and Syria . Recent history of the Kurds includes numerous genocides and rebellions , along with ongoing armed conflicts in Turkish , Iranian , Syrian , and Iraqi Kurdistan . Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous regions, while Kurdish movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights , autonomy , and independence throughout Kurdistan . The exact origins of

2964-571: The Caliph Al-Mu'tasim who sent the commander Itakh to combat him. Itakh won this war and executed many of the Kurds. Eventually, Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and gradually converted the majority of Kurds to Islam, often incorporating them into the military, such as the Hamdanids whose dynastic family members also frequently intermarried with Kurds. In 934, the Daylamite Buyid dynasty

3042-632: The Iranian army on several occasions. The Iranian government had him assassinated in 1930. Simko took part in the massacre of the Assyrians of Khoy and instigated the massacre of 1,000 Assyrians in Salmas . His family was from the 'Awdo'i clan of the Shekak tribe. The Shekak played a prominent role in local politics, occupying the districts of Somay, Baradost , Qotur , and Chahriq . His brother, Ja'far Agha, served as

3120-400: The Kurdish national-liberation struggle against Turkish or Iranian suppressors is an essential element of the Kurdish identity-makers’ ideology. (...) With the Kurdish conglomeration, as I said above, far from being a homogeneous entity―either ethnically, culturally, or linguistically (...)―the basic component of the national doctrine of the Kurdish identity-makers has always remained the idea of

3198-687: The Sassanid king Shapur II marched into the Roman province Zabdicene , to conquer its chief city, Bezabde, present-day Cizre . He found it heavily fortified, and guarded by three legions and a large body of Kurdish archers. After a long and hard-fought siege, Shapur II breached the walls, conquered the city and massacred all its defenders. Thereafter he had the strategically located city repaired, provisioned and garrisoned with his best troops. Qadishaye, settled by Kavad in Singara , were probably Kurds and worshiped

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3276-554: The Syrian considered them as pagan , followers of mahdi and adepts of Magianism . Their mahdi called himself Christ and the Holy Ghost . In the early Middle Ages , the Kurds sporadically appear in Arabic sources, though the term was still not being used for a specific people; instead it referred to an amalgam of nomadic western Iranian tribes, who were distinct from Persians . However, in

3354-516: The Yarsani lack political rights in both countries. The Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism has had a major influence on the Iranian culture, which Kurds are a part of, and has maintained some effect since the demise of the religion in the Middle Ages. The Iranian philosopher Sohrevardi drew heavily from Zoroastrian teachings. Ascribed to the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster , the faith's Supreme Being

3432-529: The antiquities were being traded for weapons by the various combatants. Both customary international law and international treaties prohibit pillage in armed conflict . The Lieber Code , the Brussels Declaration (1874), and the Oxford Manual have recognized the prohibition against pillage. The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 ( modified in 1954 ) obliges military forces not only to avoid

3510-501: The attacks, the Kurdish population was also robbed and assaulted. Simko's men do not appear to have felt any sense of unity or solidarity with fellow Kurds. In the words of Kurdologist and Iranologist Garnik Asatrian : In the recent period of Kurdish history, a crucial point is defining the nature of the rebellions from the end of the 19th and up to the 20th century―from Sheikh Ubaydullah’s revolt to Simko’s (Simitko) mutiny. The overall labelling of these events as manifestations of

3588-416: The brothers Zakare and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli. "The land of Karda" is mentioned on a Sumerian clay tablet dated to the 3rd millennium BC. This land was inhabited by "the people of Su" who dwelt in the southern regions of Lake Van ; the philological connection between "Kurd" and "Karda" is uncertain, but the relationship is considered possible. Other Sumerian clay tablets referred to the people, who lived in

3666-506: The celebration of victory. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars and particularly after World War II , norms against wartime plunder became widely accepted. In the upper ranks, the proud exhibition of the loot plundered formed an integral part of the typical Roman triumph , and Genghis Khan was not unusual in proclaiming that the greatest happiness was "to vanquish your enemies... to rob them of their wealth". In ancient times, looting

3744-503: The country fell into the hands of the Taliban before they were recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan by other countries. Further looting and burning of civilian homes and villages has been defended by the Taliban as within their right as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Looting can also be common in cases where civil unrest is contained largely within the borders of

3822-409: The declining Iranian economy, he has been called the "Safavid Amir Kabir " in modern historiography. His son, Shahqoli Khan Zanganeh , also served as a grand vizier from 1707 to 1716. Another Kurdish statesman, Ganj Ali Khan , was close friends with Abbas I, and served as governor in various provinces and was known for his loyal service. After the fall of the Safavids, Iran fell under the control of

3900-474: The defeated populations, which were often enslaved . Women and children might become absorbed into the victorious country's population, as concubines , eunuchs and slaves. In other pre-modern societies, objects made of precious metals were the preferred target of war looting, largely because of their ease of portability. In many cases, looting offered an opportunity to obtain treasures and works of art that otherwise would not have been obtainable. Beginning in

3978-525: The destruction of enemy property but also to provide for its protection. Article 8 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court provides that in international warfare, "pillaging a town or place, even when taken by assault", is a war crime . In the aftermath of World War II , a number of war criminals were prosecuted for pillage. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (1993–2017) brought several prosecutions for pillage. The Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 explicitly prohibits

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4056-403: The end of 3rd millennium BC and distinguished them as the Guti , speakers of a pre-Iranic language isolate . They conquered Mesopotamia in 2150 BC and ruled with 21 kings until defeated by the Sumerian king Utu-hengal . Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes , an ancient Iranian people, and even use a calendar dating from 612 BC, when the Assyrian capital of Nineveh

4134-463: The governor of Azerbaijan devised a plot to kill Simko by sending him a present with a bomb hidden in it. Simko was also in contact with Kurdish revolutionaries such as Seyyed Taha Gilani (grandson of Sheikh Ubeydullah who had revolted against Iran in the 1880s). Seyyed Taha was a Kurdish nationalist who was conducting propaganda among the Iranian Kurds for the union of Iranian Kurdistan and Turkish Kurdistan in an independent state. Jointly with

4212-422: The image of a nationalist hero out of him, the local Kurdish primary sources reflect just the opposite, showing he was widely hated by many ordinary and peasant Kurds who suffered his brutal suppression of Kurdish settlements and villages. Kurds Ancient Medieval Modern Kurds or Kurdish people ( Kurdish : کورد , romanized :  Kurd ) are an Iranic ethnic group native to

4290-469: The independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds, while others prefer Cyrtians . The term Kurd , however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century. Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends such as the Shahnameh and the Middle Persian Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan , and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name Kurd . The Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During

4368-481: The land of Karda, as the Qarduchi (Karduchi, Karduchoi) and the Qurti. Karda/Qardu is etymologically related to the Assyrian term Urartu and the Hebrew term Ararat. However, some modern scholars do not believe that the Qarduchi are connected to Kurds. Qarti or Qartas, who were originally settled on the mountains north of Mesopotamia , are considered as a probable ancestor of the Kurds. The Akkadians were attacked by nomads coming through Qartas territory at

4446-476: The line between unnecessary "looting" and necessary " scavenging " lies are often dilemmas for governments. In other cases, looting may be tolerated or even encouraged by governments for political or other reasons, including religious, social or economic ones. Looting by a victorious army during war has been a common practice throughout recorded history. Foot soldiers viewed plunder as a way to supplement an often-meagre income and transferred wealth became part of

4524-508: The looting of civilian property during wartime. Theoretically, to prevent such looting, unclaimed property is moved to the custody of the Custodian of Enemy Property , to be handled until returned to its owners. Despite international prohibitions against the practice of looting, the ease with which it can be done means that it remains relatively common, particularly during outbreaks of civil unrest during which rules of war may not yet apply. The 2011 Egyptian Revolution , for example, caused

4602-419: The martyr Abd al-Masih. They revolted against the Sassanids and were raiding the whole Persian territory. Later they, along with Arabs and Armenians, joined the Sassanids in their war against the Byzantines. There is also a 7th-century text by an unidentified author, written about the legendary Christian martyr Mar Qardagh . He lived in the 4th century, during the reign of Shapur II, and during his travels

4680-418: The mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia , which spans southeastern Turkey , northwestern Iran , northern Iraq , and northern Syria . There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia , Khorasan , and the Caucasus , as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey (in particular Istanbul) and Western Europe (primarily in Germany ). The Kurdish population

4758-399: The name Kurd are unclear. The underlying toponym is recorded in Assyrian as Qardu and in Middle Bronze Age Sumerian as Kar-da . Assyrian Qardu refers to an area in the upper Tigris basin, and it is presumably reflected in corrupted form in Classical Arabic Ǧūdī ( جودي ), re-adopted in Kurdish as Cûdî . The name would be continued as the first element in

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4836-534: The population in Turkey , 15 to 20% in Iraq ; 10% in Iran ; and 9% in Syria . Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan , Iraqi Kurdistan , Iranian Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan . The Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in West Asia after Arabs , Persians , and Turks . The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 24% in Iran, 18% in Iraq, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for

4914-467: The pre-Islamic era. Yarsanism (also known as Ahl-I-Haqq, Ahl-e-Hagh or Kakai) is also one of the religions that are associated with Kurdistan. Although most of the sacred Yarsan texts are in the Gorani and all of the Yarsan holy places are located in Kurdistan , followers of this religion are also found in other regions. For example, while there are more than 300,000 Yarsani in Iraqi Kurdistan, there are more than 2 million Yarsani in Iran. However,

4992-447: The region west of Lake Urmia . At this time, government in Tehran tried to reach an agreement with Simko on the basis of limited Kurdish autonomy . Simko had organized a strong Kurdish army which was much stronger than Iranian government forces. Since the central government could not control his activities, he continued to expand the area under his control and by 1922, cities of Baneh and Sardasht were under his administration. In

5070-426: The region. Sharafkhan Bidlisi in the 16th century states that there are four division of Kurds: Kurmanj , Lur , Kalhor , and Guran , each of which speak a different dialect or language variation. Paul (2008) notes that the 16th-century usage of the term Kurd as recorded by Bidlisi, regardless of linguistic grouping, might still reflect an incipient Northwestern Iranian "Kurdish" ethnic identity uniting

5148-419: The removal of the contents of Egyptian tombs that were transported to museums across the West . As part of World War II reparations , Soviet forces systematically plundered the Soviet occupation zone of Germany, including the Recovered Territories , which later transferred to Poland. The Soviets sent valuable industrial equipment, infrastructure and whole factories to the Soviet Union. Many factories in

5226-421: The same time found in other Iranian languages . The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as: The Zaza and Gorani are ethnic Kurds, but the Zaza–Gorani languages are not classified as Kurdish. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at between 30 and 45 million, with another one or two million living in the Kurdish diaspora . Kurds comprise anywhere from 18 to 25% of

5304-466: The term Kurd is explicitly defined as an ethnonym and this does not suggest synonymity with the ethnographic category nomad. Al-Tabari wrote that in 639, Hormuzan , a Sasanian general originating from a noble family, battled against the Islamic invaders in Khuzestan , and called upon the Kurds to aid him in battle. However, they were defeated and brought under Islamic rule. In 838, a Kurdish leader based in Mosul, named Mir Jafar , revolted against

5382-421: The terms Hurdanaye, Kurdanaye, Kurdaye to refer to the Kurds. According to Michael the Syrian , Hurdanaye separated from Tayaye Arabs and sought refuge with the Byzantine Emperor Theophilus . He also mentions the Persian troops who fought against Musa chief of Hurdanaye in the region of Qardu in 841. According to Barhebreaus , a king appeared to the Kurdanaye and they rebelled against the Arabs in 829. Michael

5460-414: The toponym Corduene , mentioned by Xenophon as the tribe who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC . There are, however, dissenting views, which do not derive the name of the Kurds from Qardu and Corduene but opt for derivation from Cyrtii ( Cyrtaei ) instead. Regardless of its possible roots in ancient toponymy,

5538-436: The unified image of one nation, endowed respectively with one language and one culture. The chimerical idea of this imagined unity has become further the fundament of Kurdish identity-making, resulting in the creation of fantastic ethnic and cultural prehistory, perversion of historical facts, falsification of linguistic data, etc. On the other hand, Reza Shah 's military victory over Simko and Turkic tribal leaders initiated

5616-580: Was among the factors sapping the loyalty of Poles to Russia . Local civilians can also take advantage of a breakdown of order to loot public and private property, as took place at the Iraq Museum in the course of the Iraq War in 2003. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy 's novel War and Peace describes widespread looting by Moscow 's citizens before Napoleon 's troops entered the city in 1812, along with looting by French troops elsewhere. In 1990 and 1991, during

5694-565: Was conquered by the Medes. The claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem : "We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow ." However, MacKenzie and Asatrian challenge the relation of the Median language to Kurdish. The Kurdish languages , on the other hand, form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median . Some researchers consider

5772-468: Was founded, and subsequently conquered most of present-day Iran and Iraq. During the time of rule of this dynasty, Kurdish chief and ruler, Badr ibn Hasanwaih, established himself as one of the most important emirs of the time. In the 10th–12th centuries, a number of Kurdish principalities and dynasties were founded, ruling Kurdistan and neighbouring areas: Due to the Turkic invasion of Anatolia and Armenia,

5850-503: Was interpreted as an example of ethnic conflict and ethnic suppression by the Iranian state, the fact is that it was more a conflict between the modern state and traditional socio-political structure of pre-modern era and had less to do with the question of ethnicity and ethnic conflict. While some Marxist political activists (see Nābdel 1977) and ethno-nationalist intellectuals of different Iranian groups (Ghassemlou 1965; Hosseinbor 1984; Asgharzadeh 2007) have introduced this confrontation as

5928-631: Was portrayed as being a ruler who truly cared about his subjects, thereby gaining the title Vakil e-Ra'aayaa (meaning Representative of the People in Persian ). Though not as powerful in its geo-political and military reach as the preceding Safavids and Afsharids or even the early Qajars, he managed to reassert Iranian hegemony over its integral territories in the Caucasus , and presided over an era of relative peace, prosperity, and tranquility. In Ottoman Iraq , following

6006-552: Was sometimes prohibited due to religious concerns. For example, King Clovis I of the Franks, forbade his soldiers to loot when they campaigned near St Martin 's shrine in Tours, for fear of offending the saint. Moses, Joshua and Samuel at various points ordered the Israelites not to take loot from their enemies due to God's commandment. In warfare in ancient times, the spoils of war included

6084-456: Was stolen at this time and the body of the patriarch was only recovered hours later, according to the eye-witness account of Daniel d-Malik Ismael. On March 16 after the murder of Mar Shimun, the Assyrians under the command of Malik Khoshaba and Petros Elia of Baz attacked Simkos' fortress in Charah in which Simko was decisively defeated. By summer 1918, Simko had established his authority in

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