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Kurdistan (general)
Bakur (Turkey)
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Rojava (Syria)
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Saladin Idris Bitlisi Sharaf Khan Bidlisi Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir Ahmadî Khani Sheikh Ubeydullah Simko Shikak Qazi Muhammad Mustafa Barzani Abdul Rahman Ghassemlou Abdullah Öcalan Bedagh Beg Bajaran chief Babanzâde Ahmed Pasha Han Mahmud Sait Beg Bedir Khan Beg Emin Ali Bedirkhan Ali Batı Cemil Çeto Sheikh Said Asî Resul Tutahî Ali Can Jafar Sultan Hama Rashid Masoud Barzani Jalal Talabani Sheikh Ahmed Barzani Asenath Barzani Masture Ardalan Celadet Alî Bedirxan Kamuran Alî Bedirxan Karim Khan Zand Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji Ihsan Nuri Pasha Seyid Riza Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz Haji Qadir Koyi Melayê Cizîrî Cigerxwîn Nalî Abdullah Goran Adela Khanum Mir Xanzad Hapsa Khan Mahwî Feqiyê Teyran Leyla Qasim Tawfiq Wahbi Piramerd
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Glossary
Click a term to see its meaning.
Agha
A title for a tribal chief or landlord in Kurdish and wider Middle Eastern society, often controlling land and local militias.
Akkadians
An ancient Semitic people of Mesopotamia who established one of the world's first empires; their interactions with the Gutians are part of early regional history.
Amed
The Kurdish name for Diyarbakır, a major city in Bakur (Turkey) and a historic centre of Kurdish language and culture.
Aq Qoyunlu
A Turkic tribal confederation known as the White Sheep that ruled parts of Kurdistan and Iran from the 14th to the early 16th century.
Ararat
A mountain in eastern Turkey associated with Kurdish identity and the 1927–1930 Ararat rebellion.
Ardalan
A historic Kurdish emirate centred on Sanandaj in Rojhilat (Iranian Kurdistan).
Atabeg
A title for a regional governor or vassal ruler, common in medieval Islamic states including Kurdish principalities.
Baban
A Kurdish emirate in the Sulaymaniyah region of Bashur (Iraq) from the 17th to the 19th century.
Barzani
A prominent Kurdish tribe and family from Bashur (Iraq), historically influential in politics and the KDP.
Bey
A title for a local chief, noble or governor, widely used in Kurdish and Ottoman contexts.
Bitlis
A historic Kurdish city and emirate in south-eastern Bakur (Turkey), celebrated for its cultural and architectural heritage.
Botan
A historic Kurdish emirate in what is now south-eastern Turkey, known for its resistance to centralisation.
Buyid
A Shia Iranian dynasty that ruled parts of Iran and Iraq, including Kurdish regions, from the 10th to the 11th century.
Caliph
The supreme religious and political leader in Sunni Islam; many Kurdish rulers acknowledged the caliph's suzerainty.
Carduene
An ancient kingdom in the Zagros Mountains, known to classical sources as Carduchi or Gordyene, in the region of historical Kurdistan.
Cizre
A historic Kurdish city in northern Mesopotamia, once the capital of the Bohtan emirate.
Dersim
A mountainous Kurdish region in north-central Bakur (Turkey), site of the 1937–1938 Dersim massacre.
Dervish
A member of a Sufi Muslim ascetic order; dervish traditions were historically influential in Kurdish religious life.
Dynasty
A sequence of rulers from the same family or lineage, such as the Marwanids, Hasanwayhids or Ayyubids in Kurdish history.
Emirate
A semi-autonomous political territory governed by an emir, particularly relevant to Kurdish history during the Ottoman period.
Erbil
Known as Hewler in Kurdish, an ancient citadel city in Bashur (Iraq) and capital of the Kurdistan Region.
Hakkari
A mountainous region in south-eastern Bakur (Turkey), historically home to Kurdish tribal emirates.
Halabja
A Kurdish city in Bashur (Iraq) subjected to a chemical weapons attack in 1988 during the Anfal Campaign.
Hasanwayhid
A medieval Kurdish dynasty ruling parts of western Iran and Kurdistan in the 10th and 11th centuries.
Hewler
The Kurdish name for Erbil, a major city in Bashur (Iraq).
Hurrians
An ancient people of northern Mesopotamia and Syria who established the state of Mitanni around the second millennium BCE.
Imam
A prayer leader in Islam; in Shia Islam, the divinely guided successors to the Prophet.
Jash
Kurdish auxiliaries or militias recruited by state forces; often used as a derogatory term for those who fought against Kurdish movements.
Khan
A ruler or military leader title, used across Central Asia and the Middle East, including Kurdish polities.
Khanate
A state ruled by a khan; several Kurdish regions were organised as khanates under Persian and Ottoman suzerainty.
Kirkuk
A contested, multi-ethnic city in northern Iraq with a large Kurdish population and major oil resources.
Kizilbash
A Shia religious and tribal movement that helped establish the Safavid state, influential in parts of Kurdish history.
Kurd
A member of an Iranian ethnic group native to a mountainous region of western Asia known as Kurdistan.
Kurdistan
The historical and cultural homeland of the Kurdish people, spanning parts of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria.
Lullubi
An ancient mountain people of the central Zagros, associated with early populations of the Kurdish homeland.
Mahabad
A city in Iranian Kurdistan that gave its name to the short-lived Republic of Mahabad (1946), the first Kurdish republic.
Mandate
A post-First World War administration by Britain or France over parts of the former Ottoman Empire, including Iraq and Syria.
Mardin
A historic Kurdish and Syriac city in south-eastern Bakur (Turkey).
Marwanid
A medieval Kurdish dynasty ruling around Diyarbakır and the Jazira in the 10th and 11th centuries.
Medes
An ancient Iranian people of western Iran, sometimes linked to the deeper ancestry of the Kurdish people.
Mir
A title for a prince or ruler, used in Kurdish emirates and principalities.
Mitanni
A Hurrian-speaking state in northern Mesopotamia and Syria, active around the second millennium BCE, with ties to the Kurdish past.
Mosul
A major city in northern Iraq, historically contested by Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians.
Ottoman
Relating to the Ottoman Empire, a multi-ethnic empire that ruled much of Kurdistan from the 14th to the early 20th century.
Pasha
A high-ranking title in the Ottoman Empire, often held by governors and military commanders.
Peshmerga
Kurdish armed fighters, literally 'those who face death', associated especially with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Principality
A state ruled by a prince; many Kurdish polities were emirates or principalities with varying degrees of autonomy.
Qizilbash
Alternative spelling of Kizilbash, a Shia tribal and religious movement important to the rise of the Safavid Empire.
Rawanduz
A town in the Soran region of Bashur (Iraq), once the capital of the Soran Emirate.
Safavid
Relating to the Safavid Empire, an Iranian dynasty that ruled eastern and southern Kurdish lands from 1501 to 1736.
Sanandaj
The historical capital of the Ardalan Emirate and a major cultural centre of Iranian Kurdistan.
Sayyid
A title for descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, respected in Kurdish society.
Seljuk
A Turkic Sunni Muslim dynasty that ruled much of the Middle East, including Kurdish lands, from the 11th to the 13th century.
Shah
A title for a king, used by Iranian dynasties that ruled Kurdish regions.
Sharafnama
A 1597 Persian-language history of the Kurds and their dynasties written by Sharaf al-Din Bitlisi.
Sheikh
A religious leader or Sufi guide in Kurdish society, sometimes also a political and tribal authority.
Sheikh Said
A Kurdish religious and tribal leader who led the 1925 Sheikh Said rebellion in Bakur (Turkey).
Shingal
The Kurdish name for Sinjar, a Yazidi-majority district in northern Bashur (Iraq).
Soran
A Kurdish emirate in present-day northern Iraq, centred around Rawanduz, that expanded in the early 19th century.
Sufism
The mystical dimension of Islam, historically important in Kurdish religious and social life.
Sulaymaniyah
A major Kurdish city in Bashur (Iraq), known as a cultural and educational centre.
Sultan
A Muslim sovereign or ruler; the title was used by Ottoman and other rulers over Kurdish lands.
Sykes-Picot
A 1916 secret agreement between Britain and France to partition Ottoman territories, shaping modern Kurdish borders.
Timurid
A Central Asian empire founded by Timur (Tamerlane), which invaded and influenced Kurdish regions in the late 14th and 15th centuries.
Treaty of Lausanne
A 1923 treaty that formally partitioned the Ottoman Empire and left Kurdish-inhabited territories divided among Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran.
Treaty of Sèvres
A 1920 treaty that initially promised the possibility of an independent Kurdish state, later superseded by the Treaty of Lausanne.
Urmia
A city in Rojhilat (Iranian Kurdistan), historically an Assyrian and Kurdish cultural centre.
Van
A city and lake in eastern Bakur (Turkey) with a long Kurdish history, formerly the centre of Armenian and Kurdish settlement.
Vilayet
An administrative province of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries, replacing the eyalet system.
Yazidi
A Kurdish-speaking religious community native to Kurdistan, primarily in northern Bashur (Iraq).
Zagros
The mountain range stretching through western Iran and Kurdistan, central to Kurdish geography and identity.
Zand
An 18th-century Iranian dynasty of Lur and Kurdish origin, founded by Karim Khan Zand.
