Ideology, Nationalism, and Architecture: Representations of Kurdish Sites in Turkish Art Historiography

Abstract

This article discusses how the narrative of Turkish national historiography, crafted by Turkish elites in the 1930s in light of the official doctrine of the Turkish History Thesis and the Sun Language Thesis, attempted to Turkify the patronage of historical buildings constructed by diverse ethnic and religious communities of the country’s eastern region. I focus on the architectural production of the seven Kurdish dynasties that ruled a large area in the Middle East from the tenth to the mid-nineteenth century. Kurdish rulers constructed a large number of urban monuments bearing their names. These sites were appropriated into the Turkish national historiography in a denial of their Kurdish origins. This approach to history has rendered Kurdish material culture all but invisible, pushing the understanding of Kurdish architectural patronage and identity to the academic margins. This study aims to develop an alternative approach to the history of urban and architectural production in eastern and south-eastern Turkey, and opens a discussion for a definition of Kurdish art and architecture.