İSLÂM COĞRAFYACILARININ ESERLERİNDE KÜRTLER HAKKINDAKİ RİVAYETLER (9. YÜZYIL - 13. YÜZYIL)

Abstract

The key concept to be used to explain the history of Kurds is tribalism. Tribes are based on agnatical connections and means social, political, managerial, economical and cultural organizations. Kurdish tribes have never acted as a unity and have continuously been in a civil war. The center of the tribes is a mountainous land known as Kurdistan. In the age of Abbasis, The Kurds established many emirates and dynasties. In 11. century, Kurdish emirates came to the sovereignty of The Great Seljuks. The Kurds have never been under the rule of any states, not even in the age of Eyyubis. In order to preserve their own interests, Kurdish tribes resisted even Salahaddin Eyyubi. In fact, The Kurds who were faithful to the tribe aristocracy opposed to any kind of regime or authority. Kurds are regarded as the Islamic nations such as the Arabians, Persians and the Turkish ones. The Kurds located around Cibal, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The name of Kurdistan wasn’t used. The Kurds lived under the rule of Sassanid Empire before Islam. With the Era of Caliph Omer, the Kurdish people started to meet with the Muslims and waged war against the Muslims in company with the Persians. But the Kurds were defeated by the Islamic armies like the Persians. The Kurds entered into the domination of the Islam during the Era of the Four Caliph and a great majority of them converted to Islam. ‘The Kurds Issue is one of the most discussed but the least studied topics in Turkey. In this article rumors about the Kurds in Islamic geographers’ works are dealt with. In this work, Arabic sources that belong to 9th and 13th centuries are used. The following questions had been tried to be found out in the Islamic geographers’works: Who are Kurds? Where is their native land? What is their ethnic origin? How and when did they embrace Islam? What kind of relations did they have with the states in the regions they lived in? How are Kurds’ political and social structure? What are the roles of the tribes in the lives of the Kurds? Do Kurds speak Kurdish? Are there any written works in Kurdish? Do they have their own architectural style? What is their contribution to Islamic civilization? Authors whose works we used as sources and who mention Kurds in their works are: Abdullah b. Hurdazbih, Vâzih al-Yâqubi, Umar Ibn Rusteh, Ibn Fakih, al-Hamadani, Hussein al-Massoud, al-Istahri al-Faris, Ali Ibn Havkal, Ahmad al- Mukaddes, Muhammad al-Bakri, Idris al- Idrisi, Yakut al- Hamavi, Zakariya Qazwinia and Ibn Sa’d Maghribi. How much do Islamic geographers know about Kurds? How and from where had they got the information about the Kurds? What are the sources they had used? Answers of these questions are shown from the authors own works themselves. All kinds of information about the Kurds that these authors had written are arranged carefully and the rumors are exactly narrated in the work. The information that the authors had written in their books are put in order chronologically taking their birth or death dates into consideration. Thus,I aimed to show the real origin of the information and attact attention how these information have been changed in time. Besides, with this method it is found out how some researchers exploited these information and sources are obtained for the impartial studies