Select Page

User:Annwfwn/sandbox

Muhammad Pasha of Rawandiz (Kurdish: Mîr Mihemed Paşa; also known as Mirê Kor, Kor Mir- the "blind prince"; born in Rawandiz; 1783–1838) was the Kurdish Mir of the Soran Emirate (1814–1838).[1][2] He led an unsuccessful attack against the Emirate of Botan of Bedir Khan Beg in 1834.[3]

Muhammad Pasha had the title of Mir-i miran "Mir of mirs".[4] Under Muhammad Pasha, the Soran emirate developed a powerful army. It consisted of between 30 and 50,000 tribal musketeers who were given regular salaries, having the appearance of a national army. Kor himself ate each evening with 100-200 soldiers from different tribes. A multitude of different tribes joined his army such as the Baliki, Rewendek, Sidek, Shirwani, Rusuri, Malibas, Muzuri, Sheikhab, Nurik, Kheilani, Khoshnaw, Hnearai, Herki, Sheikh Mahmudi, Kassan, Derijiki, Bamami, Sekw, Shikuli, Mendik, Baimar, Balak, and Piraji.[5][better source needed]

Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz was repeatedly responsible for massacres of the Yazidis. In 1832, thousands of Yazidis were killed in the Shekhan area by Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz in cooperation with the Kurdish Botan prince Bedir Khan Beg.[6][7]

Path to power

Muhammed Pasha was born in Rawandiz in 1783 and studied under Mulla Ahmad ibn Adam, a respected Kurdish religious scholar from the region. In 1814, at the age of 31, he succeeded his father, Mustafa Beg as the Mir of Soran when his father abdicated.[8]: 55  Mohammed Pasha is portrayed as a cruel person who was probably not afraid to kill family members in order to stay in power. Therefore there was also the suspicion that he had his father blinded in order to become a prince himself. But this was denied by an English doctor who had treated his father.[citation needed]

After coming to power, he had potential competitors eliminated. So he accused his treasurer Abdullah Aga of conspiracy and had him executed. Then Mohammed Pasha started waging war against his uncles. On December 14, 1814, he besieged Shteyn Castle, where his uncle Teymur Aga was. After four weeks of siege, his uncle and cousin were hanged on January 10, 1815. Shortly thereafter, he defeated and hanged his other uncle, Yahya Bey.[9][citation needed]

Military campaigns and independency

A canon from the Muhammed Pasha period

Having thus eliminated the internal competitor, he set about expanding his principality. First he had the city walls of Rawanduz reinforced and a fort built on a hill outside the city.[10] Then he went against the neighboring tribes. He was considered a merciless prince who had all of his defeated opponents executed. He wanted to conquer the area between Great Zab and Little Zab. To do this he had to fight against the Baban principality. He conquered the cities of Harir (1822), Koya (October 1823), Ranya (February 1824) and Makhmur and Altun Kupri in September 1823.[9] He had thus displaced the Baban and the small Zab was now the border between Soran and Baban. The Ottoman governor in Baghdad, Ali Rıza Pasha, was unable to do anything about it.[10] He also gave him the title of Pasha. Nevertheless, Muhammed Pasha declared himself independent and, as a sign of his sovereignty, had the Friday sermons (Chutba) read out in his name. He set out to build a large army and set up factories to produce weapons. He also had coins minted on which he called himself al-Amīr al-Mansūr Muhammad Bīk.[10]

As the region experienced a power vacuum due to the decline of Baban, the Russo-Turkish War from 1828 to 1829, and the Egyptian–Ottoman War from 1831 to 1833, he led a tribal force to Rawandiz and built a citadel in the town as they build up a military. Between 1831 and 1834 he was able to capture several towns and cities in other Kurdish emirates. 1831 he captured the Bahdinan emirate of Amedi.[11] Kor further expanded his influence to Mardin, Cizre and Nusaybin, compelling the ruler of the Bohtan Mir Sevdin, to accept his authority, which caused serious concern in the Ottoman capital Constantinople.[11] Kor then captured Akre and oppressed Yazidis in the newly-conquered areas.[11]

Later, Mohammed Pasha was given an opportunity to expand his territory. Mullah Yahya, a member of the Mzurî tribe from the Principality of Bahdinan, asked Mohammed Pasha for help in a feud. The Mzurî tribal leader Ali Agha was murdered by the Yazidi tribal leader Ali Beg. However, the Prince of Bahdinan Said Pasha refused to allow the Mzuri to take revenge. So Mullah Yahya turned to Mohammed Pasha and asked him to take revenge on the Yazidis from Jabal Sinjar.[10] Mohammed Pasha was able to use this punitive expedition to conquer the principality of Badinan. He issued a fatwa against the "infidel" Yazidis by his own Mufti Mullah Mohammed Khalti and crossed the Great Zab in 1831/32.[10]

In 1832, Muhammad Pasha and his troops committed a massacre against the Yazidis in Khatarah. Subsequently, they attacked the Yazidis in Shekhan and killed many of them.[12] In another attempt he and his troops occupied over 300 Yazidi villages. The emir kidnapped over 10,000 Yazidis and sent them to Rawandiz and gave them the ultimatum of converting to Islam or being killed. Most of them converted to Islam and those who refused to convert to Islam were killed.[13]

Mohammed Pasha acted with great brutality against the Yazidis and massacred thousands of them.[14] Some of the surviving Yazidis fled towards Tur Abdin and Mosul.[14] Christian villages and monasteries were also attacked and plundered.[15] After "avenging" the tribal leader, he took over the town of Akre. After the conquer of Akre, the capital of the Bahdinan Principality, Amedi fell and Prince Said Pasha fled. With the fall of Amedi, the entire principality fell complietly under Mohammed Pasha‘s power.[16] At this time he controlled the area from the Little Zab to the Khabur River.

Later, Mohammed Pasha marched north and conquered Cizre.[10] From their he threatened the cities of Mardin and Nusaybin. But he had to return to Amedi when Said Pasha took advantage of his absence to revolt.[10] Mohammed Pasha repulsed Said Pasha and took bitter revenge on the city.[10]

Fearing a cooperation between the Soran Emirate and Muhammad Ali of Egypt, the Ottomans dispatched an army to Soran in 1834. Mire Kor was able to repeal the forces and push towards Iran.[17] This led Kurdish notables from Bradost, Akre and Amedi to complain to Reşid Mehmed Pasha of the Ottoman government alleging they were oppressed by Mir Kor of Soran.[17]

The Ottomans reassed their perception of the perceived strength of the emirate and develop a plan for its subjugation.[18][19][20][21] An Ottoman offensive was initiated in 1836 which forced Kor to retreat to Rawandiz, mainly due to the lack of support from his tribal allies.[22]

Defeat and aftermath

The Ottoman Sultan in Istanbul could no longer remain inactive and mobilized against Mohammed Pasha. The rebellious Muhammad Ali Pasha had made it clear to the Ottomans that the hot-tempered Muhammad Pasha should not be underestimated.[23] The suspicion that both rebels were in contact made the problem more acute. In 1834, an Ottoman army led by Reşid Mehmed Pasha was sent towards Soran. His army was joined by soldiers from the Ottoman governors of Mosul and Baghdad.[24]

Muhammed Pasha was besieged and defeated at Rawanduz in 1838.[10] It is also worth mentioning that Reşit Mehmet Pasha had previously issued a fatwa that forbade Mohammed Pasha's Muslim warriors from fighting against the army of the Ottoman caliph. Mohammed Pasha was summoned to Istanbul and ceremoniously received by Sultan Mahmud II. It was decided that Mohammed Pasha should be exiled to Trabzon. But on his way, he disappeared in the Black Sea area and the Ottoman Empire supported his brother Rasul as the Emir of the Emirate. The Emirate would ultimately fall victim to the growing centralization of the Ottoman Empire.[23][24]

Reception

Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz is described, along with Bedir Khan Beg, as one of the pioneers of Kurdish nationalism.[8]

Muhammad Pasha had a talent for coordinating armies and uniting various Kurdish tribes under one umbrella despite their disagreements, pitting them against the Ottoman central government.[25] His military skills were strict and brutal against the enemy, leading to numerous beheadings of prisoners ordered by Muhammad Pasha.[25]

He was consistently hostile towards Christian and Yazidi minorities, which ultimately became apparent in his numerous military campaigns and was responsible for the deaths of several thousand Yazidis and Christians.[11][14] He described Yazidis as devil worshippers.[14] He also ordered numerous exploitative marches against Christian villages. During his reign, he described these minorities as second-class citizens. Numerous arrests he ordered were directed exclusively against Yazidi governors under his jurisdiction.[7] Muhammad Pasha's strict goal was to establish an independent Kurdish-Islamic entity.[1]

Legacy

There were traits of Kurdish awareness by the Soran Emirate including the desire to unite all Kurdish areas under one rule and the use of Kurdish uniforms for his army. On this, Emir Kor's brother Rasul told British writer and traveller Frederick Milingen:[26]

With an aspiring genius he had conceived the grande idée of emancipating his country from the authority of the sultans, and of consolidating the power of his family. Uniting the qualities of a conqueror and of a legislator, Mehemet Pasha succeeded in extending his sway over the neighbouring provinces of Kerkuk[sic] and Mussul [sic], and in gathering under his flag a large number of Koordish [sic] troop.

Moreover, researcher Ghalib writes:[27]

[T]hrough many centuries of Ottoman rule, they [Kurds] could not build up a sense of community between the Kurds and the dominant ruler. Kurds remembered their happiness under Soran and other Kurdish emirates. Therefore, they did not welcome the Ottoman officials. Remembering the past is important for keeping one’s own history in mind.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b NEBEZ, Jemal (2017-08-14). Der kurdische Fürst MĪR MUHAMMAD AL-RAWĀNDIZĪ genannt MĪR-Ī KŌRA: Ein Beitrag zur kurdischen Geschichte (in German). epubli. ISBN 978-3-7450-1125-8.
  2. ^ Ate, Sabri; Ateş, Sabri (2013-10-21). Ottoman-Iranian Borderlands: Making a Boundary, 1843-1914. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-03365-8.
  3. ^ Behrendt, Günter (1993). Nationalismus in Kurdistan: Vorgeschichte, Entstehungsbedingungen und erste Manifestationen bis 1925 (in German). Deutsches Orient-Institut. p. 166. ISBN 3-89173-029-2.
  4. ^ Ceylan, Ebubekir (2011-08-30). The Ottoman Origins of Modern Iraq: Political Reform, Modernization and Development in the Nineteenth Century Middle East. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 49–50. ISBN 978-0-85772-041-2.
  5. ^ Muhammad, Qadir Muhammad (2017-12-14). Kurds and Kurdistan in the View of British Travellers in the Nineteenth Century (thesis thesis). University of Leicester. pp.94–98.
  6. ^ Steinvorth, Daniel (2016-12-22). "Jagd auf den Engel Pfau | NZZ". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2020-12-20.
  7. ^ a b Acikyildiz, Birgul (2014-08-20). The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781784532161.
  8. ^ a b Jwaideh, Wadie (2006-06-19). The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 978-0-8156-3093-7.
  9. ^ a b Muhammad, Qadir Muhammad (2017-12-14). Kurds and Kurdistan in the View of British Travellers in the Nineteenth Century (thesis thesis). University of Leicester. pp.94–98.
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Ates, Sabri (2021), Gunes, Cengiz; Bozarslan, Hamit; Yadirgi, Veli (eds.), "The End of Kurdish Autonomy: The Destruction of the Kurdish Emirates in the Ottoman Empire", The Cambridge History of the Kurds, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 76, ISBN 978-1-108-47335-4, retrieved 2021-12-15
  11. ^ a b c d Ates, Sabri (2021), Gunes, Cengiz; Bozarslan, Hamit; Yadirgi, Veli (eds.), "The End of Kurdish Autonomy: The Destruction of the Kurdish Emirates in the Ottoman Empire", The Cambridge History of the Kurds, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 76, ISBN 978-1-108-47335-4, retrieved 2021-12-15
  12. ^ Jwaideh, Wadie (2006). The Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development. Syracuse University Press. ISBN 9780815630937.
  13. ^ NEBEZ, Jemal (2017-08-14). Der kurdische Fürst MĪR MUHAMMAD AL-RAWĀNDIZĪ genannt MĪR-Ī KŌRA: Ein Beitrag zur kurdischen Geschichte (in German). epubli. ISBN 9783745011258.
  14. ^ a b c d Steinvorth, Daniel (2016-12-22). "Jagd auf den Engel Pfau | NZZ". Neue Zürcher Zeitung (in Swiss High German). ISSN 0376-6829. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  15. ^ "The Assyrians in the Christian Asia Minor Holocaust". www.atour.com.
  16. ^ MacKenzie, D.N. (1960). "Bahdīnān". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume I: A–B. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 920. OCLC 495469456.
  17. ^ a b Ates, Sabri (2021), Gunes, Cengiz; Bozarslan, Hamit; Yadirgi, Veli (eds.), "The End of Kurdish Autonomy: The Destruction of the Kurdish Emirates in the Ottoman Empire", The Cambridge History of the Kurds, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 76, ISBN 978-1-108-47335-4, retrieved 2021-12-15
  18. ^ Aboona, Hirmis (2008). Assyrians, Kurds, and Ottomans: Intercommunal Relations on the Periphery of the Ottoman Empire. Cambria Press. p. 173. ISBN 978-1-61336-471-0.
  19. ^ Ross, Mosul, 19 November 1847. From Ross to Layard, 61,63,79
  20. ^ Ross, Henry James (1902). Letters from the East. J. M. Dent & Company. pp. 62–63.
  21. ^ Laurie, Thomas (1853). Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians. Gould and Lincoln. p. 262. ISBN 978-0-7905-5103-6. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  22. ^ Eppel (2018), pp. 42–43.
  23. ^ a b Eppel (2018), p. 43.
  24. ^ a b Eppel (2016), p. 56.
  25. ^ a b Eppel (2016), p. 48-49.
  26. ^ Millingen (1870), p. 184.
  27. ^ Ghalib (2011), p. 111.

Bibliography