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Kurds: the rustle of angel wings Peacock
(Chapter from the book “Noomahiya. Logos Turan. Indo-European ideology vertical”)
Kurdish ethnic groups and tribes
Another Indo-European people since some time has come to play an important role in space, which includes eastern Anatolia, Mesopotamia North and northwest of Iran – the territory in which the earlier peoples were settled Hurrits which were moved later to the north in the Caucasus region. We are talking about the Kurds .
Probably, the Kurds were the descendants of the Medes – Iranian nomadic tribes, who came at the end of II – beginning I millennium the territory of the north-west of modern Iran, where they founded a state, called Mussel. In the VII century BC they have created a huge empire, which included many peoples, territories and languages. But the core of the Medes remained in the same territories, which became a pole of their expansion, which was located and the capital Ecbatana (modern Iranian city of Hamadan). Direct descendants of the Medes were Kurds and Caucasian people Talysh and Tats (which should be strictly separated from the Mountain Jews).
Since the Kurds lived in the ancient Hurrians and urartians, which in turn have been assimilated by Armenians, as well as Kartvelis, we can assume in their ethnogenesis and Hurrian component. However, in the northwest of the Zagros Mountains of Iran from ancient times they lived in captivity Guti (tokhars), Kassites and Lullubi, which, as we have seen, a number of historians believe the Indo-Europeans. They could also be involved in the ethnogenesis of the Medes and the Kurds. The ancient name of the Kurds was “Kurt”, Greek Κύρτιοι, and references to them as the people who inhabit the area Atropatena (Azerbaijan) and northern Mesopotamia, preserved in the ancient sources.
In the Persian chronicles the term «kurt» (kwrt) called Iranian nomadic tribes that live in the north-west of Iran, that can be attributed to the typology of the Kurds Turan societies.
several groups can be distinguished among the Kurds:
· Northern Kurds form the basis of the Kurdish people today – Kurmanji (kurmancî), the name – kur mancî – interpreted as “son of the people of the Medes”;
· Southern Kurmanji Kurdish-called Iranian ethnonym Sorani ;
· Separate group are the Kurds Zaza , call themselves dımli, dymli, and descendants of the north of the Iranian people who once inhabited the area Daylama in the south of the Caspian Sea (the people called “Caspian”);
· The same origin and the Kurdish people gurani also once inhabited the area Daylama, but subsequently migrated to the south than the Kurdish-Zaza;
· The most southern Kurds are kelhuri , as well as close to them tribes Feili and varnishes ,
· Prior to the Kurds numbered among the people of Lurs , who lived in the south-west of Iran, which was made today referred to the Iranians.
There is also a hypothesis about the relationship of the Kurds and the people of the Baluch .
The Kurds, in contrast to other Iranian peoples longest maintained a nomadic lifestyle , which, combined with living in the highlands has allowed them to maintain the integrity of many archaic features, continue to continuous communication with the culture of Turan.
Kurds today are great people (over 40 million), which resides in the territory of four states – Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, but does not have their own state. It is also an indicator of the Kurds preserve traditional society affected by the modernization of much less than that of the nations, among which the Kurds live. However, the processes of modernization and to reach them, which created in the last century “Kurdish problem”, that is, raised the question of the creation of a separate Kurdish state, as political modernity can not imagine people outside the state, that is, the political nation [1] .
Media and medieval Kurdish polity
In the tradition of the Kurds there is an idea about their links with Noah’s ark. Since the Kurds living in areas adjacent to Mount Ararat, they consider themselves to be direct descendants of the inhabitants of the village, situated at its foot, which was founded by Noah, descend into the valley after the Flood. The same legend of autochthonous and original presence in the area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea in the area of Mount Ararat, we meet in other Caucasian peoples – in particular the Armenians, Georgians and Chechens, which – each in its ethnocentric logic – find it a series of symbolic evidence. Kurds in the twentieth century it justify its origin from urartians and the Hurrians that, however, it is generally true for the Armenians and Kartvelians, and Vainakh ethnogenesis in which – albeit to varying degrees – there Hurrian peoples. However, the actual identity is Kurdish Turan (Indo nomadic tribes) and more specifically Median , i.e. Iran .
If we take a direct genetic link to the Kurdish Medes [2] , they can be considered as carriers of the ancient tradition of the state prior to Persia and to apply after the joint with the Neo-Babylonian Chaldean Assyrian capture of the continuity of a world empire. But in subsequent periods, since the Achaemenid Iran has been in the hands of the Persians, who inhabited southern Iran, and the land of Media, along with Armenia and other territories were only a province of Iran.
At a certain period – after the death Aleksandra Velikogo – as nomadic (Turan) tribes Parnov stand at the head of Iran, founded the Parthian dynasty, but the cultural foundation still remain exactly the Persian tradition, that is even more pronounced in the Sassanid era. Nevertheless, there are shared by many historians, the theory of the kinship of the Parthians and the Kurds, since they both inhabited the northern territories of Iran and belonged to the nomadic Indo-European peoples. Later the peoples of Iran and North Atropatena (Azerbaijan) are on the periphery of this process, and in the era of the next wave of Iranian statehood coming just from the north at Safavids, the basis of the political elite are iranizirovannye Turks (Shia Qyzylbashs). Kurds are also in the process do not play a big role.
Historically, the Kurds as the descendants of the Medes were Zoroastrians, and the Zoroastrian religion of the Sasanian Iran was traditional for them.
With the I century AD among the Kurds started preaching Christianity. Evseviy Kesariysky reports that among the Parthians, Medes, and preached the Apostle Thomas. As Kurds, Christians living in the eastern provinces of them later prevailed Nestorianism that made them part of the Iranian church. In Kurdistan, there were many influential centers Nestorian religion plays an important role in different periods – the center in Erbil in the XVI century, in the Jazira – in the XVII century, a Kurdish town Kuzhan in the XIX century became the center of the Nestorian diocese [3] . Certain distribution (this time under the influence of Armenians) and received miaphysitism.
Starting from the VII century AD, when the Arabs invaded Iran, which have reached the Caucasus and South Caspian, that is, capture the whole territory of the historic Kurdish, Kurds are under the rule of the Arab caliphate and, accordingly, under Islamic influence [4] . In this case, first during the Arab conquest Holvana, Tikrit, Mosul, Cizre and Southern Armenia Kurds Arabs rendered fierce resistance, and then continually take part in anti-Arab revolts. However, gradually the Kurds began to move themselves to Islam. Among them, the most widely Sunni Islam Shafi Madhab that brings them closer to the Muslims of Dagestan and the North Caucasus as a whole. A small part of the Kurds profess Shiism. In the epoch of the spread of Sufism (IX century) Kurds willingly accepted his teachings and Sufism – in two basic versions – Naqshbandi and Kadyrov – has become an integral feature of the Kurdish Islam. But widespread Sufism received only from the XVI century.
During certain periods, the Kurds created a fairly large-scale political entities and established ruling dynasties. One of these Kurdish dynasties were Shaddadis established in the territory of Caucasian Albania in the XI – XII centuries an independent state. Shaddadis professed Sunni Islam, and have shown themselves adherents of Islam in contrast to the Christian Georgia and Armenia. In 1072 the dynasty was divided into two branches: Ganja and Ani. The population of Ganja and Ani Emirates was predominantly Armenian and Culture – Persian.
Shaddadis ruled until the end of the XII century. Later, the Kurds have recognized the power of the Seljuks, with whom they were allied, and received the right to build one more vassal education Ani emirate.
Another Kurdish dynasty was founded in 959 in the province of Jebel leader of the Kurdish tribe barzikan Hasanvayhidom Ben Hasanom, who overthrew Buyid.
Another and the most famous were Mervanidy (from 990 till 1096) among others dynasty. The Kurdish dynasty founded the Abu Ali bin Mervan Ben Dustak.
It is necessary to separately select the shape of the largest military leader of the XII century, Salah al-Din (1138 – 1193), who was an ethnic Kurd, and belonged to the same tribe ravadi, where he was a descendant of the dynasty founder Shaddadis – Mohammed bin Sheddad Card.
Saladin deposed the last ruler of the Shiite state of the Fatimids, liquidating the Fatimid Caliphate, conquered the Crusaders vast areas of the Middle East, including the Holy Land, and became the sultan of Egypt, Iraq, Hijaz, Syria, Kurdistan, Yemen, Palestine, Libya, establishing a dynasty Ayuybidov that lasted until 1250. But Salah al-Din serves his exploits not on behalf of the Kurds as a community, but from the Seljuk persons in the service of which he was to the army which he relied.
Nevertheless, the mere existence of the Kurdish dynasties confirms the classical model Turan start: warlike Indo-European nomads are often the founders of dynasties or military-political elite settled states.
Region, which was inhabited by the Kurds to the XIII century, the Arabs called “Jabal” (literally, “Highlands”), it later became known as “Kurdistan”. By the beginning of the XVI century on the territory of Kurdistan has a small principality Kurdish or Arab Emirates: Jazeera, Hakari, Imad, Hasankayf, Ardelan (in Iranian Kurdistan), Soran and Baban. Besides them there were smaller fiefdoms. In addition, the early Middle Ages (1236 to 1832 years) in-Yazidi Kurds existed a small emirate in northern Mesopotamia Sheikhan. “Ideal state” Yezidis Yezdihan partly political-administrative, part of ethno-religious, included Sheikhan and Sinjar, as well as the sacred valley Lalesh, which is the main shrine of Yezidis – Sheikh Adi tomb of the founder of the Kurdish yezidizma religion [5] .
After the establishment of the Safavid dynasty Iranians began purposefully destroy the autonomy of the Kurdish principalities. The memory of the heroic resistance of the Kurds in the Kurdish tradition preserved for the Protection of the fortress Dymdym. After the defeat of the Shah by the Ottomans at the hands of Selim I, most of Kurdistan was under Turkish rule, which also began to abolish the autonomous Kurdish principalities.
At the time of the Mongol invasions, most Kurdish populated territories were ruled Halagiudov, and after a resistance of Kurds were suppressed, many Kurdish tribes migrated from the plains to the mountainous region, in part repeating civilization scenario peoples of the Caucasus, which the Kurds in many ways were quite close. Part of Kurds settled in the Caucasus.
Later, the territory of the Kurds were in the border zone between Ottoman Turkey and Iran [6] that painfully affected the breaking of a single cultural horizon and gave the Kurdish Dasein’u tragic dimension [7] . Direct descendants of the great Medes, who headed the world empire, were deprived of political power and torn between two warring empires, none of which was not for the Kurds until the end of his. With the Iranians their bound Indo-European origin, the ancient Zoroastrian roots and affinity of language and the Turks – and Sunni militant community of nomadic way of life, making them allies in the era of the Seljuks.
Yezedizm and layers
Most Kurds belong to the Sunni Islam, but in all cases the Kurds acutely aware of his difference from other people, keeping their identities intact. This identity is a Kurdish horizon , which for many centuries is closely linked with the mountains and the mountain accommodating landscape. Like Kalash and Nuristanis Kurds have preserved many archaic features of Indo-European peoples of Turan, until the end and not mixed with any sedentary Persians (Shia) or the Sunni Turks, in spite of the close and long-term cultural contacts and those and others.
This is most clearly expressed by the Kurdish identity in a heterodox (from the point of view of Islam) phenomenon as yezidizm, special unique religious trends spread among the northern branch of the Kurdish – Kurmanji. During this very arose as an offshoot of Sufism in the XII century on the basis of the teachings of the Sufi Sheikh Adi ibn Musafir (1072 – 1162), who arrived in the Iraqi Kurdistan region of Balbec in Lebanon. Sheikh Adi was familiar with such major figures of Sufism, as al-Ghazali and founder of the Qadiri tariqa Abdul-Qadir al-Gilani. Themselves Yezidis believe that Sheikh Adi, whom they revered incarnation of the deity, a reformed and renewed in accordance with the divine mandate more ancient faith, which they call “Sharfadin”.
Yezidis doctrine virtually unexplored due to the closure of the religious group that keeps apart not only from other faiths and peoples, but also from the majority of the Kurds, and very reluctantly tells about the basics of their faith. There is a tradition that the Yezidis there are collections of sacred texts, which are the representatives of the higher castes – Sheikhs and peers – carefully concealed from the rest. Only two of the text – clearly fragmented and composed of heterogeneous elements – they have become known and have been translated into European languages – “Book of Revelation” (Kitab-ol Dzhilva) and “Black Book” (Maskhaf-Dec). They were published in English in 1919 [8] , and on the Russian exposition of them appeared in 1929 [9] . In general, the Yazidi religion still remains largely unknown.
In view of some details of the theology of religious Yazidi, from the surrounding nations, especially Muslims, have the impression that the cult of Yezidis is the worship of Satan (the Christian devil). But, of course, this tradition is something more complex, although it is obvious and significantly different from the Islam – even in its Sufi form.
On the origin of religion, Yezidis there are several versions that can not be seen as mutually exclusive, but corresponding to the various layers of this tradition.
The deepest reservoir is Zoroastrianism , which is manifested in the doctrine of the seven Archangels (Amesha Spenta Mazdaism), and in the worship of fire, and in the worship of the sun, and even the main character Yezidis – Great Peacock, sometimes represented by a bird (in the Yezidis in the “Black Book” it bears the name of Hangar) – could be a version of the image of the sacred bird Simurg Zoroastrians. All the Kurds as a whole (including the Yezidis) admit that they practiced the Zoroastrian religion before Islam, so saving the mountain Indo fragments of the ancient faith seems quite natural. Also close to the Zoroastrian holy garments alongside Yezidis – White Shirt (red) with a special embroidered collar (current Yezidis or grivan) and a long sacred woolen belt (Banna pshte), Zoroastrians-called “bush”.
Name Yezidis traced to the son of the first Umayyad Caliph Yazid I Muvii. Yezidis themselves sometimes stress that the reformer (and founder) of their teaching, Sheikh Adi himself was a descendant of Muawiyah through Yazid. Yazid was the main opponent of Imam Ali and his family and is considered responsible for the death of Imam Hussein. For this, he is not very popular among Muslims and Shiites openly and fiercely hate him. In this historical tracks Yazīd at Yezidis almost completely erased, no anti-Shia enthusiasm and self Yazid or Yezidis considered celestial god (possibly higher). This is due to the fact that the Iranian etymology of the word Yazid or Yezidis interpreted as Middle Persian word or yazad Yazd (from the ancient Iranian bases * yazatah), meaning “god”, “angel”, “being worthy of worship.” Therefore, the name “Yezidis” can be interpreted as “angels of the people” or “people who worship” but also as “the people of Yazd,” ie, “the people of God.”
But the most striking track Zoroastrianism is a complete closed caste yezidskoy community. It is divided into three strictly caste – two priestly (Sheikh and receptions) and one temporal (murids), although the temporal and casting, to which the most Yezidis, is by definition followers spiritual teachers and closely linked with two higher. So every murids (simple Yezidis) should have a “brother in the afterlife”, which can only be representative of caste Sheikhs and peers. “Brother of the afterlife” to help the deceased to pass Yezidis on a thin bridge (direct analog Zoroastrian Chinvat bridge) in paradise. Castes are strictly endogenous, and to enter into marriage or in extramarital relationships with other castes all Yezidis are strictly prohibited. This is substantiated by the fact that the Yezidis belong to a special type of people, radical – ontologically – unlike others. In yezidskom tradition says that the first humans, Adam and Eve, not yet knowing of marriage, tried to make their own offspring from his seed, placing it in the two pitchers. After 9 months in the jar of Adam from his seed were the babies of both sexes, and in a jug Eve from its “seed” – smelly worms. Yezidis believe that they continue to line the children of Adam, created without the feminine. The rest of the nations appeared from subsequent children of Adam, already conceived him Eve. In this we see the classic motif of the Zoroastrian sacred purity of the children of the light, which in any case should not be confused with the children of darkness. Hence rigid caste endogamy.
The first of the three main rules of Yazidi religion is a ban on the mixing of castes. The second rule – a ban on the change of religion. The third – a ban on the disobedience of the priests and especially on violence against members of the cast of sheikhs and peers.
All these elements are fundamental and foundational to religious Yazidi and their ethno-political organization, directly back to the classical Zoroastrianism.
However, the myths and legends of Yezidis there is a curious feature of having, Turan roots this time. It concerns the ban on cereals . Needless to Adam’s sin is described not as a consequence of eating the apple, but as a consequence of eating the grain , which is forbidden by God. This is a classic feature of nomadic society, which perceived cereals – an integral part of farming culture – as a restricted sphere, a kind of “hell for a nomad.” Fall for the wearer pure Turanian culture is to take in food grain . The same story was preserved in the Indo-European people of Talysh, similar in language and culture of the Kurds, but unlike themselves Kurds (mostly southern – Zaza and gurani) Talysh did not leave their territories and are not migrated from the Caspian Sea to Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Middle East, remaining at the Azerbaijani lands. Thus, the classical Zoroastrianism added a distinct Kurdish yezidizme Turan trail .
Further it is possible to distinguish individual elements heterodox Iranism combined with Jewish-Christian motifs. We have seen in another volume “Noomahii” [10] , as the Judeo-Christian currents close to Iranism and genetically, and conceptually. And vice versa: the Judeo-Christian sects had a great influence on the Mani and, accordingly, on Manichaeism. Traces of Judeo-Christianity among Yezidis we see preserved the rite of baptism and communion wine in the sacred meal. Furthermore, Yezidis practice circumcision, which also corresponds Judeo-Christian cycle [11] . Therefore, the fact that the main Yazidi shrine at Lalesh was once a Nestorian monastery, fits into this sequence. For these Iranian-Christian heterodox movements (such as the Mandaeans, Sabians, etc.) were characterized and Gnostic motifs, which are abundant in the Yezidis. This layer has, at this time, the Middle East origin and superimposed on the older Turan-Iranian identity.
And finally, the Islamic influences constitute the last layer of the complex religious Yazidi. Here we see how the Sufi and Shiite traditions. Since Sufism is associated the practice itself as the veneration of Sheikh Qutb, Pole. Big role in metaphysics Yezidis plays way white pearls, which even before the beginning of creation embodied the divine essence. This theme is central to the Sufi ontologies, developing the thesis of the hadith that “God was a hidden treasure (the pearl), but wanted to be known.” This image plays a big role in teaching Shia nusayritov. With Shiism also connected ideas about the special meaning of the first round of the sheikh followers that Shia was postponed to the family of Mohammad, and particularly on the kind of Imam Ali.
Particular attention in the teaching of Yezidis attracts ambiguity main sacred gestalt – the Peacock Angel (Malaki-Ta’uz), identified with the Jewish angel Azazilom. In the Jewish Kabbalah, the same name (Aza, Azael) called demon of death. Yezidis texts emphasize that in other religions, leading descended from Adam and Eve, not just from Adam, as the Yezidis themselves, understanding the Peacock Angel is distorted and it is considered a “fallen angel”. This theme – the most alarming in the Yazidi religion, forcing the surrounding culture to consider them “devil-worshipers”. On the one hand, the primordial image of the bird may well correlate with the Indo-European tradition – the sacred bird of the Scythians, Garuda Indians, Persians or Simurg eagle of Zeus among the Greeks. But nowhere is this image has not the slightest ambiguity, and is considered an attribute of higher paternal heavenly deity.
However, we find the demonization of an eagle is an Indo-European context in Adygei-Abkhazian peoples of the Caucasus, where the iron eagle evil god Paco becomes a victim of a “positive” hero Bataraza, and in addition, there is an even more expressive image “Tha bird birds”, in the form which acts as the head of the Fallen angels [12] . The geographical proximity of Caucasians and Kurds, as well as general communication with Hurrian substratum, which suggests another dimension of the Kurdish yezidizma religion responsible for its “dark” or, at least, ambiguous aspects.
This ambiguity can be added and the thinnest dialectic Sufi metaphysics of al-Hallaj, which contains a kind of justification of Iblis (the devil), who refused to prostrate themselves before Adam, not from pride, and the absolute love of God, do not allow any intermediary. This theme is in harmony with the Gnostic explanation Fallen Sophia [13] . Although directly from the Yezidis this topic is not accentuated, himself a gnostic system of their traditions and some antinomistskie hints – for example, the story of the “Black Book” Yezidis, where it Malaki-Ta’uz pushes Adam to a breach of the divine ban on eating grains – quite admit this and interpretation.
In general, the Yazidi religion reflects the deep Kurdish identity, leaving deep into the ages. With noologicheskoy point of view, it is – a solar Apollonian tradition, but supplemented by Gnostic elements and, accordingly, the Logos of Dionysus. An analysis of what the accused Yezidis foreign criticism and that is ambiguous aspects of their religion, to a greater extent based on a misunderstanding of its internal structure, as well as the misinterpretation of individual figures and images, exacerbated really is there syncretism and closing Yezidis, to obscure the whole morphology their teachings. Features of matriarchy and titanic in Yazidi traditions are almost entirely absent, and the ambiguity of the figures – such as Malaki-Ta’uz – stems from the presence of Dionysian dimension, always implies the possibility of “double black”. The only what can be seen as an allusion to the titanic, is the motif of the demonization of the birds image that we find in Adygs in the Caucasus and that contextually matches chthonic complex. But again they themselves Yezidis image of the Peacock Angel, submitted to the sacred images – sanzhakah, has no negative connotations, and Malaki Ta’uz-executor of the will is considered the highest Creator, his incarnation, manifestation, and even the embodiment – in the case of Sheikh Adi, whose image merges with the image of the Peacock Angel.
Kurds, Shiites
Completely different Kurdish identity is manifested at the other end of the religious spectrum – the Shiite Kurds. Here we should distinguish two trends – Alevi-Kurds, the most numerous ethnic group among Zaza (but also among the northern Kurdish – Kurmanji) and Kurds who share the teachings of Ahl al-Haq (literally, “people of the truth”).
Alevis are a Shi’ite-Sufi order that has emerged in the XIII century in the south-eastern Anatolia, close to the school founded by Haci Bektaş and later became a religious basis “new army” of the Ottoman sultans – the Janissaries [14] . Alevis continued the tradition of extreme Iranian Sufism (Gulati), the center of which stood the veneration of Ali and the Imams, and Salman Fars as a special key figure iranotsentrichnogo light of gnosis. Later in the XV and XVI centuries to the Turkish Alevis joined branch Kyzyl-bashey, which became the basis of the Safavid dynasty of Iran, but the Turkish territories under the control of the Sunni were forced to adapt to hostile conditions and to hide their identity. Similarly, the Kurds saw Alevism possibility of staying in Ottoman society where the dominant force after Selim I became quite aggressive and intolerant zahiritsky Islam, Alevism as to the Ottoman rulers were a tribute – as the original religious ideology of the first Ottoman rulers and the spiritual basis of the most important military political and religious institutions of the Ottoman Empire – the army of the Janissaries and the Bektashi Order.
On the other hand, the Kurds saw Alevism many features similar to the Zoroastrian tradition, making their participation in this within a reasonable from the point of view of preserving its original Indo-European identity. A number of features of the ritual brings the Kurdish Alevis with the Yezidis. For example, among them there is the principle of strict endogamy – Kurds, Alevis have the right to enter into marriage only with representatives of the Alevi community, thus, retained that purity “Children of Light”, which is based Mazdean tradition and various later versions Iranism [15] .
Another course of radical Shiism (Gulati) is based Sahakov Sultan at the end of the XIV century doctrine of Ahl al-Haqq [16] . This trend has spread among the Southern Kurds and especially among Iranian Kurds. Most of them belong to the ethnic group, Goran, but there are also large groups of Ahli-Haqq in Kurdish peoples kelhuri and Lurs. Another name for this teaching Yarsan (Yâresân – literally “loving community” or “community of friends”).
The doctrine of Ahl al-Haqq movement largely consonant yezidizmu. It also affirms the idea embodiment higher beings (God or angels) in the chain of the seven chosen messengers. This theme is a classic for the Judeo-Christian profetologii and Manichaeism. It is characteristic of it and Shi’ism – especially radical, where these embodiments are considered to be members of the family of Mohammad and the family of Imam Ali. Current members of the Ahl al-Haqq recognize these seven successive incarnations, where the second and third – the same as the line-Shia semyarichnikov – Ali and Hassan ( “Shah Choshen”). In general, in the teachings of Ahl al-Haqq, you can easily identify the impact of the Ismaili (eg, references among the helpers of Ali Sheikh Nusayr). The first embodiment is Havangdagar, under which members of the Ahl al-Haqq understand itself the supreme deity. Each incarnation is accompanied by four “angels friends” or “angel helpers» (yārān-i malak), where the name of the entire community Yarsan. Fifth ‘helper’ is female Angel , figure, for classical Zoroastrism (fravarti). Ahl al-Haqq separates traditional Sufi doctrine of the four stages of perception of the truth – the Sharia, Tariqa, and ma’rifah haqiqat and accordingly stages of spiritual development of the soul. The followers of this current practice of traditional Sufi dhikr.
Iranian-Zoroastrian feature is the idea of the duality of human origin, it also brings the Ahl al-Haqq with the Yezidis. According to their doctrine, the members of the community of Ahl al-Haqq was originally created from “yellow clay» (zarda-gel), while the rest of humanity – from the “black earth» (ḵāk-e sīāh).
Eschatology Ahl al-Haqq in general plays classical Shiism: Selected await the arrival of man’s time, the Mahdi. But according to the teachings of Ahl al-Haqq, the Mahdi is to appear among the Kurds – in the Kurdish region Sultania (Iranian province of Zanjan) or Shahrazure – a city that, according to the Kurdish legend, was founded Dayokom king (or Dayukku), considered the founder of the Median kings of the dynasty. This detail emphasizes the ethnocentric nature of the Kurdish eschatology.
At the same time as that of the Yezidis, we see the influence of Judeo-Christian groups – so, in particular, recognizes the virgin birth of the founder (or reformer) of this teaching Sahakov Sultan, whose tomb is in the city Perdivare is a center of pilgrimage.
At the end of XIX – early XX century, one of the spiritual leaders of the Ahl al-Haqq Hajj Nematalla put a lot of effort to revitalize the group, published a series of religious and poetic texts, using among the Kurds is very popular – especially the “Shahnama-and haqiqat” ( ” The Tsar’s book of truth “).
Kurds: identity and the state
Despite the fact that the Kurds are derived from the Medes, the creators of the mighty Empire, and the fact that the Kurds have often become the ancestors of powerful dynasties (eg, such as the Ayyubid), their own state, they were not able to create up to date.
However, the Kurds have made a significant contribution to the culture of the Islamic Middle Ages – and above all in the field of poetry. First Kurdish poet considered Symposium Shariar, who lived in the tenth century and left a body of short aphoristic poems, extremely popular among the Kurds. Another early Kurdish poet was Ali Hariri (1009-1079). The first grammar of the Kurdish language was in X -XI century contemporary of Ali Hariri Termuki poet, who was the first who began to write poems in the language Kurmanji. One of the works Termuki bears the same name as the famous play by Calderón “Life truly is a dream.”
Later, in the XVI century, a prominent Kurdish poet Mel Jazeera laid the foundation of the Sufi trends in the Kurdish poetry, becoming a role model for future generations of Kurdish poets Sufis. All the Kurds, who belonged to the intellectual elite, the very first poets seen special attention to the Kurdish identity. In the XVII century, another Kurdish Sufi poet Faqih Tayran (1590 – 1660), also known as “Mehmet Mir”, has collected many folk Kurdish tradition in the book “Tales of the Black Horse» (Qewlê Hespê Reş). He first sang the heroic defense of the fortress Dymdym in 1609 – 1610 years.
Representatives of the Kurdish elite is gradually beginning to realize the anomaly – the gap between the great history of the Kurds, the level of awareness of its unique identity, militancy and heroism, on the one hand, and the subordinate status as a part of another empire – the beginning of the Arab Caliphate, then the Ottoman Empire and the Safavid Iran.
For example, pain from the absence of the state of the Kurds, nostalgia for past glory, imbued with creativity largest Kurdish poet Ahmed Hani (1650-1708), author of the well-known among the Kurds epic poem about the tragic love of “Mam and Zin” [17] . Ahmad Khani considered to be one of the first ideologists of the Kurdish revival and is famous as a fighter for Kurdish identity, to prepare the next stage of the awakening of national consciousness. This line continued to other major Kurdish poet Hadzhi Kadyr Koi (1816-1894). In his work commitment to the liberation of the Kurds and the creation of their own state is even more contrast and clear.
In the XIX century, when the Ottoman Empire begins to wane, and many people who were in its structure (the Arabs, Greeks, Slavs, etc.) begin to develop independent projects, similar sentiments arise among the Kurds. In 1898 he published the first newspaper in the Kurdish language “Kurdestan” in Cairo. Later, the newspaper “Day of the Kurds” (subsequently renamed the “sun of the Kurds”) starts to be printed in Istanbul. In Turkish goes “Jean” magazine ( “Life”), which openly proclaims the policy of creating an independent Kurdish state.
By the end of the XIX century the Kurds increasingly raised anti-Turkish uprising (for example, in 1891 in Dersim).
Kurds in the first phase was supported by young Turks and the coming to power of Kemal Ataturk, seeing in it a hope for the end of oppression by the Ottoman administration. Alevis even recognized in Ataturk Mahdi, an eschatological figure, which is destined to liberate people from oppression and injustice: because religious consciousness interpreted the end of the era of domination of the Sunni hard zahirizma that the era of Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent was succeeded by a completely different – the spiritual and iranistskuyu style – the religion of the first Ottoman rulers, is inextricably linked with the fiery Sufi sheikh Haci Bektaş, Yunus Emre and Rumi and many Shiite themes.
However, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Kurds did not get the desired. Part of Kurdistan remained in the new Turkish state, the other was included in the British occupation of Iraq in advance, and the third went to Syria, while the fourth remained part of Iran. So great of forty people was divided into four parts consisting of two colonial powers, where the dominant ideology became Arab nationalism (Syria and Iran), Turkey, where approved by Turkish nationalism in the new – secular – form, and Iran, where the dominant duodecimal Shiism and Persian identity also served as the common denominator of the state, not giving the Kurds a special place, but not harassing them in the extent to which this is happening in Iraq, Syria and Turkey.
Since the twentieth century did not create the era for the Kurds their own state, and the matter was postponed to an indefinite future. Moreover, among the Kurds also did not have a clear understanding as to what should be a Kurdish state and on what ideological basis, it should be based. Moreover, there was no agreement among the leaders.
So in each of the countries where Kurds live, we have created the following power. In Turkey, the political expression of the aspirations of the Kurds for autonomy and independence in the limit to become a left organization, based on a socialist (communist) principles – the Kurdistan Workers’ Party. The Soviet Union since the mid-40s helped the Kurds political and military support to counter the West’s interests in the Middle East. Since the Soviet territory of the defeated Iraqi short-lived Kurdish Republic of Mahabad run leader Mustafa Barzani, the Iraqi Kurds (1903 – 1979), where he was received, and then sent to Iraq. Therefore, for the USSR the Kurds considered geopolitical fulcrum, which largely determined the ideological orientation of the Kurds – especially Turkey. Hardly among the Kurds, who lived in a traditional society, the communist ideology (second political theory [18] ) was clear and attractive, so that this choice is likely determined by pragmatic considerations. In addition, Iraqi Kurds have repeatedly clashed with the British (the first anti-British uprising raised the brother of Ahmed Mustafa Barzani in 1919), during which the British made punitive operations against the Kurds, destroying everything in its path, but the British were the enemies of the Soviet Union.
Head of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party became Abdulla Odzhalan, who led an armed insurgency of the Kurds by declaring in 1984 the beginning of the armed struggle for an independent Kurdistan. The military wing of the party are the “People’s Self-Defense Forces.” Currently Ocalan is in a Turkish prison, having been sentenced to life in prison. Itself the Kurdistan Workers Party, in many countries it is considered a “terrorist organization.” In fact, on behalf of the Kurds in Turkey now stands Peace and Democracy Party, converted from the forbidden in 2009 the Democratic Society Party. But for all these structures preserved among Turkish Kurds established tradition of focus on the left socialist and social-democratic ideas.
Iraqi Kurds are united into the Democratic Party of Kurdistan, formed by Mustafa Barzani, which, as we have seen, is also guided by the USSR and enjoyed his support. The military wing of the party became a Kurdish army – the Peshmerga (Pêşmerge literally, “those who look death in the face”), emerged in the late XIX century in the struggle for the independence of the Iraqi Kurds.
The leadership of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan in the early stage had the confrontation between the two leaders, reflecting the interests of the two Kurdish tribal structures – on the one hand, it was the representative of Barzan tribe [19] the hero of the struggle for Kurdish independence, Mustafa Barzani, whose case was headed by his son after his death – the current president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani, on the other – Jalal Talabani, the current president of the state of Iraq. After the defeat of the Western coalition forces of Saddam Hussein’s troops Barzani and Talabani jointly established military and political control over the territory of Iraqi Kurdistan. But the contradictions between the leaders reflected in the actual division of the Iraqi Kurdistan into two parts – east (Sulaymaniyah, district Soran, so called on the Kurdish tribe Sorani), the home of Talabani, where his positions were most strong, and in the north-west (Bahdaniya), home Barzani where his supporters prevailed.
In Syria, the main Kurdish organization can be considered as the Kurdish Democratic Party of Syria. Currently, during the civil war in Syria, there is also the Syrian National Council, which consists of other forces. Syrian Kurds had such prominent figures as Barzani, Talabani and Ocalan, so their ideas and structure greatly influenced either Turkish or Iraqi Kurdish structure, where in both cases were strong left-wing tendencies.
In Iran, the Kurds live in four provinces – Kurdistan, Kermanshah, Ilam and West Azerbaijan. Iranian Kurds have historically exhibited less will to create an independent state and have organized centralized autonomous political structures. In 2012, this association made a request two parties the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan and Komala (Revolutionary Workers Party of Kurdistan).
Kurds, along with the Afghans, Ossetians and Darda, are one of the unique Indo-European peoples who continue the tradition of many Turan era. They have preserved elements of the Logos Turan, militancy, archaic language, and even partially nomadic life until very recently.
[1] Dugin AG Ethnosociology. M .: Academic Project, 2014.
[2] Medes neighboring nations called the term “March”. The Kurds believe that this name should be attributed to their direct ancestors and offer equate “Marov” with the Kurds.
[3] The famous temple Yezidis Lalesh where grave is revered Kurds Yazidi Sheikh Adi Ibn Musafira previously was part of the convent Nestorian St. Thomas. In the pre-Christian period, this same sacred complex was a temple of the sun.
[4] There is a tradition that the first Kurd who took force, was a close associate of Mohammed (Sahib) Jabal al-Kurdi, who returned after Mohammad’s death in Kurdistan and preached Islam.
[5] Spät E. The Yezidis. London: Saqi, 2005.
[6] For a short time at the end of the XVIII century in Iran established a Kurdish dynasty Zand, headed by Karim Khan Zend. It is significant that the Kurds so there was no ethnic solidarity that Gadjars opponents Zand relied including on the Kurdish tribes – Mukri, ardelan etc.
[7] This brings with Kurds Armenian who had undergone a similar fate.
[8] Joseph I. Devil Worship: The Sacred Books and Traditions of the Yezidiz. Boston: RG Badger, 1919.
[9] Semenov AA Worship Satan in Near Eastern Yezidi Kurds // Bulletin of the Central Asian State University, 1927, №16.
[10] Dugin AG Noomahiya. Iranian Logos. Light War and expectations of culture. M .: Academic Project, 2016.
[11] Dugin AG Noomahiya. Semites. Monotheism moon and Gestalt Va’ala. M .: Academic Project, 2016.
[12] Dugin AG Noomahiya. Horizons and civilizations of Eurasia. Indo-European heritage and the traces of the Great Mother. M .: Academic Project, 2017.
[13] Dugin AG Noomahiya. Three Logos. M .: Academic Project, 2014.
[14] Dugin AG Noomahiya. Horizons and civilizations of Eurasia. Indo-European heritage and the traces of the Great Mother. Decree. Op.
[15] Dugin AG Noomahiya. Iranian Logos. Light War and expectations of culture. Decree. Op.
[16] Mokri M. La Grande Assemblée des Fidèles de Vérité sur le au tribunal mont Zagros en Iran (Dawra-y-Dīwāna Gawra). P .: Klincksieck, 1977.
[17] Rudenko MB critical text, translation, introduction and signs of the poem Ahmad Hani Mam and Zin. M .: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962.
[18] Dugin AG Fourth Way. Introduction to the fourth political theory. M .: Academic Project, 2014.
[19] Barzan tribe is a confederation of several Kurdish tribes united in the XIX century under the shaikhs Sufi order naqshbandiya. For the first time this has happened with Sheikh Abdel-Salam I. He was succeeded by Sheikh Abdel-Salam II participated in the anti-Turkish uprisings, later hiding in Russia, after the return of the Iranian Kurdistan was given to the Turks and beheaded in Mosul. Abdel-Salam II was the brother of Ahmed Barzani and Mustafa Barzani.
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