ABSTRACT
In the days of the Ottoman sultans, the Khabur valley pasturelands and t h e
high ground to the north were the camping grounds of the Milli Kurds, a
confederation of nomad tribes. Toward the end of the nineteenth century the i r
chief, Ibrahim Pasha, commanded a regiment of the ÔHamidiehÕ, a Kuridish corps o f
irregular cavalry formed by Sultan Abdul Hamid to combat Bedouin raiders. Based
in Viranshehir, east of Urfa, Ibrahim maintained a lawless fiefdom for many years
until finally suppressed after the Young Turk revolution.
