Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the former Kurdish emirates or principalities of the premodern era, such as Hakkari, Soran, Baban, Ardalan, Bitlis, Cizire, and Bahdinan, among many others. It argues that the modern history of the Kurds in the Ottoman Empire in 1830s, when the Ottoman central government began to abolish the autonomous Kurdish hereditary emirates that had been ruling Ottoman Kurdistan since the early 16th century. The book discusses classical and modern Kurdish literature and shows how the modern period and the rise of nation-states have caused division in the content and mission of Kurdish literature. It explores the role that Islam has played in the assimilation of Kurdish culture into the more dominant Turkish, Arab, or Persian identities of the controlling states. The book also reviews the difficult and changing geopolitics of the Kurds since World War 1.