Nationalism and Kurdish notables in the late Ottoman Era
S. Dale
The Ohio State University
1997
192
Ph.D.
The Ohio State University
1997
The present study first analyzes the evolution of the perception of the Kurds and Kurdistan in history. Then, it focuses on the social and tribal dimensions of Kurdish nationalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by introducing proposographical data on the Kurdish nationalists. Based upon both qualitative and quantitative data, this study analyzes the social origins and kinship relations of Kurdish nationalist leaders, and examines literature written by and about the Kurds. One of the goals of this study is to ground the ideological/idealistic discourse of Kurdish nationalism firmly in the social realities of the Middle East in general and Kurdish society in particular. This dissertation demonstrates two significant claims. (1) Group identity is closely tied to territory. Although religion and language are significant contributors to identity formation, this study claims that the role of territory should not be overlooked. This study argues that the perceived political boundaries of Kurdistan change in time, and in relation to this change the perception of group identity is always in flux. Nevertheless, also fundamental to this work is the claim that there always exists a core area in reference to which social groups, Kurds in this study, define themselves. (2) The social composition of Kurdish nationalist leadership in the late 19th- and early 20th-centuries reveals important clues about the nature of Kurdish nationalism and its relations to territory. For example, the majority of Kurdish nationalist leaders originally belonged to the land-owning nobility. Their access to land came either through their traditional status as local notables or through their position as men of religion, or in some cases these categories overlapped. This study also claims that tribalism does not necessarily challenge nationalism. On the contrary, Kurdish nationalism clearly demonstrates that tribal loyalties and ties play a significant role in the service of nationalism.