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Spread of Islam among Kurds

Spread of Islam among Kurds started in the 7th century with the Early Muslim conquests.[1] Before Islam, the majority of Kurds followed a western Iranic pre-Zoroastrian faith which derived directly from Indo-Iranian tradition,[2][3][4] some elements of this faith survived in Yezidism, Yarsanism and Kurdish Alevism.[3][5][4][6] When Islam first appeared, the Kurds were divided between the Byzantine and Sassanian Empires. The term "Kurd" back then referred to any Iranian nomad from any Iranian ethnic group whether in central Asia or western Iran regardless of geographic location or Iranian ethnicity.[9] Jaban al-Kurdi and his son Meymun al-Kurdi were the first Kurds who converted to Islam and Khalil al-Kurdi as-Semmani was one of the first Kurdish tabi'uns.[10][11][12][13][14][15] Mass conversion of Kurds to Islam didn't happen until the reign of Umar ibn Al-Khattab, second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate between 634-644.[16][17] The Kurds first came into contact with the Arab armies during the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia in 637. The Kurdish tribes had been an important element in the Sasanian Empire, and initially gave it strong support as it tried to withstand the Muslim armies, between 639 - 644. Once it was clear that the Sassanians would eventually fall, the Kurdish tribal leaders one by one submitted to Islam and their tribe members followed in accepting Islam.[18] Today the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims, and there are Alevi and Shia minorities. Sunni Muslim Kurds are mostly Shafiʽis and Hanafis.[19]

The ruins of Menüçehr Mosque, the first mosque in Turkey which was built by the Kurdish dynasty of Shaddadids in the medieval Armenian city of Ani.

Notable Muslim Kurds from the Middle Ages

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Bassami Kurdi (9th century), Evdilsemedê Babek (972-1019), and Ali Hariri (1009-1079) were the first Kurdish Islamic poets and authors.[20] Fakhr-un-Nisa (1091-1179) was the first female Kurdish Islamic scholar, muhaddith and calligrapher.[21] The Abulfeda crater in the Moon was named after Kurdish Islamic geographer and historian Abulfeda (1273-1331).[22]

Menüçehr Mosque, the first mosque in the current borders of Turkey, was built in 1072 by the Kurdish Sunni Muslim dynasty Shaddadids.[23]

Kurdish madrasas

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The Kurdish Red Madrasa in Cizre

With the spread of Islam in Kurdistan, a new style of civilization was formed in the region. One of the grounds of this new civilization was madrasas. The first Kurdish madrasa was formed around 950s in Hamadan, Iranian Kurdistan. However, Saladin changed the educational status of madrasas where only Islamic sciences were taught, and started to teach many branches of science there, giving more importance to Kurdish lessons.[11][24]

Lessons taught in the Kurdish madrasas included Tafsir of the Quran, Hadith, Fiqh, Logic, Statute, Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine and Philosophy. Most of the books that were used as textbooks in Kurdish madrasas were in Arabic, and they were translated to Kurdish by educationalists and experts. There was an obligation of at least one child in each household having the necessity of being educated in a madrasa among the Kurds. Around 80% of students in Kurdish madrasas were male.[25][26]

References

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  1. ^ Kennedy, Hugh (2004). The Prophet and the age of the Caliphates : the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson/Longman. ISBN 0-582-40525-4. OCLC 55792252.
  2. ^ Kreyenbroek, Philip G. (1995). Yezidism: its background, observances and textual tradition. E. Mellen. ISBN 0-7734-9004-3. OCLC 464136140.
  3. ^ a b Turgut, Lokman. Ancient rites and old religions in Kurdistan. OCLC 879288867.
  4. ^ a b Foltz, Richard (2017-06-01). "The "Original" Kurdish Religion? Kurdish Nationalism and the False Conflation of the Yezidi and Zoroastrian Traditions". Journal of Persianate Studies. 10 (1): 87–106. doi:10.1163/18747167-12341309. ISSN 1874-7094.
  5. ^ Kaczorowski, Karol. "Yezidism and Proto-Indo-Iranian Religion". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. ^ Omarkhali, Khanna (2011). "The status and role of the Yezidi legends and myths: to the question of comparative analysis of Yezidism, Yārisān (Ahl-e Haqq) and Zoroastrianism: a common substratum?". Folia Orientalia. 45/46: 197–219. ISSN 0015-5675. OCLC 999248462.
  7. ^ Safrastian, Kurds and Kurdistan, The Harvill Press, 1948, p. 16 and p. 31.
  8. ^ Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp. 1–58, 2009.
  9. ^ Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends like the Shahnameh and the Middle Persian Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the term kurd in the sense of "Iranian nomads". A. The term Kurd in the Middle Persian documents simply means nomad and tent-dweller and could be attributed to any Iranian ethnic group having similar characteristics.[7] G. "It is clear that kurt in all the contexts has a distinct social sense, "nomad, tent-dweller"."The Pahlavi materials clearly show that kurd in pre-Islamic Iran was a social label, still a long way off from becoming an ethnonym or a term denoting a distinct group of people"[8]
  10. ^ Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, El İsabe fi Temyizi's Sahabe
  11. ^ a b Adnan, Demircan. Kurds. p. 63.
  12. ^ "Kürt sahabeler". Archived from the original on 8 December 2015.
  13. ^ Mahmud al-Alusi, Ruhu'l Meani
  14. ^ Hazal, Kadri (2014-01-27). "Kürtler ve İslamiyet (1) - Kadri Hazal". Risale Haber (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  15. ^ Şafak, Yeni (2012-07-25). "Araplar ve Kürtler-1". Yeni Şafak (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  16. ^ Biçer, Bekir (2014). İslam Coğrafyacılarının Eserinde Kürtler Hakkındaki Rivayetler. Tarih Okulu Dergisi.
  17. ^ Tan, Altan. Kürt Sorunu. Timaş Yayınları. p. 67.
  18. ^ McDowall, David (1997). A Modern History Of The Kurds. London: I.B Tauris. p. 21. ISBN 978-1-85043-416-0.
  19. ^ Bois, Thomas. Kurds and Kurdistan. p. 148.
  20. ^ Kurdo, Qanate. Tarixa Edebiyata Kurdî.
  21. ^ Nadwi, Mohammad Akram (2007). Al Muhaddithat: the women scholars in Islam. London: Interface Publishers. p. 55.
  22. ^ Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures, (edited by) Helaine Selin, pp. 7–8, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, 1997 Identifiants et Référentiels Sudoc Pour L'Enseignement Supérieur et la Recherche – Abū al-Fidā (1273–1331) (in French)
  23. ^ "Shaddadids". iranicaonline.org. Retrieved 2020-12-13.
  24. ^ Zeki, Mehmed Emin. Kürtler ve Kürdistan Tarihi.
  25. ^ قصاص, مروة أسماء; حبار, عبدالرزاق; شعبان, فرج (2018). "دور نظام المعلومات الإلكتروني في فعالية النظام الرقابي في شركات التأمين الجزائرية". مجلة الباحث: 31. doi:10.35156/0505-000-018-003.
  26. ^ Rojevakurd (2016-05-29). "Medreseya Kurdî". Rojevakurd. Retrieved 2020-12-16.
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