Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State

Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries

Hakan Ozoglu, Hakan Özogálu

• Publisher: SUNY Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780791459942, 9780791459935
• eBook ISBN: 9780791485569
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Middle Eastern History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Examines early Kurdish nationalism within the context of the demise of the Ottoman Empire.

Kurdish nationalism remains one of the most critical and explosive problems of the Middle East. Despite its importance, the topic remains on the margins of Middle East Studies. Bringing the study of Kurdish nationalism into the mainstream of Middle East scholarship, Hakan Özogálu examines the issue in the context of the Ottoman Empire. Using a wealth of primary sources, including Ottoman and British archives, Ottoman Parliamentary minutes, memoirs, and interviews, he focuses on revealing the social, political, and historical forces behind the emergence and development of Kurdish nationalism. Contrary to the assumption that nationalist movements contribute to the collapse of empires, the book argues that Kurdish leaders remained loyal to the Ottoman state, and only after it became certain that the empire would not recover did Kurdish nationalism emerge and clash with the Kemalist brand of Turkish nationalism.

Table of contents

• Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Transliteration and Translation
• Illustrations
• 1. Introduction
• 2. Evolution of Group Identity: The Kurds and Kurdistan in Historical Texts
• 3. State-Tribe Relations: Ottoman Empire and Kurdish Tribalism Since the Sixteenth Century
• 4. Kurdish “Protonationalism”?: The Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
• 5. The Role of Preexisting Ties and Notables in the Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism
• 6. Concluding Remarks and Suggestions for Further Research
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index