Bedir Khan Beg

Bedir Khan Beg (Kurmanji: Bedirxan Beg, Turkish: Bedirhan Bey; 1803–1869) was the last Kurdish Mîr and mütesellim of the Emirate of Botan.[1]

Bedir Khan Beg Costume of Beder Khan Bey (mid-19th century) by Miner Killbourne Kellogu

Hereditary head of the house of Rozhaki whose seat was the ancient Bitlis castle and descended from Sharafkhan Bidlisi, Bedir Khan was born in Cizre (now in Turkey). He became the Mir of the Emirate of Botan in 1821 and ruled until 1847.[1] The Bedir Khans also claim they descend from Abd Al Aziz, the son of Khalid Ibn al Walid.[2]

Biography

He began to lose his power due to the centralist policies of the Ottoman Empire, which culminated in the Tanzimat Edict of 1839 and its application the following year. Following the Battle of Nizip in 1839, in which Bedir Khan took part for the Ottoman side,[3] he emerged as the dominant Kurdish ruler in central Kurdistan.[4] He raised taxes, minted his own coins and organized the justice system.[5]

Bedir Khan Beg was repeatedly responsible for massacres of the Yazidis. In 1832, thousands of Yazidis were killed in the Shekhan area by Bedir Khan Beg in cooperation with the Kurdish Soran prince Mohammed Pasha Rawanduz.[6] And also in 1844 in the Tur Abdin mountains, Yazidis were targeted by him.[7] Bedir Khan Beg's goal was to force the Yazidis to convert to Islam.[8]

After allying himself with Han Mahmoud of Müküs and Nurallah Bey of Hakkari in 1840,[5] Bedir Khan was encouraged to enter in conflict with the local Assyrian population, and he perpetrated massacres amongst them in 1843 and 1846.[5] In 1842, the Ottomans attempted to divide Bedir Khan's territories by switching the administrative jurisdiction of Cizre from Diyarbekir to Mosul.[4]

Pressure from the European Powers to stop the massacres of Christians led to Ottoman forces invading his territories in 1846-7, with Omer Pasha's 12,000 strong Ottoman force defeating the Kurdish army in the field near Zeitun, Czîra botan .[9] His entire family were banished from Cizre Botan first to Constantinople and then to Crete.[10] At the beginning of the conflict he was able to beat the Ottomans, but as an important commander of his troops, defected to the Ottomans, he was forced to flee to Evruh castle, where he endured an eight months long siege.[11] Bedir Khan had to surrender to the Ottomans at Evreh Castle[12] in Eruh, Siirt on the 4 July 1847. [13] The same day also Han Mahmud was defeated in Tatvan.[12] From Evreh castle he and his family was put in chains and taken to Kumçati in the Sırnak province. After 40 days in detention,[12] Bedir Khan and his family were transferred to Constantinople.[14] After Bedi Khans hopes, that he would be allowed to settle in Istanbul, were not fulfilled, he and his entourage were sent to Heraklion, Crete, which at the time was governed by the Ottoman Empire.[15] In 1853 he requested twice to be allowed to return to Istanbul, but his demands were turned down.[16] In 1855 he purchased a farm just outside of Heraklion, which he named “Kabıl Hora“.[17] As in 1856 a strong earthquake occurred in Crete, he faced financial calamities due to the destructions of his possessions. His salary which he still received from the Ottoman Empire, was of only 7000 Kuruş. Then in September 1857, the Sultan changed his approach towards Bedir Khan, doubling his salary, and granting to 43 members of his followers to return to Kurdistan. Nevertheless, Bedir Khan decided to stay in Crete.[17] In 1863, the Bedir Khan family was allowed to settle in Istanbul, where they bought a mansion in the Fatih quarter. Following several of his descendants were admitted into the bureaucracy of the Ottoman Empire.[18] In June 1868, Bedir Khan decided to settle in present day Syria. A year after he settled to Damascus, Bedir Khan died.[19]

Family

Emin Ali Bedir Khan is one of his son's and Celadet Bedir Khan, Süreyya Bedir Khan and Kamuran Alî Bedirxan are his grandchildren. He was the father of twenty-one children.[20]

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gollark: Great, apiodone.
gollark: I'm not sure about that one.
gollark: Fair, you could probably write something eldritch out with `JOIN`s, but my question was whether revisions should have UUIDs or just be identified only by a combination of timestamp and page.

See also

References
  1. Jongerden, Joost (2012). Jorngerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle (eds.). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Brill. p. 60. ISBN 9789004225183.
  2. Jwaideh, Wadie (2006-06-19). Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development. Syracuse University Press. p. 62. ISBN 9780815630937.
  3. Aydin, Suavi; Verheij, Jelle (2012). Jongerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle (eds.). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Brill. pp. 34–35. ISBN 9789004225183.
  4. "History of the Kurds – The Kurdistan Memory Programme". kurdistanmemoryprogramme.com. Retrieved 2019-03-09.
  5. Aydin, Suavi; Verheij, Jelle (2012). Jongerden, Joost; Verheij, Jelle (eds.). Social Relations in Ottoman Diyarbekir, 1870-1915. Brill. p. 36. ISBN 9789004225183.
  6. Acikyildiz, Birgul (2014-08-20). The Yezidis: The History of a Community, Culture and Religion. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 9781784532161.
  7. Tagay, Sefik; Ortac, Serhat. "Die Eziden und das Ezidentum – Geschichte und Gegenwart einer vom Untergang bedrohten Religion" (PDF) (in German). p. 50.
  8. King, Diane E. (2013-12-31). Kurdistan on the Global Stage: Kinship, Land, and Community in Iraq. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813563541.
  9. Reid, James J. (2000). Crisis of the Ottoman Empire: Prelude to Collapse 1839-1878. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 9783515076876.
  10. Gaunt, D; Beṯ-Şawoce, J (2006), Massacres, resistance, protectors: Muslim-Christian relations in Eastern Anatolia during World War I, Gorgias Press LLC, p. 32, ISBN 978-1-59333-301-0
  11. Jwaideh, Wadie (2006), pp.73–74
  12. Kardam, Ahmet (June 2019). Kamuran Ali Bedir Khan. Paris: Fondation-Institut Kurde de Paris. p. 31. ISSN 1626-7745.
  13. Henning, Barbara (2018), p. 109
  14. Henning, Barbara (2018). Narratives of the History of the Ottoman-Kurdish Bedirhani Family in Imperial and Post-Imperial Contexts: Continuities and Changes. University of Bamberg Press. p. 111. ISBN 3863095510.
  15. Henning, Barbara (2018), pp.111–112
  16. Henning, Barbara (2018), p.113
  17. Kardam, Ahmet (June 2019). Kamuran Ali Bedir Khan. Paris: Fondation-Institut Kurde de Paris. pp. 42–44. ISSN 1626-7745.
  18. Henning, Barbara (2018), p.117
  19. Henning, Barbara (2018), p.118
  20. Özoğlu, Hasan (2004). Kurdish notables in the Ottoman Empire. State University of New York Press. p. 95.

Further reading
  • Mehmet Alagöz, Old Habits Die Hard, A Reaction to the Application of Tanzimat Edict: Bedirhan Bey's Revolt, MA Thesis, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2003
  • Martin van Bruinessen, Agha, shaikh, and state : the social and political structures of Kurdistan
  • Nazmi Sevgen, Doğu ve Güneydoğu Anadolu'da Türk beylikleri: Osmanlı belgeleri ile Kürt Türkleri tarihi


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