Kurdish History Journal
Shams al-Din al-Shahrazuri (died after 1288) was a Kurdish Illuminationist philosopher who wrote Nuzhat al-Arwah, the most comprehensive medieval Arabic history of philosophy.
Read article →Khatuna Fekhra, 13th-century Kurdish Yazidi female saint, is venerated as the patron of women, children and childbirth in the Yazidi faith, with a shrine at the sacred temple of Lalish.
Read article →Husam al-Din Chalabi (c. 1225-1284), Kurdish Sufi mystic and disciple of Rumi, inspired the creation of the Masnavi and succeeded Rumi as head of the Mevlevi order.
Read article →Ibn al-Hadjib (died 1249), Kurdish Maliki grammarian and jurist, wrote influential Arabic grammar texts and jurisprudential works that shaped Islamic education across the medieval world.
Read article →Ibn al-Salah (1181-1245), Kurdish Shafi'i hadith scholar from Shahrazur in Iraqi Kurdistan, wrote the Introduction to the Science of Hadith, the foundational text of hadith methodology in Islam.
Read article →Sayf al-Din al-Amidi (1156-1233), jurist from Amid (Diyarbakir), bridged Islamic theology and jurisprudence and was one of the most intellectually ambitious scholars of the Ayyubid era.
Read article →Ibn al-Azraq al-Fariqi (c. 1116-1176), Kurdish historian and civil servant of the Artuqids, wrote the Tarikh Mayyafariqin wa Amid, a crucial source for Kurdish and medieval Jazira history.
Read article →Fakhr-un-Nisa Shuhdah al-Baghdadiyyah (died 1112) was a Kurdish muhaddithah, calligrapher and scholar who founded a major educational institution in Baghdad and was titled Pride of Womanhood.
Read article →Ali Hariri (c. 1009-1079), the first known poet to write in Kurmanji Kurdish, pioneered the classical Kurdish literary tradition with Sufi poetry celebrating love and Kurdistan.
Read article →Shah Husayn (r. 1417-1424), the last major Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg of Lorestan, governed the final years of a three-century dynasty before Timurid ruler Shahrukh ended Kurdish rule in 1424.
Read article →Muzaffar al-Din Afrasiab II (r. 1340-1355), Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg of Lorestan, defended his dynasty's mountain capital Idaj against Muzaffarid attack and maintained Kurdish rule.
Read article →Yusuf Shah II (Rukn al-Din), Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg 1330-1340, expanded the dynasty by annexing Shushtar, Hoveizeh and Basra, extending Kurdish rule deep into Khuzestan and Iraq.
Read article →Shams al-Din Alp Arghun (r. 1259-1274), Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg of Lorestan, rebuilt his principality after Mongol devastation and navigated Ilkhanid suzerainty with skill.
Read article →Nusrat al-Din (r. 1252-1257), Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg of Lorestan, held the southern Zagros principality through one of the most dangerous periods of Mongol expansion in the Islamic world.
Read article →Imad al-Din ibn Hazarasp (r. 1248-1251), Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg of Lorestan, maintained his family's Kurdish principality during the turbulent early years of Mongol suzerainty.
Read article →Malik Hazarasp (r. 1204-1248), Kurdish Hazaraspid Atabeg of Lorestan, allied with the Khwarazmian Shah against the Mongols and gave his name to a dynasty that lasted three centuries.
Read article →Abu Tahir ibn Ali (r. 1115-1153) founded the Kurdish Hazaraspid dynasty in Lorestan, establishing three centuries of native Kurdish rule across the southern Zagros Mountains.
Read article →An-Nasir Dawud, son of Al-Mu'azzam Isa, briefly ruled Damascus then governed Kerak in Transjordan as a Kurdish Ayyubid scholar-prince and political survivor.
Read article →Al-Mansur Ibrahim, Ayyubid ruler of Homs 1240-1246, grandson of the great Kurdish commander Shirkuh, maintained the Shirkuh line of Kurdish Ayyubid rule in central Syria.
Read article →Al-Muzaffar Ghazi, son of Al-Adil I, was a Kurdish Ayyubid ruler of Mayyafariqin in the Jazira who defended the northeastern frontier of the Kurdish Empire.
Read article →Al-Awhad Ayyub, son of Al-Adil I, was a Kurdish Ayyubid ruler who controlled Khilat and Mayyafariqin in the Jazira, campaigning alongside his brother Al-Ashraf Musa.
Read article →Tughtakin ibn Ayyub, brother of Saladin, founded the Ayyubid dynasty of Yemen in 1174 on behalf of his brother, extending Kurdish imperial power to the Arabian Peninsula.
Read article →Al-Muzaffar I Umar (Taqi ad-Din Umar), Kurdish Ayyubid nephew of Saladin and first Emir of Hama (1178-1191), was one of the most formidable commanders of the Kurdish Empire.
Read article →Muhammad ibn Shirkuh, son of the great Kurdish commander Shirkuh, founded the Ayyubid dynasty of Homs (1179-1186) and married Saladin's sister Sitt al-Sham, cementing Kurdish unity.
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