Kurdish History Journal
Articles filed under Kurdish History and Resilience.
Harir is a town and plain in Erbil Province in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Archaeological fieldwork documents its settlements and monuments, while the nearby Batas-Herir relief preserves a royal image whose identity and date remain subjects of scholarly interpretation.
Read article →Siverek (Sêwregi), a large Kurdish and Zaza town in Şanlıurfa Province below the Karacadağ volcano — a deeply traditional town in the cradle of wheat farming.
Read article →Erciş, Ercîş in Kurdish, is a town in Van province. Its history includes Urartian inscriptions, medieval cemeteries, a changing lakeshore, Armenian and Kurdish communities, and the 2011 earthquake.
Read article →Doğubayazıt (Bazîd), the Kurdish town below Mount Ararat famed for the İshak Pasha Palace — an ornate 18th-century complex on the frontier between Anatolia and Iran.
Read article →Khanzad Castle (Qela Xanzad) near Erbil — the fortress of Lady Khanzad, the Kurdish princess of the Soran emirate remembered as a rare woman ruler and warrior.
Read article →Qandil, or Çiyayê Qendîl, is part of the northern Zagros along the Iraq–Iran border. Its modern history brings together mountain communities, armed movements, cross-border attacks and efforts to sustain farming, public services and local plant life.
Read article →Delal Bridge crosses the Khabur at Zakho. Its stone arches, disputed construction history and recorded folklore reveal different aspects of the monument’s significance.
Read article →Hewraman Takht is a mountain settlement in Iran’s Kurdistan province, known for its stepped buildings and Pir Shalyar observances. Its story belongs within the wider Hawraman landscape of farming, seasonal movement, language and changing livelihoods.
Read article →Kalar (Kelar), the Kurdish capital of the Garmian region in southern Iraqi Kurdistan — home to Sherwana Castle of the Jaff, in a land scarred by the Anfal genocide.
Read article →Palangan, the historic terraced Kurdish village in the Shaho mountains of western Iran — famed for its stepped stone houses climbing a green river gorge.
Read article →Sheikhan, also written Shekhan or Şêxan, is a district of northern Iraq whose centre is Ain Sifni. Its towns, villages, shrines and proximity to Lalish make it an important landscape of Yazidi life. Its history also includes forced displacement, contested returns and rebuilding.
Read article →Piranshahr (Pîranşar), the Kurdish border city of the Mukriyan in north-western Iran — a Sunni Kurdish trade gateway to Iraqi Kurdistan, marked by the kolbars and the 2022 protests.
Read article →Modern Elazığ developed on the plain below historic Harput in the nineteenth century. Reading the two settlements together reveals changing administration, Armenian education and genocide, Syriac and Islamic monuments, Kurdish political history and a landscape shaped by geology.
Read article →Shaqlawa (Şeqlawe), the Kurdish mountain resort town of Iraqi Kurdistan — a green valley of orchards and springs between Safeen and Korek, with a mixed Kurdish and Christian heritage.
Read article →Sarpol-e Zahab (Serpêl), the Kurdish city in western Iran beneath the 4,000-year-old Anubanini relief — a frontier town struck by the Iran–Iraq War and the 2017 earthquake.
Read article →Javanrud (Cuwanro), the Kurdish town in the Kermanshah highlands of western Iran — a Sunni Kurdish community known for its role in the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.
Read article →Baneh (Bane), the Kurdish border city in the Zagros of western Iran — famed for its markets and trade, and marked by the hardship of the kolbars who cross its mountains.
Read article →Bingöl is a city and province in eastern Turkey, known locally through names including Çewlîg and Çolig. Its history connects a small valley settlement with provincial administration, expanding neighbourhoods and Zaza and Kurdish cultural study.
Read article →Qaladze (Qeladize), the Kurdish town in north-eastern Iraqi Kurdistan bombed by Iraq in 1974 and razed during Anfal — then rebuilt by its people as a symbol of endurance.
Read article →Koya’s history links Haji Qadir Koyi, an Ottoman commercial old town, Koya University and conservation work that revives local building skills.
Read article →Dêrik, also called Al-Malikiyah, lies in northeastern Syria near Turkey and Iraq. Archival photographs and dated research illuminate its urban history, public services and experience of displacement.
Read article →Sardasht (Serdeşt), the Kurdish town in north-western Iran remembered as the first town bombed with chemical weapons against its civilians — by Iraq on 28 June 1987.
Read article →Barzan’s history connects mountain communities, religious leadership, displacement and remembrance. Its river valleys and oak woodland also have a documented conservation history.
Read article →Ranya (Ranye), the Kurdish town beside Lake Dukan known as Derî Raperîn — “the Gateway of the Uprising” — where the 1991 Kurdish revolt against Saddam Hussein began.
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