Kurdish History Journal
Articles filed under Kurdish Icons.
Shabankara'i (c. 1298-1358), Kurdish poet and historian from Fars, wrote the Majma al-Ansab fi l-Tawarikh — one of the most valuable historical chronicles of the late Ilkhanid period in Persia.
Read article →Sayyid Husayn Ahlati (died 1397) was a Persianate Kurdish Muslim occultist and alchemist, personal physician to Sultan Barquq, who played a pivotal role in the late 14th-century renaissance of Islamic occultism.
Read article →Mele Perişan (1356-1431) was the earliest known Gorani Kurdish poet, affiliated with the Ardalan principality, whose Parishan-nama is considered the oldest work in the Gorani literary tradition.
Read article →Zain al-Din al-Iraqi (1325-1404), Kurdish hadith scholar born in Cairo to a family from near Erbil, was the greatest hadith master of his age and teacher of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.
Read article →Sadr al-Din Musa (1305-1391) was the son of Safi-ad-din Ardabili and second head of the Safaviyya Sufi order — the Kurdish-origin order that would eventually establish the Safavid dynasty.
Read article →Shabankara'i (c. 1298-1358) was a Kurdish poet and historian from Fars who wrote the Majma al-Ansab fi l-Tawarikh, a major Persian chronicle of the Ilkhanid period.
Read article →Abulfeda (1273-1331), Kurdish Ayyubid geographer and historian, governor of Hama, wrote the Taqwim al-Buldan geography and Concise History of Humanity — the Moon has a crater named after him.
Read article →Safi-ad-din Ardabili (c. 1252-1334), Kurdish Sufi mystic of Ardabil, founded the Safaviyya order whose descendants would later establish the Safavid Empire and transform Iran forever.
Read article →Fakhr al-Din al-Akhlati (died 1260) was a Kurdish scholar from Akhlat near Lake Van, one of the medieval Jazira's important Kurdish intellectual figures of the 13th century.
Read article →Amadin was a 13th-century Kurdish Yazidi saint, venerated as a healer — particularly of stomach ailments — in the Yazidi faith, representing the rich tradition of Kurdish Yazidi holy figures.
Read article →Sheikh Obekr was a 13th-century Kurdish Yazidi saint venerated in the Yazidi faith, part of the rich tradition of Yazidi holy figures who have served as spiritual pillars of Kurdish culture.
Read article →Sheikh Mand, 13th-century Kurdish Yazidi saint and Ayyubid military commander, was granted the title Emir of the Kurds by Saladin for commanding the Hakkariya regiment of the Ayyubid Army.
Read article →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.
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