Kurdish Genealogy, Archival Research, and Genetic History

The Ancestral Tapestry of Kurdistan: A Comprehensive Guide to Kurdish Genealogy, Archival Research, and Genetic History

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Genealogist’s Challenge in a Stateless Nation

   • The Fragmentation of Memory and Territory

   • The "Archives of the Other": Navigating Imperial Legacies

2. Historical Geography and the Geopolitics of Identity

   • Defining the Kurdish Homelands: From the Zagros to the Taurus

   • The Impact of Border Demarcations on Transnational Families

   • Forced Migrations and Demographic Engineering

3. Social Structure: Tribes, Castes, and the Eşiret System

   • The Tribal Confederation (Eşiret) as a Genealogical Unit

   • Religious Lineages: Sheikhs, Seyyids, and the Sufi Orders

   • The Yezidi Caste System and the Mişûr Manuscripts

4. The Ottoman Foundation: Nüfus, Temettuat, and the Late Empire

   • The Evolution of Ottoman Civil Registration

   • Navigating the Devlet Arşivleri for Kurdish Ancestry

   • Tax Registers and Military Conscription Records

5. Turkey (Bakur): The Republic, Turkification, and the Surname Law

   • The 1934 Surname Law (Soyadı Kanunu) and Cultural Erasure

   • Bridging the Gap: Lakaps, Patronymes, and the Nüfus Directorate

   • Modern Digital Resources: The Alt-Üst Soy Lineage Report

6. Iraq (Bashur): Colonial Administration, Arabization, and the Zheen Archive

   • British Mandate Records and the CO 730 Series

   • The 1957 Census: The Gold Standard of Iraqi Identity

   • The Anfal Campaign and the Destruction of Records

   • The Zheen Center: A Beacon for Kurdish Historiography

7. Iran (Rojhilat): Shenasnameh and the Persian Bureaucracy

   • The 1918 Civil Registration Law and the Birth of the Shenasnameh

   • Naming Conventions and Persianization Policies

   • Navigating Sabt-e Ahval and Cemetery Archives

8. Syria (Rojava): The Exceptional Census and the Stateless Kurds

   • The 1962 Census (Decree No. 93) and the Creation of Ajanib

   • The Plight of the Maktoumeen: Genealogy Without Documentation

   • French Mandate Records in Nantes: A Window into the 1920s

9. Diaspora and Western Archives: Tracking Exile and Migration

   • The Bedirkhan Legacy: A Case Study in Transnational Elite Genealogy

   • European Archives: Sweden, Germany, and the Kurdish Institute of Paris

10. Genetic Genealogy: Ancient DNA, Haplogroups, and the Zagros Heritage

    • The Genetic Landscape of the Kurds: Continuity and Autochthony

    • Y-Chromosome Haplogroups: J2, R1a, and Tribal Signatures

    • Ancient DNA: The Ganj Dareh Connection

11. Methodologies for Reconstruction: Oral History and Digital Tools

    • The Dengbêj Tradition as Oral Archive

    • Digital Preservation and the Future of Kurdish Genealogy

12. Conclusion

1. Introduction: The Genealogist’s Challenge in a Stateless Nation

The pursuit of genealogy within the Kurdish context is a discipline that transcends the mere collection of names and dates; it is an act of historical reconstruction against a backdrop of fragmentation. The Kurds, widely recognized as the largest stateless nation in the world, inhabit a contiguous mountainous region known as Kurdistan, which is geopolitically divided among four sovereign states: Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. This partition, cemented in the aftermath of World War I by treaties such as Lausanne, has created a unique genealogical landscape where a single extended family may trace its lineage through four distinct legal systems, four official languages (Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Kurdish), and four separate narratives of state-building and assimilation.  

The Fragmentation of Memory and Territory

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