Mohamed Pasha Jaff, also known as Hama Pasha, led the Jaf in the nineteenth century. His career joined seasonal migration, imperial appointments and conflicts within the confederation.
A nineteenth-century Jaf leader
Hassan Karim Jaff and Trifa Abdulsalam Mohammed Ali’s dedicated study identifies Mohammed Pasha, also called Hama Pasha, with the life dates 1814–1881. Their research examines his relationship with the Baban emirate, internal Jaf disputes, and the changing influence of the Ottoman and Qajar states, particularly after the second Treaty of Erzurum in 1847. [1] His biography belongs to the nineteenth-century transformation of tribal government and imperial frontiers.
The confederation and seasonal movement
The Jaf were a Kurdish confederation whose communities lived on both sides of the Ottoman–Iranian frontier. M. Reza Fariborz Hamzeh’ee distinguishes the Moradi Jaf of southern Iraqi Kurdistan from the Javanrudi Jaf in Iran. He traces settlement and grazing areas south of Sulaymaniyah toward Khanaqin, alongside communities between Sanandaj and Kermanshah. Their language belongs to the Sorani group, with regional Gurani and southern Kurdish influences. Seasonal movement across imperial boundaries repeatedly created disputes over access to pasture and authority. [2] This pastoral economy shaped the political choices of their leaders.
Appointments and shifting allegiances
Saman Fatah’s archival research dates Muhammad Beg’s appointment as kaymakam of Gulanbar to 1869, alongside Ottoman efforts to settle Jaf households. Summer migration into Iran resumed in 1873. There, Naser al-Din Shah granted him the title Khan and authority in Zahab and the frontier; Osman Beg, his son, received Javanrud. Pressure to settle permanently strained these relations, and Muhammad returned to Ottoman territory. Fatah records his return to Gulanbar’s governorship in 1877. [3] These appointments show how offices, land and migration were negotiated between chiefs and governments.
Sherwana: a residence at Kalar
Architectural historian Ömer Eroğlu attributes Sherwana at Kalar to Muhammad Pasha Jaf and dates construction to 1866–1874. His conference abstract interprets the building as a mansion with a castle-like appearance, considering its plan, room arrangement and residential function. He suggests seasonal use as a winter residence and notes that the Pasha’s semi-nomadic life limited continuous residence there. [4] The association with a prominent chief is therefore compatible with mobility. Towers and an imposing façade alone do not establish how a building functioned as a defensive installation.
Death, succession and conflicting dates
The sources disagree over the year of his death. Fatah places his killing near Kifri in 1881, linking it to conflict with the Shatri section and the imprisonment of its chief Aziz Shaweys. He identifies Mahmud Pasha as Muhammad’s successor. [3] The Twejer study also uses 1881. [1] An earlier British administrative account, preserved in a file assembled in 1917–1919, instead dates the killing to 1880. It describes Shatiri attackers subsequently taking refuge with the Hamawand and further fighting drawing in Baghdad’s governor. [5] That retrospective official account is evidence for how British administrators understood the conflict; its date should remain visible alongside the later scholarship.
Sources and further reading
- Hassan Karim Jaff and Trifa Abdulsalam Mohammed Ali, “Mohammed Pasha, Chief of the Jaff Tribe (1814–1881),” Twejer Journal 6/1 (2023), pp. 57–98; published abstract and Kurdish article.
- M. Reza Fariborz Hamzeh’ee, “Jaf (Jāf),” Encyclopaedia Iranica (2008; updated 2012).
- Saman Fatah, The Kurdish Tribes in the Ottoman–Iranian Relations (1876–1914), Istanbul University doctoral thesis (2023), pp. 143–145.
- Ömer Eroğlu, “The Muhammad Pasha Jaf Mansion (Shirwana Castle) in Kalar, Iraq,” abstract in the 29th Symposium on Medieval and Turkish Period Excavations and Art History Research.
- British Library, India Office Records IOR/L/PS/10/618, folio 301r, printed account p. 15; Qatar Digital Library, file created 1917–1919.