January 19, 2007
“A seminal work in the field of Kurdish studies,
Wadie Jwaideh’s pioneering reasearch, published for
the first time presents a detailed analysis of the
early phases of Kurdish nationalism and offers a
framework within which to understand the movement’s
later development.
Following Wadie Jwaideh’s dissertation defense, his
doctoral chairman took aside Jwaideh’s wife, Alice,
and asked her to submit the work for publication
without Wadie’s permission, believing that Wadie’s
penchant for perfection would postpone its
publication indefinitely.
The thesis was never published during Jwaideh’s
lifetime, but tis fame spread by word of mouth, and
many scholars have recognized its importance not
only as a study of the earlier period of Kurdish
nationalism but also as a model for understanding
its subsequent history. the work now stands as a
classic, referenced by some of the most renowned
scholars in the field. Its publication will permit
it to reach a greater audience and to contribute
more fully to the understanding and appreciation of
this geopolitical and cultural movement. |
|
|
Jwaideh was born in the southern Iraqi city of
Basra, into an Arabic-speaking Christian family that
later moved to Baghdad.
His inimate knowledge of the land and its people
gave Jwaideh shrewd insight into Kurdish society and
politics. Exploring the rich historical roots of the
Kurdish national movement, he challenges the
established view of the early Kurdish uprising as
isolated incidents triggered by economic hardship or
political dissatisfaction. Instead he offers a new
interpretation of the Kurds’ nationalist position,
convincingly demonstrating the age and depth of
their grievances.
This complex and layered history of the Kurdish
national movement offers a valuable perspective from
which to view the current conditions in Iraq.
Jwaideh’s sensitive and prescient treatment of this
region gives his study great contemporary
relevance.”
Contents :
Forewords, Martin van Bruinessen
1. Geographical, cultural and historical background
2. The social organization of the Kurds
3. The suppression of the semiautonomous regimes in
Kurdistan
4. Shaykh ‘Ubayd Allah of Nehri
5. The impact of the Young Turk Revolution on
Kurdish nationalism
6. Russia’s Kurdish policy
7. The Kurds and World War I
8.The situation of the Kurds in Turkey, Persia and
Syria after World War I
9. Disturbances in the Mosul and Arbil divisions of
Iraqi Kurdistan
10. Shaykh Mahmud and the rise and fall of the South
Kurdish Confederation in Iraqi Kurdistan after WWI
11. Shaykh Mahmud’s second rebellion
12. The Kurdish rebellions in Turkey
13. The Barzani rebellion of 1931-1932
14. The Barzani rebellion of Mulla Mustafa,
1943-1945, and the growth of Kurdish political
organization
15. The Kurdish republic of Mahabad
16. The Kurds and the Kurdish question after the
fall of Mahabad
First paragraphs:
” The Kurds, a gifted and vigorous people, have
played an important role in Middle-Eastern history.
They have produced men of outstanding qualities as
soldiers, statesmen, administrators, and scholars,
and have enriched the life and culture of the
Islamic countries of the Middle-East. Next to the
Arabs, the Turks, and the Persians, they constitute
the most numerous ethnic group in western Asia. A
bellicose and still largely untamed people, they
have been often compared to the seventeeth-century
clans of Scotland. Despite their pride of race as
individuals, they have until comparatively recent
times been content as a people to play a subsidiary
role among their more numerous and better organized
neighbors.”
Roj Bash - Blog
Top |
® 