Ardalan
Ardalan or Erdelan was a semi-autonomous Kurdish principality in the northwest of what is now Iran . The area roughly coincides with the Iranian province of Kurdistan . The principality existed from the Middle Ages to the middle of the 19th century. The capital was Sanandaj . The Kurdish Eşiret des Bani Ardalan founded the principality and ruled the area to the end.
After Şerefhan , the founder of the principality was called Bawa Ardalan . Şerefhan claims that this is a descendant of the Marwanids . Bawa Ardalan lived in Iran for a time under the Gorani Kurds and soon gained control of the Shahr-a Zor region . Around the 14th century, the Ardalans took control of Sanandaj. The areas of Zardiawa (Karadagh), Chanaqin , Kirkuk and Kifri were part of their dominion .
The principality was independent for a while until it was incorporated into their empire by the Safavids . As a border region between the Safavids and the Ottomans , the importance of the principality for the Safavids was high. The principality often had clashes with the Kurdish Baban principality in Silemani . The Baban Principality lay on Ottoman soil in what is now northeast Iraq . The Shah Nāser ad-Din Shah from the Qajar dynasty ended the rule of the Ardalan by lifting the status of the principality in 1867 and installing his uncle Farhad Mirza Mo'tamad-al-Dawla as ruler.
The Gorani, which was also important as the liturgical language of the Ahl-e Haqq , became the cultural language of the principality . Over the centuries the Gorani became more important in the region. Some great poets were Bawa Yadigar, Yal-Bagi Jaff, and Khan Almas Khani Luristani.
Ruler of the Ardalan
- Bawa Ardalan (14th century)
- Timur Khan Ardalan
- Hilo Khan
- Khan Ahmad Khan
- Suleyman Khan (renovated the fortress of Sanandasch)
- Sobhanverdi Khan
- Ahmad Khan (son of Sobhanverdi Khan) (became governor of the area from Hamadan to Mosul )
- Khosrow Khan Bozorgi (1754–1788)
- Aman-Allah Khan Bozorgi (1799–1825) (last important ruler of the Ardalan)
Sources and web links
- Scherefhan , Serefname , translated by FB Charmoy, St. Petersburg, 1868–75, vol.II.
- Eskandar Bek Monshi, Taikh-e Alam ara Abbasi
- Basil Nikitin , Les Kurdes , Paris, 1956.
- Basil Nikitin, Les Valis d'Ardalan
- W. Eagleton, The Kurdish Republic of 1946 , London, 1963
- M. Mardokh Kodestani, Tarikh-e kord wa Kodestan , Tehran, 1979
- Article Ardalan , from the Encyclopædia Iranica
- Family tree of the Ardalan