Offered

This article covers the historical landscape in Kurdistan; for the language see Bohtan New Aramaic Language , for other meanings see Botan (disambiguation)

On a European map from 1730 Botan is shown as "Regnum Bochtanonum" west of Lake Van. The addition: "Persarum quidem verum sub Imp. Turc.", Which means "Persians, but under the rule of the Turkish Empire", is interesting.

Botan = Bokhti

Botan , also called Buhtan , Bohtan , Bokhan or Bokhti , is a historical landscape in Iraqi and Turkish Kurdistan . It is named after the Botan / Bokhtan River . From the 15th to the 19th century it was a semi-autonomous Kurdish principality under Ottoman suzerainty. The emirate of Cizre-Botan with the core area in today's province of Şırnak reached from the capital Cizre in the west to Hakkâri on the border with Persia in the east, from Lake Van in the north to Mosul in the south. Today the Iraqi-Turkish border runs through this area. The emir had to pay tribute to the sultan.

According to William Francis Ainsworth , the country was bordered in the south by the Zakhu Valley and the Badinan district, in the east by the Berrawi and Hakkari districts and in the west by the Tigris .

Principality of Botan

Since the Battle of Tschaldiran in 1514, Botan enjoyed special rights due to a treaty between the Ottomans and Kurdish princes. The capital was Cizre. The most famous ruler was Bedirxan Beg . Botan was surrounded by several other principalities like that of Badinan and Hakkari.

The princes of Botan saw themselves as descendants of the Umayyad general Chālid ibn al-Walīd . But according to Scherefhan's tradition, the princes were initially Yazidis and thus followers of the “false” faith. They later converted to the Sunni direction of Islam . The descent of Chalid ibn al-Walid was therefore more of a postulated descent in order to increase the reputation and prestige of the family. In addition, Chalid ibn al-Walid had no male offspring.

The first ruler and founder of the principality was Sulayman bin Halid. When he died, the principality was divided between his three sons: Mir Abd al-Aziz got Cizre, Mir Halid Beg Gurgil and Mir Abdal Finik . According to the Scherefname book, the principality consisted of 14 districts. In some districts, Christian residents made up the majority.

Lively literary activity arose at the court of Cizre. This is how Kurdish poets like Ehmedê Xanî , Feqiyê Teyran and Melayê Cezîrî worked . Ehmedê Xanî's work Mem û Zîn is set in Botan.

The prince Bedirxan Beg dared an uprising against his Ottoman overlords in 1843 and was defeated in 1847 and sent into exile with his family . The principality was dissolved and incorporated into the Ottoman provinces.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin van Bruinessen : Agha, Sheikh and State. Politics and Society of Kurdistan. Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-88402-259-8 , p. 237ff.
2. ↑ Joachim Hösler and Wolfgang Kessler: Finis mundi: End times and world ends in Eastern Europe , p. 150, footnote 27, online link at google books
3. ^ William Francis Ainsworth: Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea and Armenia. Volume 2, 1842, p. 320.

Literature and Sources

• Scherefname (translated into German by Heinrich A. Barb under the title History of Five Kurdish Dynasties , Vienna 1858)
• Botan . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)
• The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition , Kurds article
• Kai Merten: Among each other, not next to each other: The coexistence of religious and cultural groups in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century . tape 6 of Marburg's contributions to the history of religion. LIT Verlag, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12359-6 , 4. The murder of the Syrian Orthodox Patriarch of vonūr ʿAbdīn, p. 167-176 .