Kurdology

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The Kurdology means a science that deals with the exploration of the people Kurdish deals. Like the Persians and the ancient Parthians , the Kurds also belong to the Iranian ethnic groups and live in today's states of Turkey , Iran , Iraq and Syria . Here they usually formed an oppressed minority. Wladimir Minorski and Mohammad Mokri are among the best-known scientists in the field of Kurdology , who dealt with the Kurdish language , among other things .

Kurdology in Europe

Beginnings

Europe first became acquainted with the Kurds through Dominicans . At first it was Italians who also carried out research on the Kurds on behalf of the Vatican . The monk Domenico Lanza lived near Mosul between 1753 and 1771 and published a book entitled Compendiose realizione istorica dei viaggi fatti dal Padre Domenico Lanza dell'Ordine dei Predicatori de Roma in Oriente dall'anno 1753 al 1771 . The missionary and traveler Maurizio Garzoni spent 20 years with the Kurds of Amediye and Mosul. Between the years 1764 and 1770 he wrote an Italian-Kurdish dictionary with around 4500 words. The work was published in Rome in 1787 under the title Grammatica e Vocabolario della Lingua Kurdi . With Europe's growing interest in the Ottoman Empire , other people became aware of the Kurds. Garzoni's book was reprinted in 1826. The first European book dealing with the religion of the Kurds was published in Naples in 1818 . It was called Storia della regione del Kurdistan e delle sette di religione ivi esistenti and was written by Giuseppe Camapanile. The Italian missionary and researcher Alessandro de Bianchi published a book on Kurdish culture, traditions and history in 1863.

German research

The oldest mention of the Kurds in a German work comes from Johann Schitberger from the year 1473. In 1799 Johann Adam Bergk also mentions the Kurds in his geography. Other German works are Journey to Persia and the Land of the Kurds by Moritz Wagner from 1852. During his stay in the Ottoman Empire, Helmuth von Moltke wrote letters about the conditions and events in Turkey about the Kurds in his work . The Kurds also found their way into literature. The most prominent example is Karl Mays Durchs Wilde Kurdistan from 1892. The period from 1840 to 1930 was the most fertile section of Kurdology in Germany. At the time, Germany was the center of Kurdology in Europe. Due to its good relations with the Ottoman Empire, which it helped to reform the army and build the Baghdad Railway , German researchers had good access to the empire and its inhabitants. The Humboldt University in Berlin held a Kurdish chair for years. Currently - without claim to completeness - offers at the Institute for Kurdology - Vienna , the course focus on Kurdology in Iranian Studies at the University of Göttingen, the "Mustafa Barzani Office for Kurdish Studies" at the University of Erfurt and the Department of Iranian Studies with Kurdish study focus at the Free University Berlin to be expelled.

Russian research

The expanding Russia also had contact with the Ottoman Empire, albeit often of a warlike nature ( Russian-Turkish wars ). Russia wanted to gain access to the Black Sea and the Caucasus , if not to conquer Istanbul . The Russians came into contact with the eastern part of the Ottoman Empire via the Caucasus, where they then began their research on the Kurds. The Russian diplomat from Erzurum August Kościesza-Żaba , who published a French-Kurdish dictionary in 1879 with the help of Mahmud Bayazidi , should be mentioned. The University of Saint Petersburg became the center of Kurdish studies . Żaba and other diplomats like Basil Nikitin collected Kurdish manuscripts and recorded oral stories. Among other things, the Scheref name was translated into Russian for the first time . The original of the work was brought to Saint Petersburg after the Russo-Iranian War of 1828 .

Kurdology in Turkey

Due to Turkish politics, the Kurds were not perceived as a research object for decades. Some works on Kurds, such as by Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, served to portray the Kurds as of Turkish origin or as a Turkic people and were in line with the Turkish thesis of history. The first work that deviated from the state hypothesis was written by İsmail Beşikçi . Academic papers on the Kurds only appeared when the Turkish policy of negation towards the Kurds was relaxed. At Mardin Artuklu Üniversitesi, founded in 2007, a chair for Kurdish language and literature was established at the Institute for Living Languages. Furthermore, Kurdology chairs are to be established at other universities.

Important sources

The Kurdish history book Scherefname is mainly a source for the family history of the princes and not for the social and economic circumstances of the ordinary Kurdish people. These are described in the source Seyahatnâme (travel book) of Evliya Çelebi .

Important Kurdologists

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.kurdologie-wien.at/
  2. ↑ http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/40031.html
  3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from November 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uni-erfurt.de
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de

See also

literature

  • Karin Kren: Kurdology, Kurdistan and Kurds in German-language literature. LIT, Münster 2000. ISBN 3-8258-4642-3

Web links

Wiktionary: Kurdology  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations