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Sheikh Said

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For other uses, see Sheikh Said (disambiguation).
Sheikh Said
Ağa
Şêx Seîd Kasîm
Born
Said Kasim

1865
Hınıs, Diyarbekir Vilayet, Ottoman Empire
Died29 June 1925(1925-06-29) (aged 59–60)
Diyarbakır, Turkey
Cause of deathExecution by hanging
NationalityKurdish
Known forSheikh, political revolutionary and spiritual leader of the first major Kurdish rebellion since the founding of the Turkish Republic
Parent(s)Sheikh Mehmud Fevzi (Father)
Gulê Xanim (Mother)
Rebellious leader
AllegianceAzadî - Society for the Rise of Kurdistan
Service/branchAzadî Battalion
RankSpiritual leader
Battles/wars

Sheikh Said of Piran (Kurdish: Şêx Seîd Pîranî,[1][2] 1865 – June 29, 1925) was a Kurdish sheikh, the main leader of the Sheikh Said rebellion[3] and a sheikh of the Naqshbandi order and the Piran tribe of Turkey.[4][5]

He was born in 1865 in Hınıs to an influential family from the Naqshbandi order, where his grandfather was an influential sheikh.[6] Sheikh Said studied religious sciences at the madrasa led by his father Sheikh Mahmud Fevzi as well from several Islamic scholars in the region.[7] Later he was involved in the local tekke set up by his grandfather Sheikh Ali.[6] His grandfather was a respected leader of the religious community and his grave was visited by thousands of pilgrims. He became the head of the religious community after his father Sheikh Mahmud died. In 1907 he toured the neighboring provinces in the east and he established contacts with officers from the Hamidiye cavalry.[6]

Early life

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Sheikh Said was born in Hınıs in 1865.[8][9] His father was named Sheikh Mahmud Fevzi and his mother was Gulê Hanım. After receiving education at several Madrasa in Palu, Elazığ, Diyarbakır and Muş, he became the leader of the Naqshbandi order upon the death of his father.[10] He settled there after his father migrated from Palu to Hınıs.[9] During World War I, he had to move to Pîran due to the advance of the Russian Empire into the Eastern Anatolia Region, and after the war he settled to Hınıs.[11]

Family and progeny

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His first wife was Amine Hanim, who died during the Russian-Turkish war. His second wife was Fatma Hanim, a sister of Halit Beg Cibran, the leader of the Azadî.[7]

His son Abdülhalik died after his deportation following the Sheikh Said rebellion.[12] His grandson Abdülmelik Fırat became a deputy of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.[13] Fırat says that his ancestors were not involved in politics until his grandfather, for they had cordial relations with the Ottoman elite.

The actress Belçim Bilgin is his great-grandniece.[14]

Political commitment

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Society for Kurdish Independence

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Main article: Azadî
Halid Beg Cibran, the founder of the Azadî.

The Azadî (English: Freedom), officially Civata Azadiya Kurd (Society for Kurdish Freedom), later Civata Xweseriya Kurd (Society for Kurdish Independence)[15] was a Kurdish secret organization.[16]

In 1923, he was approached by Yusuf Zia Bey, who wanted him to join the Kurdish secret organization Azadî.[17] He became the leader of the Azadî after Zia Bey and Halid Beg Cibran, the leader of the Azadî, were reportedly tipped off by the Yörük tribe.[7][18]

The Rebellion

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Turkish soldiers encircling Palu, Çapakçur (present-day: Bingöl), Genc (present-day: Kaleköy, Solhan), Piran, Hani, Lice, Ergani, Egil and Silvan, Cumhuriyet Newspaper, 30 March 1925.

The Azadi was to become a leading force in the Sheikh Said Rebellion[19] which began in February 1925 and starting from in Piran, soon spread as far as the surroundings of Diyarbakır.[20] In 1924, Yusuf Ziya was arrested. Yusuf Ziya Bey, who confessed to the organization were Sheikh Said along with Halid Beg Cibran, Hasananlı Halit and Hacı Musa. Traveling to the tribes in the eastern provinces, Sheikh Said made propaganda saying that the Republic and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk were irreligious, that Islam, marriage, chastity and honour, and the Quran would be abolished with the laws passed, and that the lords and Hodjas would be executed or exiled.[11][21][22]

The men of his brother-in-law, Colonel Halit Beg, said that they would inform the League of Nations, that there were no state military forces in the region and that they could easily capture the region.[22] He prepared a fatwa of rebellion against the Republic and the revolutions and wrote that the lives and property of those who supported the revolutions were halal. He sent the fatwa to the elders of the tribes. The Hormekî tribe in Varto announced that they would not comply with the uprising because they were pro-state. When Sheikh Said was invited to the Bitlis War Court to testify, he did not go to testify because he was old and sick, and his statement was taken in Hınıs.[23] After wandering around Diyarbakır, Bingöl, Ergani and Genç regions for about a month, he settled in his brother's house in Dicle on February 13, 1925. The uprising started ahead of schedule due to the conflict that broke out in Piran over the gendarmerie's attempt to arrest 5 criminals.[22][23][24]

Following the suppression of the Beytüssebap revolt, the Turks attempted to prevent an other rebellion. In February 1925, they moved into the Piran (today called Dicle) area to detain some Kurdish notables,[25] but were prevented by from it by men loyal to Sheikh Said.[24] The intrusion by the Turkish army provoked Kurds around Sheikh Said, and reportedly they have either killed or arrested all the Turkish officers in the areas under their control.[24] On 13 February 1925, Sheikh Said addressed the people in his sermon in the Piran mosque and stated:[26]

The madrasahs were closed. The Ministry of Religion and Foundations was abolished and the schools of religion were connected to the National Education. In the newspapers, a number of irreligious writers dare to insult the Prophet and extend the language of our Prophet. If I can do it today, I will start fighting myself and try to raise religion.

— Sheikh Said of Pîran

Sheikh Said was elected as the next commander of the Kurdish independence movement gathered around Azadî and Darhini was declared the capital of Kurdistan on the 14 February 1925.[24] Sheikh Said, who had taken the governor and the other officers captive while charging against Darhini (16 February), tried to gather the movement under a single center with a declaration urging the people to rise up in the name of Islam. In this statement, he used his seal which means 'the leader of the fighters for the sake of religion' and called everyone to fight for the sake of religion. Initially, the rebellion was initiated on behalf of the Islamic Sharia, but was later converted to the Kurdish independence movement.[27] The rebellion soon expanded and by 20 February, the town Lice, where the 5th Army corps was headquartered was captured.[28]

After receiving the support of the tribes of Mistan, Botan and Mhallami, he headed to Diyarbakır via Genç and Çapakçur (today known as Bingöl) and captured Maden, Siverek and Ergani. Another uprising, directed by Sheikh Abdullah attempted to capture Muş coming from Hınıs. But the rebels were defeated around Murat bridge and made them to retreat.[29] On 21 February, the government declared martial law in the eastern provinces. Army troops sent to the insurgents on 23 February were forced to retreat to Diyarbakir in the Winter Plain against the Sheikh Said forces. The next day, another uprising under the leadership of Sheikh Sharif, who entered Elazığ, kept the city under control for a short time. Elazığ was looted by rebels for several days.[30] At the 1 of March, the Kurds managed to assault the Diyarbakır airport and destroy three of the airplanes.[31]

In one of the bigger engagements, in the night of 6–7 March, the forces of Sheikh Said laid siege to the city of Diyarbakır with 5,000–10,000 men.[32][33] In Diyarbakır the headquarters of the Seventh Army Corps was located.[34] But neither the Kurdish notables nor the Kurdish farmers in the region in and around Diyarbakır refused to support the rebellion.[35] The Muslim Revivalists attacked the city at all four gates simultaneously. All of their attacks were repelled by the numerically inferior Turkish garrison, with the use of machine gun fire and mortar grenades. When the rebels retreated the next morning, the area around the city was full of dead bodies.[32] When a second wave of attacks failed, the siege was finally lifted on 11 March.[32] After a large consignment, a mass attack (26 March), and with a suppress operation the Turkish troops made many of the enemy troops to surrender and squeezed the insurgency leaders while they were preparing to move to the Iran in Boğlan (today known as Sohlan). Sheikh Sharif and some of the tribal leaders were captured in Palu, and Sheikh Said too in Varto was seized at Carpuh Bridge with a close relative's notice (15 April 1925).[29]

Turkish troops with the detained Sheik Said

By the end of March, most of the major battles of the Sheikh Said rebellion were over. The Turkish authorities, according to Martin van Bruinessen, crushed the rebellion with continual aerial bombardments and a massive concentration of forces.[36] The rebels were unable to penetrate beyond Hınıs, this was one of the two major areas where Sheikh Said was well known and he enjoyed considerable influence there (he had a tekke in Hınıs). This failure excluded the possibility of extending the rebellion.[37]

On the other hand, Hasan Hayri Efendi, who was Dersim Deputy and Alevi Zaza,[29] entered into solidarity with Sheikh Sharif, appointed by Sheikh Said as Commander of the Elaziz Front. A joint letter with Sheikh Sharif in Elaziz was sent to all the tribal leaders of Dersim on 6 March 1925.[38]

The Turkish army then opposed the rebellion and he was captured in mid-April 1925 after having been surrounded by the Turkish troops.[39] He was condemned to death by the Independence Tribunal in Diyarbakır on the 28 June 1925 and hanged the next day in Diyarbakır with 47 of his followers.[40] His remains were buried in an anonymous mass grave in order to prevent his memorization by the Kurds.[41]

Aftermath

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Seyit Abdülkadir, the leader of the Kurdish Teali Society and several of his friends who were accused of supporting the rebellion, were arrested in Istanbul and taken to Diyarbakır to be tried. As a result of the trial, Seyit Abdulkadir and five of his friends were sentenced to death by the Independence Tribunal in Diyarbakır on 23 May 1925 and executed four days later. A journalist for a Kurdish newspaper in Bitlis, the poet Hizanizâde Kemal Fevzi, was also among the executed.[42]

The Independence Tribunal in Diyarbakir also imposed a death sentence on Sheikh Said and 47 riots rulers on the 28 June 1925. Penalties were carried out the next day, by Sheikh Said coming up first.[43] The President of the Independence Tribunal in Diyarbakır that sentenced the rebels stated on 28 June 1925:

Certain among you have taken as a pretext for revolt the abuse by the governmental administration, some others have invoked the defence of the Caliphate.

— 28 June 1925[44][45]

In the fall of 1927, Sheikh Abdurrahman, the brother of Sheikh Said, began a series of revenge attacks on Turkish garrisons in Palu and Malatya.[46] In August 1928 Sheikh Abdurrahman and another brother of Sheikh Said, Sheikh Mehdi, turned themselves in and made use of the amnesty law issued by the Turkish Government in May of the same year.[47]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Şêx Seîd û hevalê ey Amed hetê PAKî ra amê yadkerdene Kaynak: Şêx Seîd û hevalê ey Amed hetê PAKî ra amê yadkerdene" (in Kurdish). Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  2. ^ "شۆڕشی شێخ سه‌عیدی پیران" (in Kurdish). Retrieved 22 December 2019.
  3. ^ Olson, Robert W. (1989). The emergence of Kurdish nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925. University of Texas Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-292-77619-7.
  4. ^ Özoğlu, Hakan (2004-02-12). Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries. SUNY Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-7914-5993-5.
  5. ^ Olson 1989, p. 101.
  6. ^ a b c Olson 1989, p. 100.
  7. ^ a b c "Who's who in Politics in Turkey" (PDF). Heinrich Böll Stiftung. p. 250. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2019. Retrieved 28 December 2020.
  8. ^ "İngiliz Belgelerinde Türkiye" Erol Ulubelen, Çağdaş Yay., 1982, sf.195; ak. U.Mumcu, "Kürt-İslam Ayaklanması" Tekin Yay., 19. Bas., 1995, sf.24
  9. ^ a b Sevr Anlaşmasına Doğru Osman Olcay, SBF Yay., Ankara-1981, s.121; ak. U. Mumcu, "Kürt-İslam Ayaklanması" Tekin Yay., 19.Bas. 1995, s. 28
  10. ^ "Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde Anlaşmalar 1924–1938" Genelkurmay Yay., Nak.-1972, ss.43–44; ak. U.Mumcu, "Kürt-İslam Ayaklanması" sf.53
  11. ^ a b Hakan Ozoglu (24 June 2011). From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic. ABC-CLIO. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-313-37957-4.
  12. ^ Üngör, Ugur Ümit (2012-03-01). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950. OUP Oxford. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-19-164076-6.
  13. ^ Kilic, Ecevit (2008-10-27). "CHP, dedemin gömüldüğü yere halkevi açtı". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  14. ^ ÇAPA, İzzet (11 January 2015). "13 yaşında ölümle burun buruna geldim". www.hurriyet.com.tr (in Turkish). Retrieved 2020-04-16.
  15. ^ Olson 1989, p. 41.
  16. ^ Hamelink, Wendelmoet (2016-04-21). The Sung Home. Narrative, Morality, and the Kurdish Nation. BRILL. p. 176. ISBN 978-90-04-31481-8.
  17. ^ Behrendt, Günter (1993). Nationalismus in Kurdistan: Vorgeschichte, Entstehungsbedingungen und erste Manifestationen bis 1925 (in German). Deutsches Orient-Institut. p. 373. ISBN 978-3-89173-029-4.
  18. ^ Üngör, Umut (2009). "Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. p. 231. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  19. ^ Olson 1989, pp. 101–102.
  20. ^ Özoğlu, Hakan (2011-06-24). From Caliphate to Secular State: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic: Power Struggle in the Early Turkish Republic. ABC-CLIO. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-313-37957-4.
  21. ^ Metin Toker, Şeyh Sait ve İsyanı, Akis Yayınları, Ankara 1968, s. 21.
  22. ^ a b c Olson 1989, p. 42.
  23. ^ a b Olson 1989, pp. 43–45.
  24. ^ a b c d Olson 1989, pp. 48–49.
  25. ^ Olson 1989, p. 107.
  26. ^ Behçet Cemal, Şeyh Sait İsyanı, Sel Yayınları, İstanbul 1955, p.24.
  27. ^ Sulhi Dönmezer, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devleti'ne Yönelik Bozguncu Hareketler ve Tehditler, Atatürk Araştırma Merkezi Dergisi (Sayı 38, Cilt: XIII, Temmuz 1997)
  28. ^ Olson 1989, p. 108.
  29. ^ a b c Chaliand, Gérard (1993). A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan. Zed Books. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-1-85649-194-5.
  30. ^ János M. Bak, Gerhard Benecke, Religion and rural revolt", Manchester University Press ND, 1984, ISBN 0719009901, pp. 289–290.
  31. ^ Olson 1989, p. 120.
  32. ^ a b c Uğur Ümit Üngör (1 March 2012). The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950. OUP Oxford. p. 125. ISBN 978-0-19-965522-9.
  33. ^ Olson 1989, p. 202.
  34. ^ Olson 1989, p. 104.
  35. ^ Olson 1989, pp. 98–99.
  36. ^ Maarten Martinus van Bruinessen (1978). Agha, Shaikh and State: On the Social and Political Organization of Kurdistan. Utrecht: University of Utrecht. ISBN 1-85649-019-X. (also London: Zed Books, 1992) [page needed]
  37. ^ Olson 1989, p. 115.
  38. ^ M. Nuri Dersimi, Kürdistan Tarihinde Dersim, Halep 1952, sayfa 180.
  39. ^ Olson 1989, p. 116.
  40. ^ Üngör, Umut. "Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. p. 243. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  41. ^ Üngör, Umut. "Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. p. 350. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  42. ^ Umut Üngör. "Young Turk social engineering: mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. pp. 241–242. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  43. ^ Umut Üngör. "Young Turk social engineering : mass violence and the nation state in eastern Turkey, 1913- 1950" (PDF). University of Amsterdam. p. 243. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  44. ^ Viennot, Jean-Pierre (1974) Contribution á l'étude de la Sociologie et de l'Histoire du Mouvement National Kurde: 1920 á nos Jours. Paris, Institut Nationale des Langues et Civilisations Orientales. p. 108
  45. ^ White, Paul J. (1995), "Ethnic Differentiation among the Kurds: Kurmancî, Kizilbash and Zaza", Journal of Arabic, Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, 2 (2): 67–90
  46. ^ David L. Phillips (2017). The Kurdish Spring: A New Map of the Middle East. p. 45.
  47. ^ Olson 1989, p. 125.
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