Pahlavi as a linguistic entity

One of the earliest preserved accounts of the linguistic condition in ancient Media in Arabic sources is found in Ibn al Nadim's 10th century work, which quotes an older author, Ibn al Muqaffa (8th century):

'Abd Allah ibn al-Muqaffa' said, "The languages of the Persians are the Pahlawi, the Deri, the Parsi, the Khuzistānī, and the Syriac, The Pahlawi (al-Fahlawiyah) is related to Pahlav (Fahlah), a region which includes five cities: Işbahan, Rayy, Hamadhan, Mah Nahawand, and Adharbayjan. The Deri (al-Durīyah) was the language of the cities of al-Mada'in, spoken at the king's court. It was derived from presence at the court (al-bab), coming chiefly from the language of the people of Khurasan and the East, the speecli of the people of Balkh. Priests, scholars, and their like speak Parsī (al-Farsiyah), the speech of the people of Fars. The kings and nobles used to speak the Khuzistānī (al-Khūzīyah) in privacy, in places of play and amusement, and with their retinues. The people of al-Sawad used to speak Syriac (al-Suriyānīyah), writing in one form of Persian Syriac.

Ibn al Muqaffa's testimony is enigmatic. Much has been said about what the various designations may indicate for Ibn al Muqaffa. The better question is to determine what the plausible scenario on the ground was and how it related to Ibn al Muqaffa's description. A popular but incorrect assumption from the text is that 'pahlavi' was a standardized and uniform dialect or language. This cannot have been the linguistic condition in the eighth century, nor was there a single dialect/language in that region for centuries afterward. The 'pahlavi' label, as a linguistic entity, would be an amalgamation of multiple languages over centuries, many of which would be mutually incomprehensible to speakers of two different languages/dialects in the region. The plot becomes more interesting, but also more difficult, as the ethnic label of the Kurd-label in Arabic sources during the early centuries is considered. Kurdish, as a linguistic entity, was unknown for most of the premodern period and not named as such. The Kurdish language(s) would be placed under other generic labels, Pahlavi being one example. 

Marcos Dobelio, Christian Kurd in early modern Europe

Marcos Dobelio was among the more remarkable figures of his age. He devoted himself to the study and translation of Eastern books, making their contents accessible to a European readership. It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to establish a complete catalogue of his Latin translations, for many of the manuscripts preserved in European libraries have survived in a lamentable state. Yet some of his works have been identified. Among them is a brief history of mankind composed by Abulfeda, the Kurdish ruler of Hama.

Dobelio is, in many respects, an instructive example of the Kurdish man of letters in the premodern world. He understood the circumstances in which he found himself and adapted accordingly. In Europe, Christianity was the surest means of earning one's bread; and so he made his living through the opportunities that presented themselves. There was little room for sentiment in such matters. The Kurdish literati of earlier centuries often displayed a remarkable capacity to accommodate themselves to the societies in which they lived, moving between religious and intellectual worlds with an eye to their own advancement. Their spiritual pursuits was to maximize profit and pleasure. 

Source

The Kurd-label and Mardi in the 10th-century

In the literature of ages past, the question of the Kurds' illustrious progenitor assumes several forms, each more curious than the last. Among the accounts preserved by al Masudi in the tenth century, two legends, drawing upon the ancient storehouse of Iranian mythology, undertake to trace the descent of all those who bore the name of Kurd to a single ancestral source. The notion of a common forefather, it seems, haunted more than one tradition. In the first account, the line of descent leads, by a winding and somewhat obscure path, to Fereydun, the fabled sovereign of the Pishdadian dynasty. The tale tells of a time when a single people inhabited (Iran), only to be divided thereafter into several distinct nations. The second account, by contrast, mingles the blood of Arab ancestry with Iranian mythology. It would appear, moreover, that al Masudi himself was unaware of the history behind the legendary origins of the first branch of this genealogical tree.

But what strange circumstance has given the Kurdish progenitor a father named Mard? The name is no mere accident of invention. Its roots reach into the shadowy borderland where history and fable intermingle. Behind it lies the memory of the Mardi, an ancient tribe whose name, through the slow transformations of tradition, became entangled with legend. What particular tales the Kurds of the tenth century may have associated with this name, however, has been lost to us. We are left to follow the faint traces of a tradition whose beginnings lie beyond our reach.

Yet the mythological associations of the Mardi are not without significance. In certain ancient accounts, the tribe came to be regarded as a people from whom mighty rulers might descend. Among the surviving ancient testimonies, perhaps the most striking is that of Nicolaus of Damascus. In his account of the life of Cyrus the Great, he invokes the Mardi and declares Cyrus to have descended from their stock.

Al Masudi writes: 

Kurdish ancestry in Sudan and the beginning of a capital city

The Ayyubid era is when Kurdish influx to Sudan began. Emigration continued until the end of the Ottoman era, when a few Kurdish troops and military leaders made Sudan their permanent home. And what became of them?

At several points in history, the original Kurdish individuals who emigrated intermarried with the local populace. The Diqnab family's example appears to be a pattern that can be applied throughout centuries. 

Some examples of more recent personalities in Sudan with Kurdish ancestry: The poet Abdullah Hassan Kurdi. The diplomat Tariq Kurdi. The bureaucratic elite, Omar Ibrahim Kurdi. A former "fariq" in the Sudanese army was Ali Muhammad Ibrahim Kurdi. Up until the present day, the general trend for this tiny community in Sudan has remained very constant with their members being from the wealthy and powerful. That's a brief overview of what happened to the children of Kurdish immigrants. The study by Jawhar Jalal, which was primarily based on recent conversations with these families is the rare attempt to provide some insight into the history and current circumstances of this tiny population. 

The establishment of a capital city by a Kurdish governor

The 'Egyptian' conquest of Sudan in the early 19th century marked the beginning of Khartoum's development into a town and then into a city. Early on, Sudan was ruled by the military under Muhammad Ali Pasha's governors. In 1825, the way the native sudanese were treated underwent a sea change. A Kurdish cavalry officer was named by Muhammad Ali Pasha as the campaign's top commander in Sudan. Taxes were lowered, and the army's ruthless tactics against the indigenous people were curbed. And Sudan's transition to a civil administration started to take form. Khartoum's position was altered by this background, allowing it to become a capital city. Mahu Bey was the Kurdish governor who paved the way for Khartoum to become the capital city of Sudan. 

Source (in Kurdish): https://jkss.kissr.edu.iq/index.php/en/article/view/246

Kurdish governors/commanders during Shah Abbas

The Safavid scribe Iskandar Beg enumerates the most significant military leaders and governors under Shah Abbas's reign. The second-highest number of governors and commanders are Kurdish. During Shah Abbas' rule, there was a noticeable increase in the incorporation of Kurdish figures: 

(37) Hoseyn Khan Abbasi of Lor-e Feyli, the beglerbeg of Lores-tān and an emir especially favored by the Shah.

(38) Khan Ahmad Khan Ardalan b. Holow Khan, the beglerbeg of Šahrezūr and one of the great emirs.

(39) Kalil Khan b. Jahangir Khan, governor of Lor-e Baktiari. 

(40) 'Ašūr Khan Čegant, the governor of Marv-e Šāhījān and a trusted emir.

(41) Ahmad Sultan Čegani b. Jāmı Sultan, governor of Sabzavar.

(42) Salman Khan the sūbāši Donboli, governor of Čors and Salmās.

(43) Emamqoli Sultan Stah-manşür, governor of Esfarā'ın in Khorasan.

(44) Reżāqoli Sultan Siah-manşür, the governor of the fortress of Bost in Zamin-dāvar.

(45) Beyrām Ali Sultan Şüfi, the governor of the Deylamān region of Gīlān; he is an emir of one of the Kurdish tribes.

(46) Ali Mardan Khan b. Ganj Ali Khan Zig, one of the great emirs; he succeeded his father as beglerbeg of the province of Kan-dahar.

(47) Maqşūd Sultan Donboli, governor of Bargošāţ.

(48) Alī Jān Sultan Šaqaqī, the chief of the Saqaqī tribe.

(49) Šoja' al-Din Sultan Sürla, one of the emirs of Šīrvän.

(50) Nafas Sultan Garrūs, the governor of the fortress of Lak in the Baghdad region, a dependency of Dar-e Tang.

(51) Gedā'ī Sultan Kūlānī, the governor of Zenjän.

(52) Qalandar Sultan Kala-gir, chief of that tribe and an emir of Azerbaijan.

(53) Mostafa Sultan Jastānī, nicknamed Abdal Alt, the governor of Jastan, a dependency of Baghdad.

Kurdish governors of Kabul

Apart from the well-known Ali Mardan, the 18th-century Mughal historian Samsam ud Daula describes a few migrants from the Kurdish Zig tribe. Among other places, some of them held positions in what is now Afghanistan. Kabul was governed by Nasir Khan and his son, Nasiri Khan. As evidence of the non-ideological character of premodern leaders and conflicts, Nasiri Khan was reappointed as governor of Kabul following Nader Shah's conquest of the area:

He was the sister's son and son-in-law (khwesh) of the famous 'Alī Mardan Khan. When Sa'id Khan, the governor of Kabul, came to Qandahar in accordance with the request of 'Ali Mardan Khan, he found the inhabitants and the subjects in a wavering condition of goodwill. He perceived that it would not be possible to make proper arrangements while the Persian troops were in the neighbourhood of Bust, and so he left 'Ali Mardan Khan in the citadel of Qandahar with a body of troops, and took with him, under the leadership of Husain Bēg, 3,000 cavalry and engaged the Persians. The latter almost overpowered 'Ali Mardān's men and made them waver, but Sa'id Khan came up in time and defeated the enemy. Then Husain Bēg with 'Ali Mardan Khan waited on Shah Jahan and was rewarded with princely favours. As signs of capability were apparent in Husain Beg, he was removed from the companionship of the said Khan and made Master of the Horse a charge which is not granted to any but really trustworthy men. In the 18th year, he received, in addition, the employment of the Tuzuk, a decorated staff and an increase of rank. In the 21st year, he was sent away from the Court and made the governor of Kashmir, with the title of Khan and an increase of 500 personality (dhāt) with 500 horse, and was granted the rank of 1,500 with 1,000 horse and the gift of a flag and an elephant, and went off there. In the 28th year, he was made the faujdar of the Mīyān Dūāb in succession to Ghadanffar Khan and was sent to take charge of the buildings of Mukhlispür, the foundation of which had been fixed for 17th Muharram, 1065 A.H. In the 31st year, he was again appointed to a confidential position and made Mir Tuzuk. In the battle of Sāmūgarh, he had charge of the royal artillery. Dārā Shikōh's artillery was under the charge of Barqandāz Khan and was on the right, and the royal artillery was on the left and both were in front of the armies. Neither yielded to the other in kindling the flames of battle and in the heat of contest. But what remedy was there for a ruined leader! After Dārā Shikōh's flight, and when the business of the state fell to Aurangzīb's servants, Husain Bēg was exalted by kissing the threshold of the Caliphate. In the year of the accession he was appointed as the faujdar of Bangash, but in the end of the second year he was removed. In the 18th year, he was made the faujdar of Jaunpür, and in the 19th year in the end of the year 1086 A.D. (1676 A.D.) he died. His sons, Mirzā 'Atā Ullah and Mirzā Amān, were long in attendance on the Emperor. The former died after attaining the rank of 700, while the other was appointed to Kabul and there distinguished himself and was given the name of Nasir Khān. His biography has been given separately.

NAŞIR KHAN MUHAMMAD AMĀN

He was the son of Husain Bēg Khan. In the reign of 'Alamgir he was appointed to Kabul, and having performed good services there was granted the title of Nasir Khan. In the beginning of Bahadur Shah's reign, when Ibrāhīm Khan, who had been appointed Governor of Kabul, did not make a proper settlement of the country, and so retired to his fief in Sōdhra, Nasir Khan was appointed Governor in his place¹. He died about the end of Farrukh Siyar's reign, probably in the year 1129 A.H. (1717 A.D.). His son Naşīrī Khān succeed-ed his father as the Governor. As his mother was an Afghan, he made a proper settlement of the country and kept the roads in good order. In the 2nd year of Muhammad Shah's reign, when Nizām-ul-Mulk was appointed the Chief Minister, an order was issued con-firming Naşīrī Khan in the appointment and granting him the title of his father. When Nadir Shah on his way to India entered Kabul, he was in Peshawar. When in 1151 A.H. (1738 A.D.) the royal army reached Peshawar, a battle took place between them, and the said Khan was made a prisoner. For a time he was under surveillance. After reaching Lahore, Nadir Shah pardoned him, and as appointed him Governor of Kabul, and confirmed him in the appoint-ment after his return from Delhi. He spent a long time in Kabul, but lost his governorship in the time of Shah Durrani. He came to Shah Nawaz Khan Philaurī, and later went to Delhi. In the year 1161 А.Н. (1748 A.D.) he hurried with I'timad-ud-Daulh to fight against the Shah Durrānīs. Afterwards, he went to the Panjab with Musin-ul-Mulk, and was given charge of certain estates. As they disagreed, he returned to Delhi'.

Kurdistan as a hub for music in the Ottoman period

Kurdistan, a historical center of music:

In this regard, Evliya Celebi characterizes Abdal Khan, the Kurdish ruler of Bidlis, as a significant musician of his era:

He has a very high and melancholy voice, and when anyone hears him take the daire (frame-drum) into his hand and perform a taksîm to the couplets of Hafız, or sing a kâr, a savt, or a zecel, paying attention to the twenty-four rhythmic cycles while singing and beating the def, would leave off his business and stand totally amazed. 

Lady Adela, the exception?

More than a century ago, the English traveler Bannister Soane encountered a remarkable Kurdish couple in Halabja. Figures such as Adela Khatun are well known today, yet they are often portrayed as exceptional anomalies, rare examples of women participating in political or military affairs. In reality, the opposite direction is true in my opinion. Women taking part in battles and political life were likely far more common than surviving sources suggest.

What survives in written form represents only a tiny fraction of the past. Given the social structures, political dynamics, and character of many Kurdish tribes, it would be more surprising if ambitious and influential women had been excluded from military and political affairs. The women whose names have come down to us are therefore unlikely to have been unique exceptions. Rather, they were probably among the relatively few whose lives happened to be recorded in the limited body of sources that has survived.

Bannister Soane writes: 

The old Jaf Pashas had been forced to keep upon good terms with the dynasty of Ardalan, and from time to time marriages were effected between the Jaf and Ardalan chiefs and petty chiefs. 

These alliances were looked upon with great dis-favour and some alarm by the Turks, whose keenest desire is to see the Jaf on bad terms with their neigh-bours in Persia. Consequently when Uthman Pasha in 1895 announced his intention of marrying into the family of the Ardalan Vazirs, some futile opposition was offered by the Turkish Government. However, he pro ceeded to Sina and brought home to Halabja, then an insignificant village, as bride, a lady of the Vazir family whose father occupied an important position in Teheran. Once installed at Halabja, Lady Adela proceeded, aided by the prestige of her family, to assert her position, a procedure not opposed by Uthman Pasha. She built two fine houses, finer than any edifice in Sulaimania, upon the Sina model, importing Persian masons and artificers to do the work. Her servants were all Persian subjects, and in Halabja she instituted in her new houses a little colony of Persian Kurds, and opened her doors to all travellers from and to that country, and kept continual communications with Sina, five days' journey away. Gradually the official power came into her hands. Uthman Pasha was often called away to attend to affairs, and occasionally had to perform journeys to Sulaimania, Kirkuk, and Mosul on matters of govern-ment. So Lady Adela, governing for him in his absence, built a new prison, and instituted a court of justice of which she was president, and so consolidated her own power, that the Pasha, when he was at Halabja, spent his time smoking a water pipe, building new baths, and carrying out local improvements, while his wife ruled. 

She built a bazaar in Halabja, a square construction having four covered rows of shops connected by alleys of more shops, all covered in and domed with good brick arches, and trade flowed in to Halabja, which grew to considerable importance. Such importance did the place attain that the Turks actually grew jealous, and to obtain a hold over it, put up a telegraph line, to which the tribesmen objected, and expressed their objection by cutting down the wire. At the same time Lady Adela advised the Turks not to repair it, for she too objected to the incursion of Turks upon her territory, and warned them that as fast as they built up telegraph wires her people should cut them down. And so to-day Halabja possesses no telegraph line, though a uniformed official lives there and rejoices in the title of Post and Telegraph Master. Every summer, when the climate of Halabja becomes oppressively hot, the court of Lady Adela repairs to a little village in the hills, or to a town in Persian territory, where some three or four months are passed.

In and around Halabja Lady Adela has instituted the Persian fashion of making gardens, apart from the gardens around the houses, and now outside the little town are several of the graceful and thickly treed gardens which are only seen in Persia, gardens which are wildernesses of large shady trees, with unsuspected bowers and flower-beds in their shady depths. So here, in a remote corner of the Turkish Empire, which decays and retrogrades, is one little spot, which, under the rule of a Kurdish woman has risen from a village to be a town, and one hill-side, once barren, now sprinkled with gardens; and these are in a measure renovations of the ancient state of these parts.

Qara Qoyunlu against the Kurdish dynasties

Thomas, a fifteenth-century Armenian chronicler, recounts the events that preceded the fall of the Kurdish rulers to the Qara Qoyunlu dynasty. His account centres on the ruler of Hakkari, Izz al-Din Shir, also known as Ezdin:

Now after the death of Timur in 857 of the Armenian Era [1408], the Turkmen [Qara] Yusuf once again came to our land, first to the city of Bitlis. The son of emir Sharaf, Shams al-Din, went before him and greatly honored him with bread, donkeys, horses, weapons, and all military and battle preparations. Taking this, [Yusuf] went against the land of Rshtunik' and the monastery[-complex, vanakert] of Varag. Preparing their forces, [the people of Rshtunik'] came before him with more than 12,000 troops. The treacherous Mar (Mar = Medes, Armenians used the term to refer to Kurds) people cheated the goodly Melik' who was fond of and merciful toward Christians-they fled. Then [Qara Yusuf] destroyed the land with fire, robbing, killing, and polluting. Then emir Ezdin and his son Melik' submitted.

The Ottoman plan to create a Kurdish army

The English ambassador from the 17th century, Thomas Roe, provides an intriguing account of Sultan Osman's demise. The Ottoman Grand Vizier persuaded the Sultan to form a new force by 'going to the East' and assembling Kurds, according to Roe: 

He was no Emperour, nor could be safely alive, while the Janizaries had the power which they lately usurped: Informing him, that they were cor-rupted from their ancient Institution, & were lazie Cowards, given over to ease and lust, et animo per libidines corrupto, nihil honestum inerat. But if his Majestie would pull up his spirits, and follow his advice, hee would provide him a new Souldioury about Damascus, and from the Coords, of men ever bred in the frontier, hardnes, and warre, of great courage and experience, and that of them he should erect a new Militia, that should wholly depend of him.