Thursday, June 13, 2024

Kurds in 16th century Palestine & Jordan

Archival sources from the Ottoman bureucracy provide significant information about the Kurdish presence in 16th-century Jordan and Palestine. Some of the specifics include their population distribution patterns, development into villages and towns, and economic activity. Endowments made by or for Kurds were widespread in the region at the time. By the 16th century, the Kurds who had settled during the Ayyubid period constituted a minority of the Kurdish people in Palestine/Jordan. Non-Ayyubid migrants constituted the vast bulk of persons who identified as Kurds or had such indicators in the literature. Another detail is sometimes neglected in relation to the remaining Kurds in Palestine and Jordan. There is a prevalent notion, echoed by this author, about "the Ayyubid starting point".

A point I wish to make is that there is no definitive starting point for Kurdish (broadly defined) migration to Palestine and surrounding regions except as a literary construct. 

















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