So, my parents were both born in Sivas/Turkey and are Kurdish Alevis (I myself was born in London). I wanted to know about my ancestry and culture.
For example, do the kurds come from a fighting background? Or were they fighting the turks constantly? Like, what were they doing?
Thank you for filling me in on my family ancestry :D
In the period in which I specialize (16th & 17th Centuries), Kurdistan was a special administrative region of the Ottoman Empire. Ottoman control was relatively weak compared to other regions of the empire, and many of its cities and towns were under the de facto control of local Kurdish lords connected to the Ottoman Empire by ties of vassalage (hükumet). The Ottomans attempted to maintain positive relations with these local lords, because Kurdistan was located on the empire's eastern frontier with the Shi'ite Safavids. In light of this, the Ottomans favored Sunni Kurdish lords over non-Sunnis, and sought their help during periods of warfare between the two empires. As this was a pre-nationalistic age, the religious similarities and differences between the Kurds and their Ottoman overlords were far more important in determining the course of their relationships than any ethnic difference between Kurds and Turks.
Kurdistan was generally regarded as a backwards and inhospitable region, a kind of "Wild East" of the Ottoman Empire. It was inhabited by numerous tribes, which formed the backbone of the armies of the local lords. Nevertheless most lords were based in cities and shared in the same urban cosmopolitan Islamic culture of other cities in the Middle East. Despite its reputation as a backwater, scholars from Kurdistan played a major role in Ottoman intellectual and religious life during this period, many of whom wrote significant works on philosophy, science, and theology. One of the more famous of such figures was Vani Mehmed Efendi, a preacher attached to the Kadızadeli religious movement who moved to Istanbul in the entourage of the grand vizier Köprülüzade Fazıl Ahmed Pasha and achieved fame as the personal religious advisor to Sultan Mehmed IV (r. 1648-1687). This inaugurated a period of renewed religious vigor in the Ottoman court, lasting until his fall from grace in 1683 in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Siege of Vienna.
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