Kurdish Muslims

Kurdish Muslims (Kurdish: موسڵمانی کورد, romanized: Musilmanên Kurd) are Kurds who follow Islam, which is the largest religion among Kurds and has been for centuries.^[1] Kurds largely became Muslims in the 7th century.^[2][3]

Kurdish Muslims
موسڵمانی کورد, Musilmanên Kurd

Total population
Almost 90% of Kurds (75% Sunni & 15% Shia)
Regions with significant populations
Kurdistan and Kurdish diaspora
Religions
Sunni Islam (Shafi'ism) Shia Islam (Twelver) Kurdish Alevism Sufism
Scriptures
Quran and (for Sunnis) hadith
Languages
Kurdish Zaza–Gorani

History

Before Islam, the majority of Kurds followed western Iranic Paganism which originates from Indo-Iranian traditions.^[4][5][6] Kurds made first contact with Islam in the 7th century during the Early Muslim conquests.^[2] Kurds were a nation divided between the Byzantine and Persian Empires, before being united under the Rashidun Caliphate. Jaban al-Kurdi and his son Meymun al-Kurdi were the first Kurds who converted to Islam, and they also were Muslim missionaries who helped introduce Islam to many other Kurds. Khalil al-Kurdi al-Semmani was one of the first Kurdish tabi'uns.^{[7][8][9][10]} Mass conversion of Kurds to Islam didn't happen until the reign of Umar ibn Al-Khattab, second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate between 634 and 644.^[11][12] The Kurds first came into contact with the Muslim armies during the Muslim conquest of Persia in 637. The Kurdish tribes had been an important element in the Sasanian Empire, and initially gave strong support to the Sasanians as they tried to fight the Muslim armies, between 639 and 644. Although once it was clear that the Sassanids would soon fall, the Kurdish chiefs one by one submitted to the Muslim armies and agreed to accept Islam, leading to their tribe members doing the same.^[13]

Despite the Muslims establishing control over all of Kurdistan, and the majority of Kurds converting to Islam, small communities of Kurds remained in the impenetrable mountains and did not accept Islam. By the 13th century, some of them remained, occasionally attacking Muslim settlements. Bar Hebraeus wrote that it "in the year six hundred and two of the Arabs [1205 AD], a race of the Kurds who were in the mountains of Madai (Media), and who are called Tirahaye, came down from the mountains, and wrought great destruction in those countries. And troops of the Persians were gathered together, and they met them in battle and many of them were killed. Now these mountaineers had not entered the Faith of the Muslims, but they had adopted the primitive paganism and Magianism. When a Muslim fell into their hands they put him to death with cruel tortures."^[14] By the 8th century, the most of them had already converted to Islam without Arabization. The Kurds resisted Arabs for social reasons rather than reluctance to accept Islam.^[15]

Today, the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims, and there are Shia, Sufi, and Alevi minorities. Sunni Muslim Kurds are mostly Shafi'is.^[16] There was a small minority of Zaydi Kurds before the decline of Zaydism.^[17] Approximately 75% of Kurds are Sunni Muslims, and approximately 15% are Shia Muslims, with the remaining 10% being many other religions.^[18]

Contemporary Kurdish Muslims

Islam has gained strong support from Kurds and has historically acted as the back-bone of the Kurdish Movement.^[19]

After the secularization of Turkey, Turkish Kurdistan became the last stronghold of Islam, where Islamic schools were preserved, and many Turkish Muslim scholars went to Kurdistan in order to get the proper Islamic education.^[19] The first ever mosque in modern-day Turkey was Menüçehr Mosque, built in 1072 by the Kurdish Muslim dynasty Shaddadids.^[20]

After the rise of the Kurdish Islamism (a Kurdish nationalist and Islamist ideology) in the 1980s, the Kurdish Islamists used their Kurdish identity and Islam to defend themself against their main enemies, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria.^[21][22]

See also

• A Modern History of the Kurds by David McDowall
• Spread of Islam among Kurds