Shekak (tribe)

The Shekak or Shakkak^[1] (Kurdish: شکاک, Şikakî^[2]) is a Kurdish tribe present in various regions, mainly in West Azerbaijan province, Iran.

History

The Shikaki tribe are first mentioned in a Yezidi mişûr (manuscript) from 1207 AD, as one of the tribes affiliated to Pir Sini Darani, who is a Yezidi saint represented in the Yezidi religion as the Lord of the sea.^[3]

In the Sharafnama, they are mentioned twice. First, in the chapter on the emirate of Bohtan, as being one of the four tribes living in Hakkâri. Second, in the chapter on the Ayyubid emirate of Hasankeyf.^[4]

In a 16th-century Ottoman Defter, they are mentioned in the regions of Birecik, Kahta, Joum, Suruç and Ravendan, and called 'Taife-I Ekrâd-I Shikakî'.^[5] In another Defter, they are mentioned in the region of Çemişgezek.^[6]

Among the clans of the Shekak are the 'Awdoǐ^[7] or Evdoyî. According to their oral history they came from Diyarbakır in the 17th century and settled west of Lake Urmia,^[7] which displaced the Donboli tribe.^[8]

The first known chieftain of the 'Awdoǐ was Ismail Agha, who died in 1816 and whose tomb is beside the Naslu River.^[8] His grandson Jafar Agha was executed as a bandit in Tabriz in 1905.^[7] Jafar's brother Simko Shikak was responsible for leading the anti-Christian and anti-Alevi massacres in the area before and during World War I, and for the organised resistance against the regime of Reza Shah.^[9]

The Shekak tribe has been described as brave warriors and they trained officers of soldiers of the Qajar dynasty since the reign of Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar.^[10]

Spread

The tribe inhabits the villages of Akçakuşak, Çevrimli, Düğünyurdu, Koçtepe and Yatağankaya in the Şırnak Province of Turkey.^[2] It moreover inhabits multiple villages in Tunceli Province.^[11]

Turkicized Shiite portions of the tribe historically inhabited East Azerbaijan.^[12]

Leaders

• Ismail Agha (d. 1816 or 1820)^[13]
• Ali Khan
• Mehmed Agha
• Timur (Teymûr) Agha
• Jafar Agha (d. 1905)
• Simko Agha (b. 1887 d. 1930)

References

1. Oberling, Pierre (20 July 2004). "Kurdish Tribes". Encyclopædia Iranica. New York. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 6 August 2013.{{cite encyclopedia}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
2. Baz, Ibrahim (2016). Şırnak aşiretleri ve kültürü (in Turkish). p. 145. ISBN 9786058849631.
3. Pirbari, Dimitri; Mossaki, Nodar; Yezdin, Mirza Sileman (2020-03-03). "A Yezidi Manuscript:—Mišūr of P'īr Sīnī Bahrī/P'īr Sīnī Dārānī, Its Study and Critical Analysis". Iranian Studies. 53 (1–2): 223–257. doi:10.1080/00210862.2019.1669118. ISSN 0021-0862. S2CID 214483496.
4. Şerefxanê Bedlîsî. Şerefname: Dîroka Kurdistanê. Translated by Z. Avci. Viranşehir: Azad, 2014.
5. Öztürk, Mustafa. 16.Yüzyilda Kilis, Urfa, Adiyaman ve çevresinde Cemaatler-Oymaklar. Elazig: Firat Üniversitesi Basimevi, 2004.
6. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2019-01-05. Retrieved 2019-01-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
7. Houtsma, M. Th.; et al. (1993). "Salmas". E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936. Vol. 4 (Reprint ed.). E.J. Brill. p. 118. ISBN 90-04-09796-1.
8. Houtsma, M. Th.; et al. (1993). "Shakāk". E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936. Vol. 4 (Reprint ed.). E.J. Brill. p. 290. ISBN 90-04-09796-1.
9. O'Leary, Brendan; Ṣāliḥ, Khālid (2005). "The Denial, Resurrection, and Affirmation of Kurdistan". In O'Leary, Brendan; McGarry, John; Salih, Khaled (eds.). The Future of Kurdistan in Iraq. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 3–46. ISBN 0-8122-3870-2.
10. Kalīm Allāh Tavaḥḥudī, Awghāzī (1981). حرکت تاريخي کرد به خراسان در دفاع از استقلال ايران (in Persian). p. 488.
11. Gültekin, Ahmet Kerim (2019). Gezik, Erdal; Gültekin, Ahmet Kerim (eds.). Kurdish Alevis and the Case of Dersim: Historical and Contemporary Insights. Lexington Books. p. 106.
12. Minorsky, V. (1997). "S̲h̲aḳāḳī". In Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E.; Heinrichs, W. P. & Lecomte, G. (eds.). The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Volume IX: San–Sze. Leiden: E. J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10422-8.
13. Mihemed Resûl Hawar. Simko Axayê Şikakî û Tevgera Neteweyî ya Kurd. Translated by Ziya Avci (Istanbul: Nûbihar, 2016), 190-2.