Soran (Emirate)

In sources dating back to the times of the Sassanids and the Arab Caliphate , the area east of Mosul is referred to as Ba Soren (in the Syriac language, Beit Soran is literally "Soran Land"). The name is probably associated with the name of the Soran clan, who during the last Sassanid king Yazdigerd III ruled the territory of modern Iraqi Kurdistan .

The founder of the emirate of Soran, which arose around 1399 , during the time of the conquests of Timur , was Kulos ^[1] .

The name of the emirate goes back to the name of Sorani - one of the Kurdish languages (also known as the "Central Kurdish language ", or "southern Kurmanji"); it is spoken by most Kurds in Iraq and Iran ). The name of the Soran region, part of the Erbil governorate, with its center in Ravanduz is also derived from the name of the emirate.

In 1554, the territory of modern Iraqi Kurdistan was conquered by the Ottoman troops of Suleiman I. The Kurdish emirates located here (including Soran) were not directly included in the Ottoman administrative system. They were listed as part of the Sharazor ejalet , subordinate, in turn, to Baghdad Pashalyk ; however, the emirates' dependence on the Ottoman authorities was nominal. They were obliged to provide a military detachment at the disposal of the Baghdad Pasha during military campaigns, and from time to time sent expensive gifts to him. Kurdish emirs were exempted from state taxes ^{[2] [3]} .

In 1787, the city ​​of Ravanduz became the capital of the emirate of Soran. At the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, an internecine struggle took place in the emirate, during which applicants for power turned for help to the rulers of the neighboring Kurdish emirates, who lay to the west of the Emirate of Badinan and located south of Baban ^[4] .

In 1814, the emir of Soran Suleiman Bey ( Sulaiman Bey ) died, who was succeeded by his son Mir Muhammad ( Mir Muhammad ); however, until 1825 the widow of the late Khanzad ^{[1] [5]} stood at the head of the principality as regent.

World Muhammad was a gifted and energetic man, but at the very beginning of his reign he had to endure the struggle for the throne with other applicants - the Suleyman-Bey brothers and their sons. Generously spending the money accumulated by his father, Mir Muhammad created a well-armed detachment, surrounded Ravanduz with a fortress wall, and on the hill north of the city erected the fortress of Nij-kala. Leading to the submission of relatives, Mir Muhammad defeated one of the rulers of the emirate in battle at the Kharkil Selim Khan fortress in August 1815, then defeated the other ruler of this emirate, Hassan Bey, and in September captured the main fortress of Bradost - Sarou. Then he also captured the areas of Mergaver and Ushnu ^[6] .

In 1818, Mir Muhammad proclaimed himself "Emir Mansour" - an independent ruler. He brought the size of his army to 15 thousand people, and set up the manufacture of cold steel and firearms and the release of ammunition in Ravanduz. As a sign of independence from the Ottoman Empire, he began issuing gold, silver and copper coins, on the front side of which the inscription “Al Amir Mansour Mohammed Bey” was minted. Expanding the borders of his state, Mir Muhammad peacefully seized the city of (the former capital of Soran, which had been in Baban’s hands for half a century), and in 1823 he took Koy-Sanjak - another city that was part of Baban. Moving west, he captured Erbil ^{[5] [7]} .

The next goal of the World of Muhammad was Bahdinan. Using as an excuse the Yezidis committed in 1831 the murder of the leader of the Kurdish tribe Mazuri and the unsuccessful attempt of the Bakhdin emir Mir Said to punish the murderers, Mir Muhammad attacked the Yezidi villages east of Mosul . Thousands of men, women and children were killed, the rest fled from their native places (this caused the anger of the Ottoman authorities, since the Mosul Yezidis were Ottoman subjects) ^[5] .

Undermining the prestige of Mir Said, Mir Muhammad switched to active actions in the north. In 1833, he captured the Bakhdinan city of Acra , and then after a short siege he took Amadia , the capital of Bakhdinan; He drove the world of Said from the throne, replacing him with his puppet. Immediately after this, Mir Muhammad occupied the Bakhdin cities of Zahu and Dahuk ^[5] .

As a result of the military campaign of 1833, Mir Muhammad controlled already most of the modern territory of Iraqi Kurdistan (Soran, Bahdinan, the vicinity of Mosul) and came close to the borders of Bohtan . He suggested that the emir of Bokhtan conclude an allied anti-Ottoman treaty, but he himself, claiming dominance within the borders of Kurdistan, rejected this proposal ^[8] . Mir Muhammad began a campaign against Bokhtan, but was forced to turn back: in Amadia, Mir Said again seized power. Mir Muhammad once again took possession of the city, sparing no one of its inhabitants, after which he added Bahdinan to his possessions ^[9] .

In 1834, the Ottoman sultan Mahmoud II , whose hands were untied after the conclusion of peace in the previous year with Muhammad Ali Egypt , sent a 40,000-strong army led by his best commander against the emir of Iran. In the summer, the army of Rashid Mehmed Pasha launched an offensive on Soran and approached Ravanduz, but the coming winter forced her to retreat. In 1836, Rashid Mehmed Pasha embarked on a new campaign against Soran. In late August, the Turkish army surrounded Ravanduz. Since the emir’s troops did not have enough water and food, he decided to surrender on the terms of honor proposed to him ^{[8] [10]} .

However, the Turks did not keep their word. Prisoner Mir Muhammad was sent to Istanbul and was soon killed there by order of Mahmoud II. Emirate Soran was liquidated, its territory passed under the direct control of the Ottoman authorities. Throughout the fall, Ottoman forces were asserting their authority within the former emirate, killing 10,000 Kurds. But the losses in the Turkish army were also great, and losses from the outbreak of the cholera epidemic were added to the losses in the battles. In January 1837, Rashid Mehmed Pasha himself died of cholera in Diyarbakir ^[11] .

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• Kurdistan: Short-lived independent states