Reşwan, (; ) also known as Reşiyan, is a Kurdish tribe, native to the western frontier of

Kurdistan Kurdistan (, ; ), or Greater Kurdistan, is a roughly defined geo- cultural region in West Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages, and national identity have historically been based. G ...

, mostly populating Adıyaman,

Gaziantep Gaziantep, historically Aintab and still informally called Antep, is a major city in south-central Turkey. It is the capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Medi ...

Kahramanmaraş Kahramanmaraş (), historically Marash (; ) and Germanicea (), is a city in the Mediterranean Region, Turkey, Mediterranean region of Turkey and the administrative centre of Kahramanmaraş Province, Kahramanmaraş province. After 1973, Maraş was ...

and

Malatya Malatya (; ; Syriac language, Syriac ܡܠܝܛܝܢܐ Malīṭīná; ; Ancient Greek: Μελιτηνή) is a city in the Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey and the capital of Malatya Province. The city has been a human settlement for thousands of y ...

provinces in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and also present in

Konya Konya is a major city in central Turkey, on the southwestern edge of the Central Anatolian Plateau, and is the capital of Konya Province. During antiquity and into Seljuk times it was known as Iconium. In 19th-century accounts of the city in En ...

and

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

provinces,

Raqqa Raqqa (, also , Kurdish language, Kurdish: ''Reqa'') is a city in Syria on the North bank of the Euphrates River, about east of Aleppo. It is located east of the Tabqa Dam, Syria's largest dam. The Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine city and b ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

, and they live in

Gilan Gilan Province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, in the northwest of the country and southwest of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is the city of Rasht. The province lies along the Caspian Sea, in Iran's Region 3, west of the province of ...

Khorasan province Khorasan ( ; also transcribed as Khurasan, Xorasan and Khorassan), also called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian Empire, Parthian times, was a Provinces of Iran, province in northeastern Iran until September 2004, when it was divided in ...

Qazvin Province citisies in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

. Members of the tribe mostly adhere to the

Hanafi The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest Madhhab, school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the Faqīh, jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the ...

school of

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

but some are

Alevi Alevism (; ; ) is a syncretic heterodox Islamic tradition, whose adherents follow the mystical Islamic teachings of Haji Bektash Veli, who taught the teachings of the Twelve Imams, whilst incorporating some traditions from shamanism. Differing ...

Etymology

Nuh Ateş, a scholar and editor of Bîrnebûn, suggests that the name Reşwan is a compound of the Kurdish words () and the plural form ''-ân''. Stefan Winter argues Reşwan can be understood as "The Blacks" in Kurdish. Nonetheless, the name of the tribe was written in over fifty different ways in Ottoman documents due to erroneous translations from Kurdish. The tribe also goes by the name Reşî.

History

A tribe by the name of "Reşan" is mentioned in a Yezidi mişûr (manuscript) from 1207 AD, as one of the tribes affiliated to Pir Sini Darani, a Yezidi saint who is represented as the Lord of sea in the Yezidi religion. and today

Yezidis Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish-speaking endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The majority of Yazidis remaining in ...

from the Reşwan tribe live in Shengal and Duhok, while some of them live in Turkey and neighboring countries. The name of the tribe was recorded in the ''

defter A ''defter'' was a type of tax register and land cadastre in the Ottoman Empire. Etymology The term is derived from Greek , literally 'processed animal skin, leather, fur', meaning a book, having pages of goat parchment used along with papyrus ...

'' for Kahta, Besni and Adıyaman in 1519, after Sultan

Selim I Selim I (; ; 10 October 1470 – 22 September 1520), known as Selim the Grim or Selim the Resolute (), was the List of sultans of the Ottoman Empire, sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1512 to 1520. Despite lasting only eight years, his reign is ...

conquered the area. The tribe was recorded again in 1524 and 1536. During this period, there were inconsistencies about which families were part of the tribe and its population. Nonetheless, they were mainly transhumant nomadic and engaged in agriculture as well. Reşwan Kurds are mentioned in the geography book Cihannuma, which began being written in 1648 by the Ottoman intellectual, Katip Çelebi. He describes Reşwan Kurds as

Yazidis Yazidis, also spelled Yezidis (; ), are a Kurdish languages, Kurdish-speaking Endogamy, endogamous religious group indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Iran. The major ...

who live in Ufacıḳlı, Baḳrāṣlı and Behisnī. Additionally, it is mentioned that most of the people of

are Kurds and that one of their clans in these parts are "mischievous rebels" and "highway robbers". Somewhen in the 17th century, the earliest mention is from 1683, the tribes taxes were included into the Ottoman foundation financing the construction and maintenance of the Atik Valide Mosque. According to

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt Johann Ludwig (also known as John Lewis, Jean Louis) Burckhardt (24 November 1784 – 15 October 1817) was a Swiss traveller, geographer and Orientalist. Burckhardt assumed the alias ''Sheikh Ibrahim Ibn Abdallah'' during his travels in Arabia ...

, Reşwans were often in contact and at war with nearby Turkoman tribes, who didn't hold the Reşwans in esteem. During the 1890s, the leader of the tribe Yakup Ragıp protected

Armenians Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...

from Ottoman massacres.

Sedentarization in Central Anatolia (1830–1880)

In early 19th century, Reşwan members who lived a nomadic life around

and

were subjected to sedentarization attempts by the Ottomans, as part of the

Tanzimat The (, , lit. 'Reorganization') was a period of liberal reforms in the Ottoman Empire that began with the Edict of Gülhane of 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. Driven by reformist statesmen such as Mustafa Reşid Pash ...

. The first attempt took place in 1830, wherein the authorities notified the Reşwan headmen of the Central Anatolian plains regarding their plans to settle them around

Sivas Sivas is a city in central Turkey. It is the seat of Sivas Province and Sivas District.İl Beledi ...

. This led to discontent among the leaders who suggested Konya and Ankara as areas of settlement, which the Ottomans agreed on. In other places, the tribe resisted and it is well-documented that they would bribe and even give up everything to continue their semi-nomadic life. During the sedentarization, authorities would both construct new villages for the tribe but also divide and distribute them to already-existing villages to mitigate any rebellion. An 1859 document shows that about 500 households of the tribe lived in Haymana, being sedentarized in 43 villages. By 1880, this section of the tribe had been sedentarized. These tribe members were originally from Adıyaman, Islahiye and

Gaziantep Province Gaziantep Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in south-central Turkey. It is located in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in ...

Politics and elections

In the 2000s, the tribe mainly voted for the conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) until 2014, when the well-known Reşvan Kurdish politician Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat resigned from AKP and decided to run for the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) in the local election in 2015. The leaders of the tribe decided to vote for HDP in the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

in June 2015.

Etymology

History

Sedentarization in Central Anatolia (1830–1880)

Politics and elections

See also

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading