Sheikh Said

Sheikh Said (; – 29 June 1925) was a Zaza Kurd religious leader, one of the leading sheikhs of the Naqshbandi order and the head of the Sheikh Said rebellion.

He was born around 1865 in Hınıs or Palu, into an influential family of the Naqshbandi order, where his grandfather was an influential sheikh. Sheikh Said studied religious sciences at the madrasa led by his father Sheikh Mahmud Fevzi as well from several Islamic scholars in the region. Later he was involved in the local tekke set up by his grandfather Sheikh Ali. His grandfather was a respected leader of the religious community and his grave was visited by thousands of pilgrims. He became the head of the religious community after his father Sheikh Mahmud died. In 1907 he toured the neighboring provinces in the east and he established contacts with officers from the Hamidiye cavalry.

Early life

Sheikh Said was born around 1865 in Hınıs or Palu to a Sunni Kirmanc family."İngiliz Belgelerinde Türkiye" Erol Ulubelen, Çağdaş Yay., 1982, sf.195; ak. U.Mumcu, "Kürt-İslam Ayaklanması" Tekin Yay., 19. Bas., 1995, sf.24''Sevr Anlaşmasına Doğru'' Osman Olcay, SBF Yay., Ankara-1981, s.121; ak. U. Mumcu, "Kürt-İslam Ayaklanması" Tekin Yay., 19.Bas. 1995, s. 28 His father was named Sheikh Mahmud Fevzi and his mother was Gulê Hanım. After receiving education at several Madrasa in Palu, Elazığ, Diyarbakır and Muş, he became the leader of the Naqshbandi order upon the death of his father. Sheikh Said spoke beside Zazaki, Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian fluently. He settled there after his father migrated from Palu to Hınıs. During World War I, he had to move to Pîran due to the advance of the Russian Empire into the Eastern Anatolia Region, and after the war he settled to Hınıs.

Sheikh Said married Amine Hanım.Martin van Bruinessen: ''Agha, Sheikh and State''. Berlin 1989, p. 415 Amine Hanım became ill and died when the family migrated from Hınıs to Dicle due to the Russo-Turkish War. After his first wife died, Sheikh Said married Fatma Hanım, the sister of Halid Beg Cibran, one of the leaders of the Kurdish Colonel Hamidiye Regiments.Martin van Bruinessen: ''Agha, Sheikh and State'' Berlin 1989, p. 418 Güllü Hanım, who was also Halid Bey's sister, was married to Major Kasım Ataç who betrayed Sheikh Said after the revolt was suppressed.

Sheikh Said had ten children with Fatma Hanım, five girls and five boys. His grandson Ali Rıza Efendi, entered the Turkish Grand National Assembly as an independent deputy from Erzurum in 1973.

Society for Kurdish Independence

The Azadî, officially Society for Kurdish Freedom, later Society for Kurdish Independence was a Kurdish secret organization which strived for Kurdish independency in all parts of Kurdistan. Various statements are made about the founding date of the Azadi, such as 1921, 1922 and 1923.

In 1923, Sheikh Said was approached by Yusuf Zia Bey, who wanted him to join the Kurdish secret organization Azadî. He became the leader of the Azadî after Zia Bey and Halid Beg Cibran, the leader of the Azadî, were among 21 other members reportedly tipped off by the Yörük tribe and arrested. Sheikh Said became the new leader.

During its first General Congress in 1924, in which several commanders from the Hamidye cavalry and also Sheikh Said took part, it was decided that the Kurds should revolt against the newly established secular Kemalist Turkish Republic. The Azadi was to become a leading force in the Sheikh Said Rebellion which began in February 1925 and starting from in Piran, soon spread as far as the surroundings of Diyarbakır.

The rebellion

Prior to Sheikh Said's rebellion, the prominent Pashas of the War of Independence worried about the anti-religious and autocratic policy of Atatürk's government and therefore on 17 November 1924, the Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası (TCF), the first opposition party in the history of the Republic was established. There was a general consensus that Atatürk's actions were against religion. In the TCF's article which led by Kazım Karabekir it says that "The political party is respectful to the religious beliefs and thoughts". One of the TCF officials, Fethi Bey, said "The members of the TCF are religious. CHF is messing up with the religion, we will save the religion and protect it".

Two weeks before the Sheikh Said incident, in late January 1925, the TCF Erzurum deputy Ziyaeddin Efendi, with heavy criticism of the actions of the ruling CHF in the chair of the Grand National Assembly, said that 'innovation' had led to the encouragement of "isret" (getting drunk), an increase in prostitution, Muslim women losing their decency and, most important of all, religious customs being dishonored and disregarded by the new regime. The Azadî forces under the lead of Halid Beg Cibran were dominated by the former members of the late Ottoman era Hamidiye regiments, a Kurdish tribal militia established during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II to deal with the Armenians, and sometimes even to keep the Qizilbash under control. According to various historians, the main reason the revolt took place was that various elements of the Turkish society were unhappy with the Turkish Parliament's abolition of the Ottoman Caliphateon 3 March 1924. According to British intelligence reports, the Azadî officers had 11 grievances. Apart from Kurdish cultural demands and complaints of Turkish maltreatment, this list also detailed fears of imminent mass deportations of Kurds. They also registered annoyance that the name Kurdistan did not appear on maps, at restrictions on the Kurdish language and on Kurdish education and objections to alleged Turkish economic exploitation of Kurdish areas, at the expense of Kurds. The revolt was preceded by the smaller and less successful Beytüssebap revolt in September 1924, led by Cibran and Ihsan Nuri on the orders by the prominent Azadî member Ziya Yusuf Bey. The revolt was subdued, and its leaders Cibran and Ziya Yusuf Bey were captured and courtmartialed in Bitlis