Kurdish Christians
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Kurdistan and Kurdish diaspora | |
| Religions | |
| Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism[1] Historically: Church of the East,[2] Syriac Orthodox Church[3] | |
| Scriptures | |
| Bible | |
| Languages | |
 |
Kurdish Christians[a] refers to ethnic Kurds who follow Christianity.[4][5][6] Some Kurds had historically followed Christianity and remained Christian when most Kurds were converted to Islam, however, the majority of modern Kurdish Christians are converts.[7] Historically, Kurdish converts to Christianity came from diverse backgrounds, including Ancient Iranian religion, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Yazidism. Evangelical churches have been established in recent times in Erbil, Selimani, and Duhok in Iraqi Kurdistan, and in Hassakeh, Qamishli, Kobani, Amouda, and Afrin (until 2018) in the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.[8]
History
[edit]In the 10th century AD, the Kurdish prince Ibn ad-Dahhak, who possessed the fortress of al-Jafary, converted from Islam to Orthodox Christianity and in return the Byzantines gave him land and a fortress.[9] In 927 AD, he and his family were executed during a raid by Thamal, the Muslim Arab governor of Tarsus.[10]
In the late 11th and the early 12th century AD, Kurdish Christians made up a minority of the army of the fortress city of Shayzar.[11]
The Zakarids–Mkhargrdzeli, an Armenian[12][full citation needed][13]–Georgian dynasty of Kurdish[14][15][16][17][18] origin, ruled parts of northern Armenia in the 13th century AD and tried to reinvigorate intellectual activities by founding new monasteries.[19] At the peak of Kingdom of Georgia, the family led the unified Armeno-Georgian army. Two brothers of this family, Zakare and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli led the army to victory in Ani in 1199.
Marco Polo, in his book, stated that some of the Kurds who inhabited the mountainous part of Mosul were Christians, while others were Muslims.[20]
Kurdish Christian converts usually were a part of the Nestorian Church.[21] In 1884, researchers of the Royal Geographical Society reported about a Kurdish tribe in Sivas which retained certain Christian observances and sometimes identified as Christian.[22][full citation needed]
A significant part of Kurdish Christian converts were actually of Yazidi background. In the 17th century, Carmelite, Franciscan and Jesuit missionaries flocked to Yazidi regions, mainly in Sinjar and Syria.[23] Some Ottoman Yazidis converted to Christianity due to social issues regarding Yazidism. In the 19th century, both Protestant and Catholic missionaries developed an interest for Yazidis. In the Ottoman Empire, leaving Islam was a crime, however, since Yazidis were not Muslim, it was not a crime for them to convert nor was it a crime to convert them. Christian missionary activity flourished in Yazidi communities. In the 1880s, the Ottoman government began Islamic missionary for Yazidis, claiming that since Yazidi communities were open for Christian missionaries, they might as well be open for Islamic missionaries.[24]Christian missionaries later brought global attention on Yazidis, who were a fairly isolated community.[25]
One of the most prominent Kurdish leaders in Iraqi Kurdistan, Sheikh Ahmed Barzani, a brother of Mustafa Barzani, announced his conversion to Christianity during his uprising against the Iraqi government in 1931.[26]
Contemporary Kurdish Christians
[edit]Part of the English-language New Testament was first available in the Kurdish language in 1856.[27]
The Kurdzman Church of Christ (Kurdophone Church of Christ) was established in Hewlêr (Erbil) by the end of 2000, and has branches in the Silêmanî, Duhok governorates. This is the first evangelical Kurdish church in Iraq.[28] Its logo is formed of a yellow sun and a cross rising up behind a mountain range. According to one Kurdish convert, an estimated 500 Kurdish Muslim youths have converted to Christianity since 2006 throughout Kurdistan.[29] A Kurdish convert from the Iraqi military who claims to have transported weapons of mass destruction also stated that a wave of Kurds converting to Christianity is taking place in northern Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan).[30]
There was a wave of Kurdish conversion to Christianity after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Most Kurdish converts to Christianity in the Post-Soviet states were from a Yazidi background.[31] In Armenia, around 3,600 Yazidis converted to Christianity.[32] Yazidi converts to Christianity were isolated from Yazidis.[33] In 2023, an Evangelical missionary group sparked controversy after praying at a Yazidi temple for the destruction of Yazidism. After the Yazidi genocide, there was a wave of Yazidi conversion to Christianity, mosly through missionaries. Vian Dakhil urged the Kurdistan Region to take action against Christian missionary activity, and Walid Shoebat replied that Vian Dakhil preferred to "worship Lucifer instead of Jesus. Yazidis are known for their hatred to Christianity, especially missionaries."[34] Yazidi figure Harman Mirza Bak claimed that it was "like another genocide. It’s like IS but actually its worse than IS. There’s no difference between someone who forces you to convert at gunpoint like IS and someone who uses your bad circumstances to pressurise you into converting."[35]
Madai Maamdi, a Georgian Yazidi convert to the Georgian Orthodox Church, became the first ethnic Kurd ordained into the Orthodox Christian priesthood in February 2023 by the North American Diocese of the Georgian Orthodox Church.[36]
There are some 80-100 Christian Kurds that converted in recent times in the city of Kobanî in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.[37][38][39]
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ Kurdish: کوردێن خرستیان, romanized: Kurdên Xirîstiyan, or in Sorani Kurdish: کوردێن فلە, romanized: Kurdên file, or Kurdên Xaçparêz. Also commonly used in Sorani Kurdish: کوردی مەسیحی, romanized: Kurdên Mesîhî. (Mesîhî is a loan word from Arabic: مسيحي, romanized: Masīḥī).
References
[edit]- ^ Muhammad, Hoshavi. "Monk Madai. The Kurdish People and Christianity". OrthoChristian.Com.
- ^ Joseph, John (2000). The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archaeologists, & Colonial Powers, Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 90-04-11641-9, p. 61
- ^ Driver, G. R. (1922). "The Religion of the Kurds", Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2. University of London. pp. 197–213.
- ^ Seker, Can (2006). "Zerdeştî û Ezdayetî".
- ^ Mîdî, Sozdar (2014). "Ta Kengê Bêdengî Li Ser Tewrên Tabûra Pêncan ya Islama Tundrew" (PDF). Pênûsa Nû. 28: 6.
- ^ "Çîroka 2 keçên Şingalê: Du ol di malekê de!". Rûdaw.net. 3 August 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
- ^ Kennedy, Hugh N. (2004). The Prophet and the age of the Caliphates : the Islamic Near East from the sixth to the eleventh century (2nd ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson-Longman. ISBN 0-582-40525-4. OCLC 55792252.
- ^ Maenza, Nadine; Alton, David (12 October 2020). "The Untold Story of Syrian Kurdish Christians". Providence. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ A. Vasilyev, Vizantija i araby. Vol. II. (Saint-Petersburg, 1902), p. 220.
- ^ Paul F. Robinson, Just War in Comparative Perspective, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 233pp., 2003, (see p.162)
- ^ David Nicolle, Christa Hook, Saracen Faris, 1050-1250 AD, 64 pp., Osprey Publishing, 1994, ISBN 1-85532-453-9, see p.7, Table A.
- ^ "[Title of entry missing]". Encyclopaedia of Islam. Vol. I. BRILL. 1986. p. 507.
Ani was for the first time conquered by the Georgians in 1124, under David II, who laid the foundation of the power of the Georgian kings; the town was given as a fief to the Armenian family of the Zakarids. [In Georgian: მხარგრძელი, romanized: Mkhargrdzeli equivalent to Longimani 'long-armed'].
[title missing] - ^ Toumanoff, Cyril (1966). "Armenia and Georgia". The Cambridge Medieval History. Vol. IV: The Byzantine Empire, part I chapter XIV. Cambridge. pp. 593—637: "Later, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Armenian house of the Zachariads (Mkhargrdzeli) ruled in northern Armenia at Ani, Lor'i, Kars, and Dvin under the Georgian aegis."
- ^ Lidov, Alexei (1991). The mural paintings of Akhtala. p. 14: "It is clear from the account of these Armenian historians that Ivane's great grandfather broke away from the Kurdish tribe of Babir" Nauka Publishers, Central Dept. of Oriental Literature, University of Michigan, ISBN 5-02-017569-2 ISBN 978-5-02-017569-3.
- ^ Minorsky, Vladimir (1953). Studies in Caucasian History. p. 102: "According to a tradition which has every reason to be true, their ancestors were Mesopotamian Kurds of the tribe (xel) Babirakan." CUP Archive. ISBN 0-521-05735-3, ISBN 978-0-521-05735-6.
- ^ Richard Barrie Dobson. (2000). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J, p. 107: "... under the Christianized Kurdish dynasty of Zak'arids they tried to re-establish nazarar system ..." Editions du Cerf, University of Michigan, ISBN 0-227-67931-8, ISBN 978-0-227-67931-9.
- ^ William Edward David Allen (1932). A History of the Georgian People: From the Beginning Down to the Russian Conquest in the Nineteenth Century. p. 104: "She retained and leant upon the numerous relatives of Sargis Mkhargrdzeli, an aznauri of Kurdish origin." Taylor & Francis, ISBN 0-7100-6959-6, ISBN 978-0-7100-6959-7.
- ^ Vardan Arewelts'i's, Compilation of History: "In these time there lived the glorious princes Zak'are' and Iwane', sons of Sargis, son of Vahram, son of Zak'are', son of Sargis of Kurdish nationality (i K'urd azge')" p. 82
- ^ A. Vauchez, R. B. Dobson, M. Lapidge, Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages: A-J, 1624 pp., Editions du Cerf, 2000, ISBN 0227679318, 9780227679319, see p.107
- ^ Polo, Marco (1920). . In Cordier, Henri (ed.). . Translated by Yule, Henry – via Wikisource.
- ^ John Joseph, The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East: Encounters with Western Christian Missions, Archaeologists, & Colonial Powers, Brill Academic Publishers, 292 pp., 2000, ISBN 90-04-11641-9, p.61
- ^ Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1884, p. 313[title missing][author missing]
- ^ Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, 2020, pp. 405-406
- ^ Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Gábor Ágoston, Bruce Alan Masters, 2009, pp. 602
- ^ Collective and State Violence in Turkey: The Construction of a National Identity from Empire to Nation-State, 2020, pp. 401
- ^ "The Kurdish Minority Problem". December 1948. p. 11. ORE 71-48, CIA. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 15 March 2012..
- ^ Dehqan, Mustafa (2009). "A Kirmaşanî Translation of the Gospel of John" (PDF). Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. 61 (1–2): 207–211. doi:10.2143/JECS.61.1.2045832. Retrieved 4 December 2016.
- ^ Revival Times Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Sunni extremists (21 May 2007). "Threaten to kill Christian converts in north". IRIN.
- ^ Kurds in Northern Iraq Converting to Christianity: Iraqi General
- ^ "ABD'de bir ilk: Ortodoks kilisesine Kürt papaz". Gazete Duvar (in Turkish). 18 February 2023. Retrieved 14 January 2025.
- ^ "Population (urban, rural) by Ethnicity, Sex and Religious Belief" (PDF). Statistics of Armenia. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
- ^ Aghayeva, Elene Shengelia, Rana (6 September 2018). "Georgia's Yazidis: Religion as Identity - Religious Beliefs". chai-khana.org. Retrieved 30 August 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Yazidis Say They Are Being Targeted for Christian Conversion". www.voanews.com. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- ^ "Iraq: Christian NGOs accused of committing 'another genocide' by trying to convert Yazidis – Middle East Monitor". Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- ^ "Hierodeacon Madai Becomes The First Ethnic Kurd Ordained Into The Orthodox Christian Priesthood". Greek City Times. 18 February 2023. Retrieved 13 January 2025.
- ^ Christianity Grows in Syrian Town in Wake of IS
- ^ "Christianity grows in Syrian town once besieged by Islamic State". Reuters. 16 April 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
- ^ "Kurds Embrace Christianity and Kobani Celebrates Inauguration of Church". The Syrian Observer. 26 June 2019. Retrieved 5 November 2021.
