Siege of Dimdim
37°21′36.46″N 45°10′15.08″E / 37.3601278°N 45.1708556°E
| Siege of Dimdim | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
| Emirate of Bradost | Safavid Iran | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Amir Khan Lepzerin | Hatem Beg Ordubadi | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 10,000 Warriors/Kurdish Cavalry | 40,000 Troops (many different types of soldiers) | ||||||
The Siege of Dimdim is the name for the siege between the Safavid Iran and the Emirate of Bradost between 1609 and 1610.
Background
Throughout the 17th-century, Safavid shahs (kings) of Iran opted to use harsh measures against the uncooperative Kurdish tribes in the western part of the country. Shah Abbas I had to decide whether to crack down on Kurdish parties that were in a semi-subordinate position or to maintain a reasonable equilibrium between the Kurds and Turkmens. In the case of Amir Khan Lepzerin, the ruler of the Emirate of Bradost, who constructed the castle of Dimdim close to the western part of the Lake Urmia and rebelled against the Safavids, Shah Abbas I chose the second course of action.[1]
The siege
There are well documented historical accounts of a long siege from 1609 to 1610 between Kurds and the Safavids. The Kurds were at a disadvantage numerically and technologically. After a siege lasting almost a year, the Safavid Grand Vizier Hatem Beg Ordubadi captured the fort and massacred the Kurdish garrison.[2]
Aftermath
After a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, Dimdim was captured. All the defenders were killed. Shah Abbas I ordered a general massacre in Bradost and Mukriyan (reported by Iskandar Beg Turkoman, Safavid Historian in the Book Alam Aray-e Abbasi) and resettled the Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan region. Although Safavid historians (like Iskandar Beg ) depicted the first siege of Dimdim as a result of Kurdish mutiny or treason, in Kurdish oral traditions (Beytî Dimdim), literary works (Dzhalilov, pp. 67–72), and histories, it was treated as a struggle of the Kurdish people against foreign domination. In fact, Beytî Dimdim is considered[who?] a national epic second only to Mem û Zîn by Ahmad Khani. The first literary account of this siege is written by Faqi Tayran.[2]
References
- ^ Atmaca 2021, p. 59.
- ^ a b Hassanpour 1995, pp. 404–405.
Sources
- Atmaca, Metin (2021). "Negotiating Political Power in the Early Modern Middle East: Kurdish Emirates between the Ottoman Empire and Iranian Dynasties (Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries)". In Bozarslan, Hamit; Gunes, Cengiz; Yadirgi, Veli (eds.). The Cambridge History of the Kurds. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1108473354.
- Hassanpour, Amir (1995). "Dimdim". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica, Volume VII/4: Deylam, John of–Divorce IV. In modern Persia. London and New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul. pp. 404–405. ISBN 978-1-56859-022-6.