The Kurds in the Ottoman Hungary

Dr. Zurab ALOIAN

University of Bremen, Center of Foreign Languages

Abstract
Tematic Area: Ottoman History
Keywords: Kurdish Legends and Europe, Ottoman Empire
versus respublica Christiana, Hungary, Historical Sources, Literary Texts,
Sheref-Khan Bitlisi, Edward Said.
Introduction. The centuries-long European theme is attested in Kurdish
folklore and written sources. In this respect, the Ottoman-related
Hungarian material on the Kurds may be a case study within the
general European context.

Sources. Sharaf-name by Sharaf Khan Bidlisi and The Hungarian Letters of

Ali Pasha of Buda are respectively the chief Kurdish and Ottoman
Hungarian historical sources with Miklós Zrínyi's epic poem A Threat to
Sziget and Géza Gárdonyi's novel Stars over Eger being the main literary
material.

Kurdistan and Hungary under the Ottoman Rule. The pivotal part of the
Hungarian Kingdom was under the Ottoman administration, which
was composed by people of many ethnic and religious groups. On the
other hand, by the time of the creation and expansion of the Ottoman
statehood, there were numerous Kurdish principalities with local

1
 administration and court culture. According to the agreement signed in
1514, the twenty-three Kurdish rulers preserved various degrees of
their semi-autonomous status. Thus, in the Ottoman period in
Hungary, the Kurdish upper strata became incorporated into the
Empire under Islamic premises. Even prior to the Ottoman occupation
of the part of Hungary, we have a Kurdish tribal chief who
unsuccessfully fought against the pressing Hungarian army in 1440-
1442. The most direct link can be found in the village of Kurd in Tolna
county. Besides, Sharaf Khan Bidlisi presents direct references to the
Kurds in the Ottoman-Hungarian history.

Literary References. In A Threat to Sziget we come across a certain Kurt

aga who fought against György Turi. A major literary monument of the
nineteenth-century Hungary - Gárdonyi's Stars over Eger - directly
mentions the Kurds within the Ottoman context. Gárdonyi shows the
Kurds of the sixteenth century as faithful Ottoman subjects, who
nevertheless reserve the tight to revolt against the Sultan.

Introduction
"The were – and are – cultures and nations whose location is in the East, and their
lives, histories, and customs have a brute reality obviously greater than anything
that could be said about them in the West".
Edward W. Said [23:5]

The Kurds are rightfully viewed and studied in the context of the Middle
East. However, Europe has never been a terra incognita to the Kurdish people,
neither did the Kurd appear in Europe from 'nowhere'. The centuries-long
European theme is attested in Kurdish folklore and written sources alike.
Thus, in one of the legends concerning the origins of the Kurds, King
Solomon who ruled over the supernatural world called his angelic servants
and ordered them to fly to Europe and to bring him five-hundred beautiful
women. When his servants were back, they learned that their master had
already passed away. Then they retained those women for themselves, and
they gave the birth to the Kurdish nation.
There are two more popular traditions linking the Kurds with Europe: stories
of Alexander the Great and the image of Constantinople in legends about
Kurdish saints and warriors. This has been attested in the written and oral

2
sources alike and later excessively recorded by Western scholars. The
continuity of the Byzantine Empire in Kurdish eyes was so apparent that
even now they call Turkey 'the Black Rome' (Roma Resh) as a contrary to
Rome/Byzantium.
Furthermore, the most prominent Kurd in the world history was Salah ad-
Din Ayyubi, or Saladin who, with the support of his countrymen, took over
the position of the ruler and unifier of the Islamic world. According to the
historians, Saladin may be characterised as the second most important
personality in Islamic history – after the Prophet Muhammad. Saladin's
image was elaborated in European literatures and his Kurdish descent was
also referred to in Lessing's Nathan the Wise, Walter Scott's Richard the Lion
Heart and other books. Voltaire even maintained that Saladin had been of
greater dignity and significance for humanity that Alexander the Great.
With Europe experienced transition from the Middle Ages, the Near East was
becoming less advanced politically and economically. A new political revival
in the region took place with the creation and advance of the Ottoman
Empire. It was the period when many of the Kurdish aristocrats and men of
letter played a vital role in the Ottoman army, administration and European
campaigns, chiefly in the Balkans. During that period, the Kurds again were
closer to European reality.
A more substantiated political and economic interest towards Kurdistan in
Europe has been taking place since the eighteenth century with the growing
political importance of the Kurdish problem. Unequivocally, there have been
romanticist and humanistic constituents of the Kurdo-European affairs,
though geo-strategic factor remains dominant.
Taking into consideration the general state of the oppression against Kurdish
identity and scholarly activity, it is hardly surprising that the topic of the role
of the European theme in Kurdish tradition has never been the subject of
special studies. I believe that its cultural and historical dimensions may lead
us to unexpected findings. In this respect, Hungarian material on the Kurds
may be a case study within the general European context.
As is known, the two peoples – Hungarians and Kurds – have never had
extensive socio-cultural and political relationships. However, the available

3
Hungarian material demonstrates an intensive Kurdish presence in the
Ottoman history of East and South Europe. The current paper is based on my
research entitled "The Image of the Kurds in Hungary" which has been
generously supported by the research Support Scheme grant (RSS No
486/1998) of the Open Society Foundation in Prague. I use this opportunity
to express my gratitude to all those who contributed to my research.
As far as technical details are concerned, I refer to Hungarian words and
names according to original variants and to Oriental ones in simplified forms.

Analyses of Sources
"... there is no such thing as a merely given, or simply available, starting point:
beginnings have to be made for each project in such a way as to enable what follows
from them"
Edward W. Said [23:16]

Apart from exploring Hungarian libraries and archives, I also took up trips to
the settlements with the Ottoman traces, especially where certain hints on the
Kurdish subjects of the Sultans could be found. Thus, on September 18-19,
1998, I have visited the village of Kurd to collect material on its legendary
and factual history. I had a conversation with the local residents and the
mayor Mr. István Cser, who was very helpful and provided with the village
court of arms and copies of manuscripts [8], [10].
With regard to the literature referred to in the current paper, the main
Kurdish historical sources is Sharaf-name written by Sharaf Khan Bidlisi. He
was a descendant of the ancient Kurdish family of Ruzaki, the long-term
rulers of the city of Bidlis, now in Turkish Kurdistan. By the time of
composition of his famous work, Sharaf Khan had retired from
administrative positions in the Ottoman system and dedicated his life to
historical writings. I use here the first volume which deals with the Kurdish
history. The second volume of Sharaf-name describes general developments in
the Ottoman Empire and is rightfully regarded as a major historical source
for the Middle Eastern history of the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries. Three
aspects distinguish Sharaf Khan's book, translated into many languages:

4
1.Though written in Persian and in accordance with Persian medieval
historiography, it does not advocate the official politics of Persia.
2.Being a Kurdish prince by birth, the author views general trends from
national prospective. Therefore, a half of Bidlisi's book deals with Kurdish
principalities and dynasties as well as legendary and religious history of
Kurdistan.
3.A vassal of the Ottoman Sultan, Bidlisi nevertheless does not demonstrate
any particular zeal in his unavoidable protestations of loyalty.
Out of the Ottoman Hungarian historical sources, I first of all refer to The
Hungarian Letters of Ali Pasha of Buda edited by Gustav Bayerle. They
contain interesting comparative information about Hungarian and Kurdish
realities during the Ottoman period. The Ottoman sources indirectly referred
to the Kurdish theme are analysed by Klára Hegyi and Pál Fodor in An
unsuccessful Turkish attempt at imposing taxes.
I use also two literary sources written after the Ottoman rule in Hungary but
referring to it. Miklós Zrínyi's epic poem Szigeti veszedelem (A Threat to
Sziget) in a couple of places refers to a certain Kurt aga, an Ottoman military
chief of presumably Kurdish origin. The famous novel of Géza Gárdonyi Egri
Csillagok (Star over Eger) several times mentions the Kurds who were on the
Ottoman side.
On the other hand, to involve historical and cultural context of Kurdish
participation I refer to Martin van Bruinessen's Agha, Shaikh and State. I have
chosen this work because it is one of the most comprehensive studies on the
social and political life of Kurdistan, although written in a sort of Orientalistic
discourse. Yet, I disagree with van Bruinessen's simplified concept that the
Kurdish tribes have not been autonomous, but creations of the surrounding
states.
In order to update the historiography of the Ottoman rule in Hungary, the
following works are also used: Parvev's Habsburgs and Ottomans between
Vienna and Belgrade; Evliya Chelebi's Siyahet-name; Várkonyi's Turkish world
and Hungarian foreign policy; Fodor's Apocalyptic tradition; Szakály's Hungarian

5
institutions during the Turkish rule and the collection of the Proceedings of the
colloquium The pro-Turkish orientation of the Hungarian politics.
Certainly, general material on the Kurdish theme is also involved: Nikitine's
classical Les Kurdes; Guest's Survival among the Kurds as well as the article of
the President of the Belgium-based Kurdistan National Congress Ismet
Chériff Vanly entitled Between Europe and Asia.
Some outstanding works of the renown authors provide a theoretical frame
to my findings: The Muslim Discovery of Europe by Lewis; Turkey by
Zürcher; History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey by Shaw; Muslim
Society and Nations and Nationalism by Gellner; Orientalism by Said
and Imagined Communities by Anderson.

Historical Data
"[For Muslims] there was in principle only the state, the caliphate, and only one
sovereign, the caliph, the legitimate head of the House of Islam and the supreme
sovereign of the Muslim polity".
Bernard Lewis [19:201]

In Hungarian tradition, the Ottoman army and administration is viewed as a

monolithic system of Turkish occupation, just as the Soviet era is now
perceived as the age of Russian domination. In both cases, ethnic and
regional diversities are largely underestimated to concentrate on politics of
the colonial power. Even today, it is usual for some Hungarian historians to
use exclusively török, Turkish, instead of oszmán, Ottoman. Therefore, the
Ottoman Empire in general and the Ottoman rule in Hungary in particular
might require clarifications for historical terms. Here I quote Ivan Parvev:
"Ottoman empire", 'Ottomans' instead of 'Turkey', 'Turks' is another example
for terminological preference, which aims at stressing the different
connotation of the words. 'Ottomans' is a generalizing super-name for all
Muslims in the Empire, irrespective of the ethnic origin, i.e. Arabs, Kurds,
Bosnians, Albanians, the descendants of the Ottoman Turks and all the other
European Christians, converted into the faith of Mohammed. Thus the
curious notion that Muslims in the Empire were only the Ottoman Turks
could hardly get ground" [22:IX,introd.].

6
As is known, not the whole historical Hungary was under the Ottoman
administration. The firm Ottoman rule expanded over the region between the
great Hungarian Plain (Alföld) and the eastern half of the Transdanubia
(Dunántúl). But since it was a pivotal part of the Hungarian Kingdom, the
Ottoman colonisers and later sources alike applied the word Hungary to this
part of the country. Nevertheless, as early as in 1543 Tercüman Mahmut, the
author of probably the first historiography work on Hungary, composed in
Ottoman Turkish, implies the term Tarih-i Ungurus (A history of Hungary) to
the whole former possessions of the Hungarian kings [20:34-42].
For centuries afterwards, this period of Hungarian history has been the
subject of academic and political discussions. Whatever the positions are,
everybody would agree with Pál Teleki about the "tremendous influence of
the Turkish occupation on the fate of Hungary. Its effects we have felt ever
since, especially at the outbreak of the World War [I] and its consequences. It
will never cease to be the greatest causal element in the determination of our
fate" [26:50].
A more arguable in the modern world is the definition of Kurdistan. The
political circumstances compel even the renown Hungarian scholars to avoid
this word, which has been in political and administrative use at least since the
twelfth century, and instead speak of the so-called Eastern Anatolia [20:44].
It is a commonplace that the name of Turkish Kurdistan, known as North
Kurdistan (Kurdistana Bakur) to the Kurds themselves, is often dismissed
and replaced by East- or Southeast Anatolia. 'Anatolia' is actually an old
Greek name, purely geographic, meaning "the land of the rising Sun" which
was originally limited to the east-Aegean coast area – an appellation which
had never covered Kurdistan before the advent of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
This can be easily verified by consulting any good encyclopaedic dictionary
prior to Kemalism, as well as Ottoman archives, all of which refer to the
Kurds and Kurdistan without reservation [28:10].
In both cases, in line with the historical reality, the contemporary authors
primarily, though not exclusively, meant Hungary as the country of the
Hungarian nobility, and Kurdistan as the homeland of the Kurdish
aristocratic families. This idea goes through Sharaf-name in the Kurdish case

7
and A Threat to Sziget in the Hungarian one. The Count Miklós Zrínyi
dedicates his work to "the Hungarian nobilitiy, to who, God willing, I shall
offer the last drop of my blood with the use" [6:1].
Consequently, Pál Teleki would notice that the political nation today is what
used to imply nobility in the past [27:9].
In order to disclose the earliest contacts between the Kurds and Hungary, the
history of the Ottoman expansion in these two countries as well as the
Sultans's rule over them also deserves a special observation. The basic
question is why the Kurdish aristocrats, military units and men of letter were
so active in supporting the Ottoman campaigns in Europe including
Hungary.
Even today, when the Turkish intellectuals discuss how to solve the Kurdish
problem, they propose the idea of the 'Ottoman federation'. According to my
Kurdish informants from Turkey, this is a covert term for a higher status for
the Kurds within the country. Certainly, Turkish Islamists would rather stress
the common Sunni Islamic heritage in order to diminish the degree of Turko-
Kurdish political hostility. Apart from the fact that three quarters of the
Kurds are Sunni Muslims with the rest being adherents of Shiism,
Christianity or traditional Kurdish religious beliefs – Yezidis, Kakais, Sarliis
and others, this argumentation reflects historical experience.
In general, the Ottoman imperial system, especially in its early period, had to
look for unifying ideological premises in addition to military and economic
factors. "To the Muslim subjects the Ottoman ruler also appealed for and
secured loyalty on various grounds... To the non-Turkish Muslim subjects
such as Arabs and Kurds, the sultans further stressed their positions as
imams, leaders, and as gazis, or 'warriors of the faith'" [24:164].
The Ottoman Turks encountered Kurdish tribes and leaders on their way to
Anatolia. By the time of the creation and expansion of the Ottoman
statehood, there were numerous Kurdish principalities with local
administration and court culture. This may explain the prevailing view in the
modern scholarship expressed by Ernest Gellner that the Kurds are one of the
examples of "the blending of old tribalism based on social structure with the
new, anonymous nationalism based on shared culture" [13:85].

8
The two factors contributed to the siding of the Kurds with the Ottomans.
First of all, the Sultans were gradually winning the hearts of the Kurdish
leaders through luxurious gifts and positive gestures towards them.
Secondly, the majority of Sunni Kurds, being anxious and tired of the Shiite
domination of the Safavid Monarchy in Persia, naturally saw the Turkish
orientation as more preferable.
In practical terms, the activity of the Ottoman administrator of the Kurdish
origin, Hakim Idris, also known as Idris Bidlisi, a native of the ruling family
from the already-mentioned principality of Bidlis (Bedlis in Kurdish), played
a decisive role. His diplomatic activity contributed to the Ottoman victory
over the Safavids in the battle of Chaldiran, which shaped the modern border
between Iran and Turkey. Since the majority of the Kurdish military units
sided with the Ottomans, Idris of Bitlis proposed a deal accepted by both the
Kurdish ruling families and the Ottoman Sultan Selim I. The real reason was
that Sultan "Selim realized that any effort to conquer them would have
required considerably more military force than he could commit" [24:82].
According to the agreement signed in 1514, the twenty-three Kurdish rulers
preserved various degrees of their semi-autonomous status within the Akrad
Beiligi (the Kurdish Principality) and Kurt Hukumet (Kurdish
Government).The Ottomans promised not to interfere with the local affairs
including the hereditary policy. In exchange, the Kurds had to provide troops
during the military campaigns and pay tributes to the Sultan's finance office.
This policy lasted for 150 years, until the Ottoman military failure during the
siege of Vienna in 1683 [21:185-187].
In other words, the most active period of Kurdish-Ottoman co-operation falls
on the period between the early sixteenth century and 1683, which a historian
would describe as "the Age of Ottoman supremacy" [22:289].
Thus, in the period of the Ottoman rule in Hungary, the Ottomans succeeded
in involving the Kurdish upper strata – and accordingly the people – into
their statehood. That the incorporation was partial, has been demonstrated by
the contemporary travellers and administrators as well as Kurdish material
on the principalities of Bidlis, Baban and Botan. This material suggests that

9
Kurdish emirates had preserved a considerable degree of self-rule [9:195-
215,222-228].
For instance, Bidlis "appeared like the capital of a vassal state rather than as
province of the empire... At the time of Tavernier's passing the mîr
[hereditary ruler] recognized neither Ottoman nor Safavid [Persian]
sovereignty, and both empires found it necessary to entertain seemingly
cordial relations with him..." [9:206].
Are we right to assume that the Kurds had a policy of their own in the
Ottoman Empire? In such a conglomerate of peoples and religions, every
group would pursue its own interests, though the movement space could be
rather limited. It is in this sense that the Hungarian historiography can speak
of the pro-Turkish orientation of a part of Magyar elite during and
immediately after the Ottoman rule [20], [29].
It is in this sense that we are entitled to discuss the policy of such a numerous
ethnic groups as the Kurds, or making it precise – the political interests of
Kurdish military, administrative and intellectual elite within the Ottoman
imperial structure.
There is a remarkable Hungarian material – the letters of Ali Pasha – which
suggest that some Kurdish lands were less integral parts of the Ottoman
Empire than the eyalet (province) of Buda. Ali Pasha, borne to the family of
the chief judge in Temesvár (Timisoara in the present-day Romania), Buda
and Belgrade, was the Ottoman governor of the province of Buda between
1602-1616. Ali Pasha wrote in Hungarian and loved his post. When he was in
1612 assigned at Cizre (the principality of Cizîre, now divided between
Turkey, Iraq and Syria), he had his deputy, Ahmed Kethüda, implore
Matthias II to intercede on his behalf at the Sublime Porte and request his
reinstatement at Buda. As a result, in November, 1614, to his great pleasure,
Ali Pasha was re-appointed to his former province. He devoted the next two
years to normalising the relations between the Ottoman and Habsburg
Emperors, to improve public order, and especially to maintain peace as laid
down in the treaty of Zsivatörök on November 11, 1606 [5:vii-x,introd.]. As is
known, In the first half of the seventeenth century the Habsburg-Ottoman

10
relations were comparatively peaceful. The last military conflict between
them had ended with the Peace of Zsivatörök..." [22:22].
Ali Pasha's 209 letters are the principal Ottoman sources for the preliminary
talks which led to the negotiations and offer a valuable corpus for Hungarian
epistolary style of the early seventeenth century [5:xxii introd.].
In our case, the two letters of Ali Pasha's deputy, Ahmet Kethüda, written
from Cizre (Cizîre) in 1612 are a certain historical source for the Ottoman rule
in Kurdistan. Thus, Ahmet Kethüda describes Cizîre as a place bordering the
Persian Empire, where the Ottoman troops under the leadership of Ali Pasha
raided and stayed for three months: "az Kazul Bas Feyedelemnek orszaga
mellet cizre neveo helyen" [5:186-187, also 209].
It must be noted that the name of Kazul Bas refers to the Shiite religious
adherence of the Persian monarchs, or 'Red-hat warriors' (Kizil Bash). The
same term is to be found in other Hungarian sources, including Zrínyi's epos:
"Ezek Kazul basra jártak Szulimánnal" – "These [troops] joined Suleyman in
his campaign against the Kizil Bash" [6:I,78].
In another letter, written by Ali Pasha himself and addressed to István
Illésházy, the former mentions the new Ottoman possessions taken from the
Safavids, including Kurdish regions of Erzurum and Van [5:81-83].
In general, Ali Pasha felt less comfortable in Cizîre than in Buda, the fact
which may be interpreted not only by his personal attachment to his
Hungarian post, but also by the less predictable environment for the
Ottomans in Kurdistan than in Hungary.
As many historians emphasised it, "in contrast to their string of victories over
weak Christian states, the Ottoman had expanded with difficulty to the east"
[15:46].
Erik J. Zürcher, an expert on the Turkish history, makes a comparison of this
sort: in 1815 "the new Serbian leader, Milos Obrenovic, reached agreement
with the Ottomans on autonomy for a Serbian principality between Belgrade
and Nish. The Ottomans retained the right to garrison the major towns and to
receive a yearly tribute (this, if should be remembered, amounted to the same

11
degree of influence as the central government had enjoyed in, for instance,
Kurdistan or the Arab provinces in the eighteenth century" [30:33].
As far as the Ottoman advance in Europe is concerned, as soon as in the
second half of the fourteenth century, the Ottomans subdued, one by one, the
Balkan states and in 1389 defeated the most powerful one, the Serbian
Kingdom on the famous Kosovo Polje. After that, starting from 1390s, the
Ottoman units made first attempts to violate the borders of the Hungarian
Kingdom.
Here again, prior to the Ottoman occupation of the part of Hungary, we have
a Kurdish factor in the Ottoman-Hungarian relationships. Thus, in the battles
of 1440s, the Beg (chieftain) of the Germiyan tribal coalition, Osman, under
unfavourable conditions fought against the pressing Hungarian army and
was finally defeated in 1442 [14:55].
The historical annals have passed to us the story of the Germiyan groups. It
was one of the first tribes of Kurdistan to serve as frontier guards before the
incorporation of its bulwark into the Empire. The Germiyan tribesman
originally consisted of the Kurdisised Turks and the Yezidi Kurdish majority.
The Germiyan had been moulded into a tribe d'origine confuse around 1275,
and emerged as a separate principality with its capital at Kütahya around
1300 AD [9:193-194,436ff].
The early Ottoman expansion in Europe, by irony of history, coincided with
the peak of the Hungarian Kingdom. The latter had been one of the biggest
European powers with admirable cultural and military achievements. Its
Christian population – respublica Christiana – took up the task of defending
southern and eastern borders of what Jacque Le Goff would call la Civilisation
de l'Occident Medieval. Not surprisingly, the Hungarian kings wear the
honourable titles of defensor Christianitatis and 'the soldiers of the Christian
faith' – miles fidei Christiane [11:23].
The Magyars knew that the Ottomans will go on with their attempts to
occupy the country and believed that these "pagans" must be thrown away
from Europe [11:23].

12
One has to bear in mind that such illusion were characteristic of the fifteenth
century Europe, where a comprehensive coalition of Christian states was seen
as capable to withhold the Ottoman advance. This thought became so deeply
rooted in the Hungarian popular consciousness that even in the beginning of
the sixteenth century, when the Ottomans were powerful international
players and any hope for quick victory over them was no longer a realistic
option, some writers continued inspiring the Magyars to "destroy the back of
the name of the Turks" [11:23-24].
After the battle of Mohács in 1526, described by historians as a 'tomb of the
nation', the way for the Ottoman rule in Hungary was opened and gradually
the image of the Turks and other allied Muslim groups has been shaped. This
image combined two factors: the conviction that the Ottoman expansion
threatened with the loss of the country's Christian identity and the placing
the advancing Ottomans in eschatological dimensions. The Turks were
considered to be the apocalyptic people of the Last Day, the embodiment of
the Antichrist [11:49].
Some historians even maintain that afterwards, in the Early Modern Age, it
might be incorrect to underestimate the opposition between Christianity and
Islam and the fear of the 'hereditary enemy' if we want to see through the
actual motives of decision making in Europe and the Middle East [22:225].
Kurdish participation in the Ottoman administration in Hungary can be
detected in two sorts of references: political and military figures whose
Kurdish descent is known and people bearing the name of Kurd/Kurt/Kurth
who might or might not have been ethnic Kurds.
Thus, the already mentioned letters of Ali Pasha refer to a certain Kurd who
committed crimes at Kanizsa as well as to a ruler (Voivode) with the name
Kurth. Nothing more elaborate could be obtained at this point about these
two men [5:153,275].
Another source, dealing with the Ottoman tax collection in
the sancak (province) of Hatvan, mentions 67 villages where the cizye (poll-
tax) of 1562-1563 failed. Among these three villages we find an interesting
reference: Simola (now Szomolya), east of Eger, and Sedrekin (now
Szederkény), south of ónod, both being a timarpossession of a certain Diváne

13
Kurd ('a crazy Kurd' may be the translation of his name); and Also Kajma
(Alsókázsmárk), north-east of Miskolc, belonging to 'Kurd Izvornik' [16:99-
100].
Yet, the most direct hint on the Kurdish factor in Hungary is the village of
Kurd in Tolna county. Having visited the village and interviewing its mayor,
Mr. István Cser and other residents I came to the following conclusion: even
if the name proves not to be a derivation from the ethnonym, the very
possibility, in popular mind, of such a link is remarkable. Even more
intriguing were the words of the local school-teacher Mrs. Ilona Tarr who in a
private conversation reflected on the Abdullah Ocalan abduction scandal:
"Though we are not Kurds – just the residents of the village of Kurd – we
have been following the Ocalan affair. We took it personally, God knows
why!"
The court of arms of the village depicts the wolf, referring to the Turkish
word kurt for wolf. However, the name of village is Kurd, not Kurt. Then we
can turn to the popular tradition which mentions an Ottoman military chief
of Kurdish stock – Kurd Pasha – who is supposedly buried in the nearby
forest. The idea of Kurdish settlement, in my view, could be highlighted due
to the fact that previously there have been another village, only two
kilometres away, named Láz. It is not excluded that the two villages bear the
ethnic allusion of their settlers, who might have come here as Ottoman
soldiers. The possibility becomes even more solid if we take into
consideration that for some time during the Ottoman rule the village has
been deserted and that until 1729 there is no data on the village population
and their taxation.
The name appears as Kurtu in the taxation letter of Dömösi and is to be found
in similar forms later on. In 1542, the village belonged to Kaposment, but in
1543 a big portion of the population left it. In 1559-1560 a part of the residents
came back. The rest, who moved to other places, kept their family names as
Kurdi, and now one of the well-known Hungarian writers bears the name
Imre Kurdi.
In 1730, decades after the Ottoman withdrawal from Hungary, the name
Kurd were to be found in a source indicating on neopopulata possessio Kurd.

14
But starting from 1729, new migrants came from central Hungary and were
mostly of Slavic, Serbian and Slovak, as well as Magyar ethnic background.
Since the midst of the eighteenth century and until the end of the World War
II, the majority of the population were the Rheinland Germans, At present it
is mixed: German, Hungarian and Gypsy. Yet, all of the 2000 residents
proudly refer to themselves as Kurdi, a local patriotic definition which has
lost any connotation with the legendary Kurd Pasha [8], [10], [17].
As in the case with the already mentioned Germiyan military unit, there are
some general facts about the Kurds participating in the Ottoman campaigns
on the territory of Hungary. Thus, the Ottoman infantry troops called sipahi,
who were active in Hungary, were partly recruited from the Kurds [24:125].
Furthermore, in 1687, the Hungarian notables elected the Habsburg prince
Joseph as their king. The following summer, the Habsburgs crossed the
Danube and despite the Ottoman attempts to negotiate cease-fire, rapidly
conquered much of the Balkans. This event was speeded up by the Serbian
revolts and the support of the local population and rulers alike. Then, having
offered inducements to the Kurdish tribesmen to join with other forces which
had assembled in Edirne, in 1690, the Ottomans mounted one of the most
astonishing counteroffensives and drove the Habsburgs all the way back
across the Danube [22:219-220].
Besides, Sharaf Khan Bidlisi presents direct references to the Kurds in the
Ottoman-Hungarian history. In 1583, ther was a conflict between two
Kurdish families over the already mentioned Cizîre. The broter of the
executed Emir Nasir – Emir Muhammad b. Khan Abdal – as a token of
punishment was sent to Buda (Budun) by Farhad Pasha, who was himself a
Kurd and occupied a high Ottoman position of the Grand Vezir. There, Emir
Muhammad had to stay without the right of regaining his former
possessions, but with a worthy financial backing. However, the luck was on
the side of Emir Muhammad: he, with the support of Muhammad Pasha
Busnavi, the Kurdish ruler of Diyarbekir, succeeded to obtain his former
district. It appears that the name of Muhammad Pasha Busnavi might have
referred to his military activities in Bosnia. At any rate, grateful to the
Ottoman authorities and familiar with the Hungarian realities, Emir

15
Muhammad b. Khan Abdal would participate in the conquest of Agria (Eger)
against 'the infidel Magyars' [1:198-201].
Bidlisi's Sharaf-name gives another example of the Kurds siding with the
Ottomans. Djan Fulad Beg, the ruler of Kurdistan, and his warriors
accompanied the Sultan during the occupation of Belgrade in 1521. His
brother, Husayn Beg, led the Kurdish troops at the battle of Sziget in 1557
and as a reward for his military success was later appointed the ruler of
Kurdistan replacing his deceased brother [1:276-279].
Finally, there is an interesting observation made on the basis of Evliya
Chelebi's information. Kuntush, the outer clothing wide-spread amongst the
Poles in the sixteenth-eighteenth centuries, was borrowed from the
Hungarians. A similar clothing can be found amongst some Oriental people
including the Kurds. The characteristic of the kuntush clothing was sleeves
with cuts which were dangling around one's shoulders and back. It was
made of expensive material, sometimes ornamented with furs [2:249ff].

Literary References
"There are a couple of hundred thousand troops our there [in Eger]. Not all of them
know even the names of the officers. Nor do they all speak the same language. There
are Persians, Arabs, Egyptians, Kurds, Tatars, Serbs, Albanians, Croats, Greeks,
Armenians – a thousand nationalities".
Géza Gárdonyi [4:430]

While speaking of the indirect references to the Kurds in the Ottoman

Hungary we may go back to Zrínyi's Threat to Sziget. It must be noted that the
author does not include the Kurds into the list of the peoples supporting the
Ottomans [6:I,78-102]. Yet, we come across a certain Kurt aga, or rather Kurd
Agha, who fought against György Turi. Kurt aga and his soldiers, numbered
by 1510, were killed by a sudden attack of Turi [6:II,11-12]. Then, we witness
the reaction of the Ottomans:
"Reaching the camp, many of them pray
To Prophet Muhammad in responding:
Strip the skin of Turi, immediately and severely,
To the honour of Kurt aga's burial" [6:II,18].

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A major literary monument of the nineteenth-century Hungary directly
mentions the Kurds within the Ottoman context. Géza Gárdonyi (1863-1922)
was one of the writers who contributed to what Anderson described as
'awakening from sleep', or the intellectual attempts to look for historical and
linguistic definitions to assert Hungarian identity. He involved the Kurds as
heroes of his famous novel Egri Csillagok (Stars over Eger).
It is important to bear in mind that Gárdonyi is known for his sensitivity for
details which encouraged him to make research in Vienna and
Constantinople and to learn Ottoman Turkish. Therefore, his references to the
Kurds must have had historical grounds. Indeed, as we have already
observed, the Kurds have been participating at the siege of Eger, also known
as Agria in Latin and Erlau in German.
The historical records of the siege of 1552 contain all the ingredients of a good
adventure story. 2,000 Hungarian defenders, including civilians, for thirty-
nine days successfully held out an Ottoman force at least twenty times as
great. It was the first successful attempt to oppose the Ottomans in Hungary
since the disastrous Battle of Mohács in 1526. Eger had an exceptional
commander, István Dobó, who together with Gergely Bornemissza would
capture the imagination of Gárdonyi.
First references to the Kurds are in the Ottoman Empire, before the famous
battle takes place. In the Seven Towers fortress, Yedikule, at the Sea of
Marmara, the life of prisoners of the Sultan, among them the Hungarian ruler
Bálint Török, is depicted:
"A Persian prince was sitting under the plane tree; like them, he had been a
prisoner for a long time. And there was another Asiatic prince there who was
almost mouldering with grief and boredom. They were playing chess. They
had played chess from morning till night for years, and they never said a
word to each other.
To Bálint and his companion the two chess-players were like the marble gate
shining white between the Tower of Blood and the Tower of Gold, or that
gigantic old Kurdish dignitary who was then wearing the heaviest chains for
having cursed the Emperor, and dropping under the weight of iron sat or lay

17
till dusk in the iron-barred prison of the Tower of Blood. Only his eyes
moved as he followed the prisoners walking among the bushes" [4:244].
Gergely Bornemissza and his companions want to release Bálint Török using
the tricks:
"They were another thousand or so paces away, walking towards the shore.
Gergely was dressed as a dervish, Eva as a Gypsy girl, Jancsi as a Persian
merchant, Matyi as a Kurdish biscuit-seller and Meksey as a fishmonger"
[4:276].
"The bey strolled calmly down to the beach with master Bálint. They passed
the Kurdish biscuit-seller without so much as a glance at him..." [4:277].
However, the main Kurdish hero appears later, during the very siege of Eger.
The Hungarians make a surprising attack against the Ottoman soldiers and
catch 'a gigantic Kurd' with 'big face' and 'blonde moustache'. He "roared...
squirmed and wriggled, but strong hands held him" and took to István Dobó.
The latter interrogated him using Gergely Bornemissza's interpretation
[4:376].
Then, Gárdonyi interchanges the words Kurd and Turk implying either the
man's ethnic background, or his military belonging. Therefore, when
captured, the Kurd would call for help in Turkish: "Yetishin!". His name is
Djekidj, in the original text Dzsekidzs; he is an infantryman (piad) from the
army of Ahmed Pasha. He participated at the battle of Temesvár (nor in
Romania). In the conformity with the image of the Turks, Gárdonyi depicts
him as a person who is ready to save his neck by revealing the secrets of the
Ottoman army, but who has no doubts whatsoever in the final victory of the
warriors of Islam. After the interrogation, the soldiers tie him up and throw
into the prison [4:376-380].
These details are interesting since there were Kurdish infantrymen in the
Ottoman army and since his name might be either a distortion of Chekan,
popular amongst the Kurds, or Chakuch meaning 'hammer'.
The Kurd would be eventually released to arrange the exchange of Gergely
Bornemissza's son for the talisman ring, which has been taken from another

18
hero. Another interesting reference: Djekidj is ordered by István Dobó to lay
"his hand on the Koran" and take the oath [4:451-453].
He does his utmost to carry out the task and therefore deserves István Dobó's
generosity and is allowed to go away [4:454-455].
To the best of my judgement, Géza Gárdonyi correctly shows the Kurds of
the sixteenth century as faithful Ottoman subjects, who nevertheless reserve
the tight to revolt against the Sultan. He depicts them 'gigantic', blonde and
trustworthy – probably a reflection of their fame as being brave and proud
people of the Indo-European stock. The Kurds are not only warriors, but also
cooks and traders. Their basic weakness comes from the fact that they are on
the side of the Ottoman conquerors, which makes them not very much
different from the pious Muslim Turks.

Conclusion
"No scholar... can resist the pressures on him of his nation or of the scholarly
tradition in which he works".
Edward W. Said [23:271]

The current paper makes a try to disclose both the prehistory and factual
history of Kurdish participation in the Ottoman affairs in Hungary. Such
contacts, however limited and indirect, started well before the Ottoman
occupation of the part of Hungarian Kingdom: in the battles of 1440s, the
chieftain of the Yezidi Kurdish Germiyan tribe fought against and was
defeated by the pressing Hungarian army. As for today, the chief sources for
the topic are Sharaf-name, A Threat to Sziget and The Letters of Ali Pasha of Buda.
As far as the letters of Ali Pasha are concerned, they suggest that Kurdish
lands were less integral parts of the Ottoman Empire than the province of
Buda. The sources in general indicate on two sorts of Kurdish references:
political and military figures whose Kurdish origin is beyond any doubt and
people bearing the name of Kurd, Kurt or Kurth who might have been ethnic
Kurds.
Thus, one cannot claim with certainty that the village of Kurd in Southern
Hungary is bound to Kurd Pasha, a legendary military chief whose grave is

19
located nearby. Yet, the fact that the residents of Kurd are interested in
Kurdish affairs deserves to be highlighted.
On the basis of my general research on Image of the Kurds in Hungary I have
published several articles in Kurdish literary journal "Havibun" (Berlin-
Arbil), "Hiwa" (Neu-Isenberg), "Deng" and "Azadiya Welat" (both issued in
Istanbul). I hope to arrest attention to the fact that the European context must
be included into Kurdish studies. On the other hand, Hungary's contacts with
the East need a more elaborated approach that would be emancipated from
political cliché.

References

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the seventeenth century], II, trans. from Ottoman Turkish into Russian.
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