On the frontiers of empire: Culture and power in early modern “Iranian” Kurdistan

This article will provide a broad (although by no means comprehensive) overview of the development of modern scholarly historical writing pertaining the Middle East’s Kurdish community prior to the end of the First World War. It seeks to highlight some of the important pioneering scholars who shaped the field during its twentieth century as well as more recent flurry of academic activity that has, since the turn of the twenty-first century, resulted in a publication of a number of important works that have greatly expanded our knowledge of Kurdish history. However, it will also endeavour to highlight some of the deficits in the existing historiography, most notably relating to Kurdistan in the early modern period (the early sixteenth to early nineteenth century) and, more specifically, the relatively underdeveloped nature of the literature on “Iranian” Kurdistan during this era. In doing so, it hopes to provide context for the three articles published in this issue of Kurdish Studies, all of which examine issues relating to culture and power in early modern “Iranian” Kurdistan.