22 Facts About Mahmud Barzanji

Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji, known as Mahmud Hafid Zadeh was a Kurdish leader of a series of Kurdish uprisings against the British Mandate of Iraq.

Mahmud Barzanji was sheikh of a Qadiriyah Sufi family of the Barzanji clan from the city of Sulaymaniyah, which is in Kurdistan Region.

Mahmud Barzanji was named King of Kurdistan during several of these uprisings.

However, the determination of Barzanji was not in the interests of all Kurds, as the rivalry between tribes and orders was great.

Mahmud Barzanji was born 1878 in Sulaymaniyah as the son of parents who belonged to the Barzanji clan.

Mahmud Barzanji's family were Sufi Qadiriyya, of which he later became sheikh.

Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji was appointed Governor of the former sanjak of Duhok from 1911 to 1919.

The British government attempted to establish a Kurdish protectorate in the region and so appointed a popular leader of the region, which was how Mahmud Barzanji became governor of southern Kurdistan.

Mahmud Barzanji was a very ambitious Kurdish national leader and promoted the idea of Kurds controlling their own state and gaining independence from the British.

However, with a little taste of power, Mahmud Barzanji had ambitions for more for himself and for the Kurdish people.

Mahmud Barzanji was declared "King of Kurdistan" and claimed to be the ruler of all Kurds, but the opinion of Mahmud among Kurds was mixed because he was becoming too powerful and ambitious for some.

Mahmud Barzanji hoped to create Kurdistan and initially the British allowed Mahmud Barzanji to pursue has ambitions because he was bringing the region and people together under indirect British control.

Mahmud Barzanji was elected as the head of government by a council of Kurdish notables in the Sulaimaniya region, and as soon as the British captured Kirkuk he captured Ottoman troops present in his district and declared the end of Ottoman rule, pledging allegiance to Britain.

Mahmud Barzanji was designated by the British as governor of Kurdish area B, which extended from south of the Lesser Zab River to the old Ottoman-Persian frontier.

Mahmud Barzanji attempted to expand his influence outside his designated region, and used British subsidies, provided for salaries and to assist recovery from the ravages of war, in order to consolidate his power base, buying the loyalty of chieftains.

Sheykh Mahmud Barzanji was arrested and sent into exile to India in 1921.

Sheikh Mahmud Barzanji resigned signed a peace accord with the new Iraqi government, returning from the underground to the independent Iraq in 1932.

In May 1941, Mahmud Barzanji staged a brief revolt in northern Iraq after the Rashid Ali coup of April 1941 before the British eventually occupied Sulaymaniyah on 6 June 1941.

Mahmud Barzanji hoped that the British would grant him an independent Kurdistan, but this never culminated.

Mahmud Barzanji is still remembered today with displays of him around Iraqi Kurdistan and especially in Sulaimaniah.

Mahmud Barzanji is a hero to the Kurdish people to this day, as he is thought of as an pioneering Kurdish nationalist who fought for the independence and respect of his people.

Mahmud Barzanji is regarded as a pioneer for many future Kurd leaders.