Draft:Rawandiz Revolt

First Rawandiz Revolt
Part of Kurdish-Ottoman conflict
Date 1813-1836 Location Kurdistan Result Soran victory Soran Emirate gained independence from the Ottoman Empire and was later confronted again.
Belligerents
Soran Emirate Supporters: Qajar Iran (Sometimes)	Ottoman Empire Supporters: Yazidis troops Assyrians troops United Kingdom Qajar Iran (Sometimes)
Commanders and leaders
Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz  †	Mahmud II Emir Sivas Emir Baghdad  † Emir Mosul Agha Malak  † Ali Beg  †
Strength
30.000 or 50.000	90.000-200.000
Casualties and losses
Unknown	In 1832 70,000 Yazidi massacred

The “Mir Kora” or Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz started Kurdish independence quest against the Ottomans in 1813, after the death of his father, the Mir started multiple campaign against the Ottoman and Local Yazidi forces, he won multiple Battle and could established a powerful state in this region.

The Context

At the beginning of the 19th century, worried about the decadence of the empire and external threats, the Ottoman authorities tried to centralize their political system and increase their control of the territories. This policy will endanger the autonomy of the Kurdish principalities. In 1806, the Baban principality rose up. The rebellion was defeated in 1808. Despite the failure of the Baban, other Kurdish revolts will break out throughout the nineteenth century.

The Revolt

After the failure of the Baban, the prince of the Soran, Mîr Mohammed, nicknamed Mîrê Kor (the blind prince) because of partial blindness, believes that the brutality of the Ottoman repression on the Baban makes the fight for independent Kurdistan inevitable. The fact that the Ottoman army was weakened by the war with Russia of 1828-1829 and that it is still in difficulty in Egypt, appears to him as a sign that the time is right. He set up a regular army and installed arsenals and weapons factories in his capital, Rewandûz.

At the end of May 1833, at the head of his army of 10,000 horsemen and 20,000 infantrymen, Mîr Mohammed occupied all of southern Kurdistan (Soran, Bahdinan, Mosul) and reached the borders of the principality of Botan, governed by Bedirxan Beg. Mîr Mohammed proposes a political alliance against the sultan to the Prince of Botan, but he, fearing that he would eventually become his vassal, refused, content to offer him his symbolic support.

The Ottoman authorities then reacted and sent all the available troops from Sivas, Mosul and even Baghdad to crush the revolt. The fighting lasted without interruption throughout the summer of 1834, but Mîr Mohammed emerged victorious. The Ottomans on the run, he rushed to Iran's Kurdistan, where he rallied all the tribes, and defeated the Persian army on several occasions.

In the summer of 1836, having heard of a next Ottoman intervention, he returned to Rewandûz, while trying to negotiate an agreement with Iran, which would not succeed. The Ottoman army launched an assault on Rewandûz, but Mîr Mohammed's army, well prepared, once again put the Turks in defeat.