All these tribes are fond of indicating their dress, an adaptation of that of the Arabs, which they have adopted to the exclusion of the old and fantastic Kurdish dress, and point to it as being something to show their connection with the Arabs.
On the other hand, however, there are far more weighty evidences to prove that they are Kurd and nothing but Kurd, chief of which is their dialect, which is a well-defined and pure Kurdish tongue, the only Arab words in which have been imported. These words are usually the names of implements which, before the crafts of the Arabs were known to them, may not have existed.
From earliest memories of south-western Kurdistan the Hamavands have been in rebellion against the ruling power. Like every other small tribe, there is but the most meagre history to be gleaned, and that of the most recent only. They came originally from Persian territory, where they lived near the frontier at Qasr-i-Shirin. Here they became such an intolerable nuisance under their leader Jawan Mir Khan, that the Persians, in a vain hope of keeping them quiet, offered them the post of Wardens of the Marches at a fixed salary. This Jawan Mir Khan accepted, and redoubled his raids, becoming so unbearable that he was captured and executed. He was succeeded by his son Hama Beg. Upon his accession to the chieftainship the Turks claimed the tribe. Needless to say, the Persians gladly handed over this thorn in their flesh, requesting the Turks to remove their subjects with all expedition. They were then given the present country in the Qaradagh district.
HAMAVAND ANTECEDENTS
In 1874 they made a raid southward and commenced harassing the frontier towns, actually laying siege to Mandali, an important border town. Beaten off by troops and other tribes, they retired, and a number conducted a successful raid as far north as the Christian villages around Bayazid, returning, so report says, laden with spoil, and unassailed, though their chief weapon was but the lance.
Five years later they fell upon Sulaimania, and the town was only saved from wholesale looting by the arrival of a battalion of soldiers. Shortly after this exploit, the Turks having by treachery trapped some of the petty chiefs, a section was deported to the district of Tripoli, in Africa, whence they returned. Six months are said to have elapsed on the journey, and it is still the boast of the Hamavands that they looted Arab and Turk alike upon their return journey. Later again they encroached upon the territory of the great Jaf tribe, and were warned off by the Pasha of these powerful Kurds, under pain of incurring blood-feud.
About 1900, or earlier, incited by the shaikhs of Sulaimania and Qaradagh, they fell upon a large caravan of Persian pilgrims near Kirkuk, destroying two hundred of these unfortunates. Up to this time Sulaimania, Rawanduz, and Keui Sanjaq had enjoyed considerable revenues from the pilgrims who passed from Persia, via Sauj Bulaq, to Bagdad, but after this the traffic ceased, and the shaikhs have lost for their neighbourhood a source of considerable wealth in satisfying the fanatical impulse to slay Shi’a Musulmans.
In 1908 the Hamavands crowned a campaign of two years’ indiscriminate looting by announcing themselves in rebellion, and between the autumn of that year and summer of 1909 made good their assertion by stripping the Governor of Sulaimania, stopping all traffic, ending with the feat of attacking a “tabur” of Turkish soldiers, killing twelve (including a colonel and other officers), wounding forty or fifty and depriving them of all their possessions, including Mauser rifles, several loads of ammunition, clothing, daggers, uniforms and animals, leaving the miserable survivors thirty-six miles to tramp into Sulaimania. During this period they threatened the town several times, and always kept bands moving round about, so that corpses had to be taken out under a strong guard for burial, and often only with Hamavand permission.
All the summer of 1909 troops were collected at Chemchemal, a small town upon their borders, some eight thousand troops gathering by degrees. But secure in the knowledge that they could not move until a reluctant commander arrived, the Hamavands came up to the camp at night, dammed the water-supply, and picked off incautious sentries, disappearing before any sortie could be made. The soldiery was unpaid and demoralised, the officer supine and incapable, and the commander detained in Bagdad by various reasons of corruption and idleness. Two local governors—of Sulaimania and Kirkuk—were called to Chemchemal to form a court to judge and sentence the Hamavands when caught.
These individuals, together with the commanding officers were being paid by the Sulaimania shaikhs to refrain from action, and the non-existence among the soldiers of any steeds, mule or horse, made operations at that time impossible.