Battle of Dimdim

The Battle of Dimdim is the name for the battle between the Safavid Empire and the Sunni Kurds of Ottoman Empire between 1609 and 1610.

Location

The battle took place at the pre-Islamic fortress of Dimdim located on Mt. Dimdim in Bradost region around Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. The fortress that Amir Khan Lepzerin rebuilt was eventually captured by the Safavid army and later destroyed by the order of the Ottoman governor of Urmia. Although the fortress was destroyed, today the exact location of the fortress can be determined, since small portions of the walls and piles of building material are still visible in what was the location of Dimdim Castle.

Prelude

The battle took place around the fortress called Dimdim located in the Bradost region around Lake Urmia in northwestern Persia. In 1609, the ruined structure was rebuilt by Amir Khan Lepzerin (The Khan with the Golden Hand), the ruler of Bradost, who sought to maintain the independence of his expanding principality in the face of both Ottoman and Safavid penetration into the region. Rebuilding Dimdim was considered a move toward independence that could threaten Safavid power in the northwest. Some Kurds, including the rulers of Mukriyan (modern day Mahabad), rallied around Amir Khan.

The battle

There are well documented historical accounts of a long battle from 1609 to 1610 between Kurds and the Safavid Empire. The Kurds were at a disadvantage numerically and technologically. After a siege lasting almost a year, the Safavid Grand Vizier Hatem Beg captured the fort and massacred the Kurdish garrison.

Aftermath

After a long and bloody siege led by the Safavid grand vizier Hatem Beg, which lasted from November 1609 to the summer of 1610, Dimdim was captured. All the defenders were killed. Shah Abbas I ordered a general massacre in Bradost and Mukriyan (reported by Iskandar Beg Turkoman, Safavid Historian in the Book Alam Aray-e Abbasi) and resettled the Afshar tribe in the region while deporting many Kurdish tribes to Khorasan region. Although Safavid historians (like Iskandar Beg ) depicted the first battle of Dimdim as a result of Kurdish mutiny or treason, in Kurdish oral traditions (Beytî Dimdim), literary works (Dzhalilov, pp. 67–72), and histories, it was treated as a struggle of the Kurdish people against foreign domination. In fact, Beytî Dimdim is considered a national epic second only to Mem û Zîn by Ahmad Khani. The first literary account of this battle is written by Faqi Tayran.

See also

• Bradost
• History of the Kurdish people
• Iranian Kurdistan
• Kurdish people
• Safavid Empire
• Timeline of Kurdish uprisings

External links

• Battle of DimDim, Encyclopaedia Iranica
• History of Shah Abbas the Great: Tarik-E Alamara-Ye Abbasi