Emirate of Hakkari (1130-1849)

Hakkari, located on the border of Iran and Iraq and at the farthest point of the south-east of our country; has attracted attention with its history, nature, social and cultural texture, resources and geographical structure, and being a residence in different religions, sects and ethnities in history. The Hakkâri province, which hosts many cultural heritage traces of Islamic culture and civilization, has a strategic pre-requisite in terms of its role, both geographically and historically. It is meaningful that Hakkari was the origin of Yezidism's belief, cultivated important personalities that have left a mark on history and the patrician center of Nesturism sect as well as its early Islamization. In history, Hakkâri was governed by emirs, who for many years was introduced as a part of the Abbasid dynasty. Emirate of Hakkari have left mosques, lodges, kumbets, bridges, castles and other architectural monuments as well as the alleged sacred relics belonging to our Prophet. Besides these, the Hakkâri emirs have contributed to our history with a poem entitled "Mirname", which sheds light on their own periods and is of great importance to historiography. It is possible to say that in the past, the district of Hakkâri province has exceeded the boundaries drawn for today and that it is a goverment for about seven centuries in the region. We see that this seigniory has given serious political struggles to the Seljukians, Ilkhanids, Akkoyunlus and Karakoyunlus, the buffer zone in the Ottoman and Persian sovereignty areas, and has continued to exist as a sanjak with a political stance mostly from the Ottoman side. However, the emirate was destructed because of fights for the throne, conflicts with the Christian subjects and the revolt against the Ottoman state in the mid-19th century.