{"id":14633,"date":"2026-06-30T12:04:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/?p=14633"},"modified":"2026-06-30T12:04:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T10:04:31","slug":"schultz-hakkari-and-the-wild-kurd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/schultz-hakkari-and-the-wild-kurd\/","title":{"rendered":"Schultz, Hakkari, and the Wild Kurd"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the waning days of December 1829, in a defile – being perhaps the most beautiful in a country – close to the hamlet of Bash Kala (Elki), in the heart of Kurdistan German archaeologist, Friedrich Eduard Schultz, along with two Christian attendants were killed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the first panic was yet to subside, another struck. Cynically enough, there was still – it could be said – an afterpiece to the play. In a futile bid to suppress the incident, two Persian NCOs were also put to the knife.<\/span> It may look surprising, therefore, that of Schultz’s unfortunate retinue only one took to his heels. Yet he had no knowledge of the remainder.<\/span><\/p>\n

Entire confidentiality was enjoined upon everyone, but it was not so long before the secret was divulged as of the stench of deaths filled the air. On January 1, 1830, news of the massacre made headlines in Persia. The deaths were ascribed to robbers who were driven assumedly by the desire of plunder. That was not the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

Loud and clear, though the murder was carried out on neither nationalist nor religious grounds, it casted in consequence unalterable antipathy on one of the great nations so memorable in the early annals of human history, passing in sequence a verdict of ferocious and semi-barbarous a character on the Kurd.<\/span> Perhaps, nothing did more to impress the official opinion and the public mind than the assistance given by literary figures and intellectuals. It was hard to alter that view.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of all the slain party, the unbearable murder of the German-born, French-educated Schultz, sent shockwaves across Europe that developed a propagandist view of the Kurd. A great deal has been said concerning the death of the unfortunate Schultz, which excited a bad feeling against the Kurds, fanned, quite ironic to say, by the spectacular and quite astonishing discoveries he made in the short period of time he passed in Kurdistan. <\/span><\/p>\n

To explain the circumstances attending the sad and unwarrantable occurrence, we need proceed back in time and place to that inaccessible and hitherto unexplored part of Kurdistan; Hakkari.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some time back in 1826, Schultz had been deputed to Kurdistan by the French Government, with the principal aim of collecting works written in the ancient languages of Persia, including Kurdish, and to examine likewise all the monuments of antiquity. <\/span><\/p>\n

By many accounts, Schultz was an engaging, intelligent, open, and a high-spirited man. He was loved by all who associated with him. Catapulted to the pinnacle of fame at the tender age of 26, his loss at barely the age of 30, was a great setback for the scientific field. <\/span><\/p>\n

Quite curiously, this scientific undertaking was instigated by Antoine-Jean Saint Martin, a distinguished French Orientalist of great talent, on behalf of <\/span>Societe Asiatique<\/i><\/span> under the direct auspices of Minister for Foreign Affairs, Baron de Damas, and, most importantly, at the sole expense of King Charles X<\/span>.<\/span> With an annual stipend of 6000 Francs, and with a duration of at least four years, all signals the amount of importance the Government in Paris attached to the mission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The purpose of his study was to traverse particularly the Land of the Sun, and study its prophet; Zoroaster, and to become familiar with the traditions, manners, and beliefs of the Kurds. He was to promulgate to his fellows in Europe a better knowledge of Kurdistan, known as the most remote and inaccessible parts of Asia. Among the various localities that Schultz was instructed to visit was Van, Yazd, and Karman.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, quite unexpectedly, Qajar Persia, with the desperate intention to regain territories it had forcibly ceded to Russia by the humiliating Treaty of Gulistan (1813), took up the hatchet against Tsarist Russia (Jul 8). The war did not put a spoke into Schultz’s wheel, though it presented obstacles to the execution of the undertaking, which was so meticulously charged and traced-out by Damas. <\/span><\/p>\n

By 1827, Schultz had recorded and copied ancient cuneiforms in Urartu and in Kelashin. Owing to the war, however, he returned to Constantinople the following year. Months later, Russia and Persia buried the hatchet (September 1828). The suspension of hostilities, late though it was, was of essential service to Schultz, as it enabled him to proceed undeterred. <\/span><\/p>\n

In pursuance of this design, the professor was early in 1829 back in Tabriz, where he remained for eight months, improving his acquaintance with the habits of the people, and his knowledge of the Persian and Kurdish languages. It is quite interesting to know Schultz was able to reach Persia through the Mugham Steppe and the province of Talish – the very causes of the recent war. <\/span><\/p>\n

The winter of 1829 put a temporary – made permanent – stop to the mission. Intending to pass most of the winter in Baghdad, Schultz was planning now to make a pre-winter excursion into a part of Kurdistan hardly been visited by a stranger, let alone a European. <\/span><\/p>\n

For reasons seemingly explorational, Schultz had a real bee in his bonnet about visiting in person the little mountain village of Qudshanes, the residence of Patriarch Mar Shimon line, and Seat of Patriarchate of the Assyrian Church of the East, to which Assyrians of Hakkari and those of the plain of Urmia owed their allegiance.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not at all certain whether the visit was actuated by other motives, yet on accounts of all reasons, the ill-devised visit, as everyone stated, was fraught with serious dangers. He would never return back. In the leading up to Qudshanes, and when Schultz was still in Ushnavia, Samad Khan, the governor, offered to send an escort of his own Kurds with Schultz, who unfortunately declined the offer, and instead preferred the direct protection of the Persian Government through the Afshar chief of Urmia, Askar Khan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, Urmia’s governor, the Persian ambassador to Paris when Napoleon was at the zenith of his power, strongly urged Schultz not to trust himself in such a turbulent area, where his country had no control. Most gravely, Askar Khan used to be in constant feud with the Hakkari chiefs, who harbored a deep- seated grudge against their Persian rivals. <\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, Kurdish chiefs in the southern and western extremities of Lake Van had recently defied Askar’ authority. The recent Russo- Persian War has exacerbated the situation with Russian forces penetrating deep into Kurdish localities making inroads and setting up sort of FOBs therein. These areas began to show symptoms of hostility to Russia and Persia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relatedly, Schultz friends manned the barricades against the plan unless it was officially approbated. The monstrous murder of Alexander Griboyedov, Russia’s ambassador to Persia, in February 1829, all bear to one and the same fact of unhinged anarchy.<\/span> It was thought advisable not to meddle in such messy a reality.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet Schultz was not a risk- averse explorer, and such sentiments tend to have kindled than to allay his zeal. The professor distinctly stated, that he could not be answerable for his safety. Askar authorized to accede to Schultz’s request, especially as it was very strongly urged.<\/span><\/p>\n

That Schultz was the agent of a Charles X, and having developed good ties with Abbas Mirza of Persia, may have misled the him to the false feel he had a carte blanche. He decided to take the matter into his own hands. It is plausibly possible that Schultz was deceived in the idea that the Kurds were in full agreement with Persia. A tremendous fog of confusion and suspicion filled the air of which Schultz himself helped create. Fear percolated, and they began to seen Schultz in a new light. A one that ultimately will be his downfall.<\/span><\/p>\n

In November, passing himself as Yohanan, the daring traveler quitted Urmia embarking into his deadly excursion into Qudshanes.<\/span> Persian regular army soldiers, natives of Urmia, who had on many occasions visited the country, and served as guides, made part of Schultz’s incongruous team. It was a fatal mistake. The plan would go awry. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of Hakkari, a most warlike province of the empire, the Sultan could not put forward any valid claim to suzerainty, and the war with Russia had apparently ruined his power and tarnished his image, and had exhausted more and more the resources of the heavily- burdened empire.<\/span><\/p>\n

The recent war had also its profound impacts on both sides of the border. The Russians had taken possession of a number of villages and fortresses of strategic importance, though slightly guarded. The Persians, with lesser degree, did the same. There appeared no discipline or control among the most insubordinate of the frontier tribes. Such state of things, has caused a considerable change not only in control, rather in switching sides.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a rule of thumb, it was quite impossible to penetrate into Hakkari without the consent of Kurdish chiefs. There were no other routes that might offer the best hopes of success. In a zig- zag line, the route to Qudshanes lay through Bash Kala (Elki), the main district in the mountainous area. Elki was the residence of a provincial chief (Mir) who chanced to be Mustafa Khan. To the south of Qudshanes was Julamerg, a village reachable only by Kurds. It was the official headquarters of a Kurdish chief dependent to Elki. It occurred to be now under Nurallah Bey — Mustafa’s younger brother \u2013 a ruthless man from a ruthless time.<\/span><\/p>\n

With suspecting eyes, the Kurdish Bey is said to have received Schultz with all due hospitality. Yet, contrary to what was usually the case, in the character of this dependent provincial chief, there seems to be dispossessed of princely chivalrous romance characteristic to the spirit of time and place. <\/span><\/p>\n

Upon Schultz’s departure, the Kurdish chief under the pretext that the company escorting the Hessian archeologist was insufficient, sent some of his own men and confidants with him with the ostensible aim of further protecting the party. That was to all intents and purposes just a trick to keep him round-the-clock surveillance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schultz apparently reaches Qudshanes unharmed, and is reputed to have been received with the highest honour and hospitality by Mar Shimon. Catastrophe would strike. It occurred that during Schultz’s stay at Qudshanes, Nurallah receives a letter describing Schultz as a Persian emissary sent primarily to survey the country and discover the best routes for the guns to penetrate into the heart of Hakkari. <\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that Schultz had passed himself as Yohanan gave the letter all the appearance of truth. Additionally, Schultz inquiries about the antiquities, and the open observations and notices of tablets he repeatedly made in the village of Korek, and of mines in the mountains of Zarah Shuran, which were widely believed to produce gold, filled the air with suspicion. <\/span><\/p>\n

Making the situation even worse, Schultz is said to have carried away specimens of the yellow mineral from the orpiment mines of Mount Korek caves. People suspected he had found it to contain gold. The men that were assigned by Nurallah to guard Schultz construed his taking of notes as being a Persian emissary. A pretty kettle of fish.<\/span><\/p>\n

Schultz is said to have spent the last three days of his journey (and actually of his life) in intense and hectic research in Kelashin- one of Kurdistan’s highest passes. Muddying the waters, he made splendid gifts to the Kurdish chiefs, and had a great deal of baggage. They naturally thought his boxes were full of money, and suspected that he was surveying their country for either France or Persia, or might even Russia.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Schultz an unappealable verdict was passed. Suleiman Bey was assigned to carry out that verdict. By the order of his uncle, Suleiman headed the party that murdered Schultz and his attendants. The execution was to be carried out without delay (December 22?). The deed caused sufficient hysterical outrage at home and abroad. Later, Nurallah and Suleiman would play a pivotal role in the politics of Hakkari in the years to come.<\/span><\/p>\n

The body of Schultz was buried near the spot where he fell, and a small oriental cairn marked his resting place, as if to preserve not only his remembrance but also the evil act to the posterity. Not with complete certainty though, some to seven six lives were allegedly sacrificed, which made it impossible to conceal the crime or let it go unheard.<\/span><\/p>\n

In <\/span>Travels in Chaldea<\/i><\/span>, British Captain Robert Mignan reports that upon hearing the news of the deaths, the East India Company envoy at the Persian court, Sir John M. Kinneir, instantly dispatched a confidential person to Van to collect, if possible, Schultz’s papers, and to take steps for punishing the murderers. He adds that Major Isaac Hart fully intended to proceed to the stronghold of Mustafa Khan, with the determination of inflicting retributive vengeance on this murderer<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, the consequence of such an intention, according to Asahel Grant, who was at the scene before the decade had turned, was that the immediate agent in the murder of Schultz was put to death by those who are said to have been main instigators of the bloody deed<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the vacuum of information, it could be claimed that Schultz may have been engaged an playing a very fine play. One French account close to <\/span>Societe Asiatique<\/i><\/span> flatly puts it that Schultz hated the Kurds. Exactly why, is not clear. While historical records fail to mention the sender of the letter, it is presumably Mustafa Khan, the highest officiating authority in Elki, although his complicity in the murder is not supported by evidence<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of Mustafa Khan, little or almost next to nothing is known. And apart from this melancholic episode, he is barely mentioned in the annals of Kurdish history. But one questions has ever since remained unanswered, was Schultz a spy, or not? It remains a secret. Yet there is still a sequel to the story.<\/span><\/p>\n

The death of Mustafa Khan (1839) stirs up a hornets’ nest in Hakkari over the succession right to emirate in Elki between Nurallah and Suleiman in which neighboring Assyrians would take the side of the nephew. A very bad decision. <\/span><\/p>\n

Schultz full story had shifted the attention of the outside world to the Assyrians of Hakkari, a newly-discovered small nation that would capture the minds and hearts of Christian missions and charities in the years to come. Beyond the isolated family affair, the episode meant a knock- out blow to the free life of Hakkari.<\/span><\/p>\n

Failing to plough the waves of Tamerlane, one of history’s most noted murderers, some time back in 1401, the Assyrians, known otherwise as Nestorians, are said to have been wafted onto the inaccessible mountains of Hakkari. Since that date, they sank into utter obscurity.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the new abode, they lived on quite cordial terms with the Kurds until at length but suddenly at the last war broke out between Nurallah Bey, and his nephew, Suleiman, over succession rights to the administration of the main district; Elki. In that bone- breaking family affair, most Assyrians could not remain indifferent or impassive spectators of the present struggle. The small nation including Mar Shimon Abraham, supported one way another, Suleiman<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The contextual circumstances how Suleiman obtained the cooperation of Abraham is not known. However, getting the better of his nephew, the uncle, in the elation of triumph, turned against those who had hastened to the aid of his nephew. It was this incident that created a fault line between Kurds and Assyrians. It was never bridged<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Through the interference of Europe, missionaries began to arrive in the region in the wake of the Russo- Persian War to play a crappy role. With deep- seated abhorrence, they pictured the Kurd as rogue and criminal, and represented the Kurdish culture as the fountain- head whence the presumed hatred of the Kurds against the Christians derived<\/span>.<\/span> Basically, the Kurds were generally deeply suspicious of the nature of these missionaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

The impression was that they were full of aversion for the Kurdish people. Partly, they were. Their presence not only further disturbed the delicate situation; it further brought a most important influence to bear on the struggle of the two nations in favor of Assyrians.<\/span> There is good reason for thinking that unless the so-called Christian charities extended a mischievous hand, slaughter on a larger scale could not have taken place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Later, when the Caliph-Sultan was hell bent on reducing the power of Kurdish chieftains, the most shocking cruelties and barbarities committed by the Porte during the process were imputed to the Kurds who were portrayed as being ignoramus and ungodly, at whose door all calamities of the empire of Osman were laid. This would last for a plenty of time, but the evil would stick to the Kurds through the years and decades that followed. Sasoun in 1894, among many others and are good examples to cite. <\/span><\/p>\n

Quintessentially, in 1903, a stopgap alliance was forged between the Armenian Committees and the Young Turks with the ultimate aim to depose Sultan Abdul Hamid. Naturally, such an alliance could not have been accomplished until Armenians had consented to abandon the methods of their propaganda. Suddenly, all the Anti- Turk active propaganda came to a stop and a new one was put in place<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

That same year, a large group of Turks paid a visit to the Armenian cemetery in Constantinople. They deposited floral tributes on the graves of the victims of the Imperial Ottoman Bank massacre of 1896. The newly-concocted narrative was that all the cruel deeds were not committed by the Turks – who were purported to have loathed the killings – but rather by the fanatical bands of savage Kurds<\/span>, who is used to butcher the men and violate the <\/span>women.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, with the permanent struggle between truth, the probable and falsehood, Schultz seems to be a victim of ambitious exploration, of political intrigue, of competing regional and global powers, but on top of that all, of his own personal hubris. That is, in many aspects, tend to be the story of the Kurds. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the waning days of December 1829, in a defile – being perhaps the most beautiful in a country – close to the hamlet of Bash Kala (Elki), in the heart of Kurdistan German archaeologist, Friedrich Eduard Schultz, along with two Christian attendants were killed. Before the first panic was yet to subside, another struck. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2634,"featured_media":14634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"jnews_post_split":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,61],"tags":[1320,1318,43,1319],"ppma_author":[1155],"class_list":["post-14633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analysis","category-slider","tag-archeology","tag-friedrich-eduard-schultz","tag-kurdistan","tag-van"],"authors":[{"term_id":1155,"user_id":2634,"is_guest":0,"slug":"lazghine-yaqoube-1","display_name":"Lazghine Ya'qoube","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Lazghine-Yaqoube.KCS_.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Lazghine-Yaqoube.KCS_.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2634"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14633"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14635,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14633\/revisions\/14635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14633"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nlka.net\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=14633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}