BEDIR (BADR) KHAN FAMILY

Bedir Khan Beghad many sons who played a role in nascent Kurdish politics. Uthman and Husayn carried out a brief rebellion inBotanin 1879. Midhat published a bilingual Kurdish-Turkish journal calledKurdistanin Cairo beginning in 1898. During World War I, Kamil and Abdurrazzaq were apparently appointed governors of Erzurum andBitlisby the Russians. The latter was arrested by theTurksafter the war and was reportedly poisoned in prison inMosul.Yet another son, Emin Ali, was one of the founders of the Society for the Rise and Progress of Kurdistan, or the Kurdish National Committee, and had to flee when theOttomangovernment condemned him to death.

The three sons of Emin Ali—Thurayya (Sureya) Bedir Khan (1883-1938), Jaladet (Celadet/Djaladet) Bedir Khan (1893-1951), and Kamuran Bedir Khan (1895-1978)—dedicated their lives to the Kurdish national cause and were also noted figures in Kurdishliterature. Thurayya, who spent several years in prison for hisnationalistactivities, resumed publishing the newspaperKurdistanin Constantinople after theYoung Turkcoup in 1908 and was an early member of the transnational Kurdish party,Khoybun. His brother, Jaladet, was elected the first president of Khoybun. Subsequently, he devoted himself to literary work and helped to develop a Kurdish alphabet in Latin characters. Kamuran became a noted Kurdish author, spokesman, editor, and professor teaching Kurdish at the Ecole des Langues Orientales in Paris, where Joyce Blau was one of his students. In addition, he worked for a newspaper and radio in Beirut. In the 1960s he also served as a spokesman forMulla Mustafa Barzaniat theUnited Nations. His daughter Sinem (1938- ) currently lives inIrbiland possesses a considerable amount of archives concerning the family.