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Shabaks

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shabak
Total population
200,000–500,000 (2017 estimation)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Largest settlements:
Mosul, Gogjali, Bartella[2][3]
Languages
Shabaki, Arabic, Kurdish[4]
Religion
Majority: Shia Islam[5]
Minority: Sunni Islam, Yarsanism[6]
Historically: Shabakism

Shabaks (Arabic: الشبك, Kurdish: شەبەک, romanized: Şebek) are a group native to the Nineveh Plains in Iraq. Their origin is uncertain, although they are largely considered Kurds by scholars.[7][8][9] They speak Shabaki, a branch of the Zaza–Gorani languages, one of the main Kurdish variants alongside common Kurdish. Shabaks largely follow Shia Islam, with smaller Sunni and Yarsani minorities.

Origins

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The origins of the word Shabak are not clear. One theory is that Shabak is an Arabic word شبك that means intertwine, indicating that the Shabak people originated as a confederation of many tribes of different ethnicities.[7] Others claim that the word Shabak came from the Persian "shah" and Turkish "bek", meaning "master of kings", eventually being Arabized to "Shabak".[10] Austin Henry Layard considered Shabaks to be descendants of Kurds who originated in Iran, and believed that they possibly had affinities with the Ali-Ilahis.[7] Anastase-Marie al-Karmali also argued that Shabaks were ethnic Kurds.[11] Another theory claimed that Shabaks were local ethnic Kurds who were influenced by many cultures due to the ethnic and religious diversity of the Nineveh Plains, which was historically one of the most diverse regions in Iraq.[12] In 2019, Hussein al-Shabaki, a Shabak politician, claimed that the Shabaks were simply Kurds of various Kurdish tribes, and that the term "Shabak" in reality was the historical name of the region they lived in.[13] Another theory suggests that the Shabaks originated from Anatolian Qizilbash Turkomans, who were forced to settle in the Mosul area after the defeat of Ismail I by the Ottomans at the Battle of Chaldiran.[7] Other theories supported the Qizilbash theory, although claimed that the Shabaks specifically descended from Qizilbash Kurds, as the Qizilbash confederation did include Kurds and other Non-Turkic minorities.[14] Historians also stated that it was possible that the Shabaks descended from an ancient Kurdish tribe known as "Shanbakiyya", and also added that it was possible that the Shabaks had affinities with Shabankara.[15] In the 1990s, Turkish sources began denying the existence of the Shabaks, claiming they were simply part of the Iraqi Turkmen.[16]

Most Shabaks belonged to the Kurdish tribes of Zangana, Bajalan, Rojbayani, Dawudi, Lak, Omerbal, Shekak, and Zirari, among others. Some individual Shabak families were of Arab or Turkmen origin who assimilated due to living in close proximity.[17][18]

Deportation and forced assimilation

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After the 1987 census, the Iraqi regime declared Shabaks to be Arabs. Many Shabak community leaders protested, insisting that they were Kurds, after which the Iraqi regime began a campaign against Shabaks.[19] Many Shabaks chose to abandon their traditions, stop identifying with Kurds, and assimilate into the Arab identity to avoid being targeted.[20] The Iraqi government fabricated lineage documents to portray the Shabaks as Arabs.[21] The campaign included both deportation and forced assimilation, and many Shabaks were relocated to concentration camps near the Harir area located to the north of Erbil. An estimated 1,160 Shabaks were killed during this period. In addition, increasing efforts have been made to force the Shabaks to suppress their own identity in favour of being Arab. The Iraqi government's efforts of forced assimilation, Arabization, and religious persecution put the Shabaks under increasing threat. A researcher interviewed a Shabak survivor, who stated that "the government said we are Arabs, not Kurds; but if we are, why did they deport us from our homes?"[7] Shabak politician Salim al-Shabaki, a Shabak representative in the Iraqi parliament, openly declared that "the Shabaks are part of the Kurdish nation."[22] Furthermore, he claimed that Shabaks were direct descendants of the original Kurds.[23]

After the end of Baathist Iraq, the newer Shia-dominated Iraqi government maintained the practice of attempting to distance Shabaks from Kurds.[24]

Politically, the Shabaks who identified as Kurds supported the Kurdistan Region and mostly supported the KDP, while the Shabaks who identified as a distinct group supported the central Iraqi government and mostly supported Iran-backed militias.[25] Hunain al-Qaddo, a Shabak politician who advocated that Shabaks were a distinct ethnic group, claimed that "the Peshmerga have no genuine interest in protecting his community, and that Kurdish security forces are more interested in controlling Shabaks and their leaders than protecting them."[26] Meanwhile, Salim al-Shabaki claimed that it was actually the Iraqi Shia militias who had no interest in protecting the Shabaks and only wanted to distance Shabaks from other Kurds. He also accused the Shia militias of committing atrocities against Shabaks who did not benefit their agenda.[27]

After the decline of Shabakism during the Iraqi civil war, most Shabaks were Muslims, with a significant Yarsani minority. Shabak Muslims were around 70% Shia and 30% Sunni.[28][29][30][31] Religion was a factor in the identification of Shabaks. The Shia Shabaks were divided between those who identified as Kurds and those who identified as a separate group, while the Sunni and Yarsani Shabaks identified as Kurds. Some of them migrated to the KRG and integrated well. The Shabaks who identified as Kurds sided with the KRG and mostly supported the KDP. The Shabaks who identified as a distinct ethnic group supported the Iran-backed militias.[32]

In the 1990s and 2000s, Shabaks were also targets of Turkification by Turkish groups and their Iraqi Turkmen allies. The Iraqi Turkmen National Party (ITMP) actively ran a campaign aimed at convincing Shabaks that they were Turks. In addition to Shabaks, the ITMP claimed that all Yarsanis were Turks, and that Yarsanism was a Turkic religion. After the Anfal campaign, the ITMP received aid consisting of food packages from Turkey. The ITMP caused controversy as they did not give any aid to the Shabak victims unless they signed documents agreeing that they were Turks. By 2003, the Turkification attempts had stopped, as they never had a lasting effect on the Shabaks.[33]

Shabaks had tensions with Sunni Arabs, which was worsened by Saddam Hussein, and further worsened by the rise of the Islamic State in 2014.[34]

The situation of Shabaks and Feyli Kurds in Iraq was identical, and both groups complained about being alienated from Sunni Kurds who saw them as Shia, and from Shia Arabs who saw them as Kurds.[35]

During the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum, there were Shabaks who supported independence and called for their native region in the Nineveh Plains to be included.[36]

Settlements

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List of Shabak–majority settlements in the Nineveh Plains:[37]

  • Abbasiyah
  • Ali Rash
  • Badanat Sufla
  • Badanat Ulya
  • Basakhrah
  • Basatliya Saghirah
  • Baybukh
  • Bazgirtan
  • Bazwaya
  • Chunji
  • Darawish
  • Dayrij
  • Gogjali
  • Gora Ghariban
  • Judaydat
  • Kahriz
  • Khazna
  • Kiretagh / Qaraytagh
  • Manara Shabak
  • Mufti
  • Qara Shor
  • Qara Tappa
  • Sadah
  • Salamiyah
  • Shaqoli
  • Shahrazad
  • Sheikh Amir
  • Tahrawa
  • Tawajinah
  • Terjilleh
  • Tiskharab



List of mixed settlements in the Nineveh Plains:[37]

  • Abu Jarwan (Shabak–Bajalan Kurdish)
  • Bartella (Shabak–Assyrian)[38]
  • Basatliya (Shabak–Kurdish)
  • Bashbitah (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Bashiqa (Shabak–Yezidi)
  • Bir Hallan (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Birma (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Fadila (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Hasan Shami (Mixed Kurdish–Arab)
  • Jilu Khan (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Kabarli (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Kanunah (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Kharabat Sultan (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Khorsabad (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Orta Kharab (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Bakhdida / Qaraqosh / Hamdaniyah (Assyrian-Shabak)[39]
  • Qarqashah (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Shamsiyat (Shabak–Turkmen)
  • Summaqiyah (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Tall Akub (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Tallara (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Topzawah (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Tubraq Ziyarah (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Umar Qabji (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Umarkan (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Yangija (Mixed Kurdish)
  • Yarimjah (Shabak–Turkmen)
  • Zara Khatun (Mixed Kurdish)

As of March 2019, all of the above settlements are under federal control and are disputed territories of Northern Iraq.[40]

References

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  1. ^ "Crossroads: The future of Iraq's minorities after ISIS" (PDF). Minority Rights Group International. p. 9. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Part I: ISIS exploited the marginalized minority groups of Iraq". Rudaw. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  3. ^ C.J. Edmonds (1967). "A Pilgrimage to Lalish". p. 87.
  4. ^ Christine M. Helms. Arabism and Islam: Stateless Nations and Nationless States. p. 12.
  5. ^ Imranali Panjwani. Shi'a of Samarra: The Heritage and Politics of a Community in Iraq. p. 172.
  6. ^ Religious Minorities in Iraq: Co-Existence, Faith and Recovery After ISIS, Maria Rita Corticelli, 2022, pp. 130, ISBN 9780755641352
  7. ^ a b c d e Leezenberg, Michiel (December 1994). "The Shabak and the Kakais: Dynamics of Ethnicity in Iraqi Kurdistan" (PDF). ILLC Research Report and Technical Notes Series. University of Amsterdam: 5–6. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  8. ^ Ahmed, M. (19 January 2016). Iraqi Kurds and Nation-Building. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-03408-3. Since Shabak Kurds—a minority religious group—were legally deprivedfrom purchasing land in Mosul and those ...
  9. ^ Leezenberg (December 1994). "The Shabak and the Kakais: Dynamics of Ethnicity in Iraqi Kurdistan" (PDF). Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  10. ^ The Handbook of Iraqi People’s Heritage, Mariz Tadros, Shivan Shlaymoon Toma, Juwan Mohammed M. Mahdi Almofti, Wafaa Sabah Khuder, Saaed A. Saaed Majdal, Zubeida Salih Abdulkhaliq, Charley Howman, 2025, pp. 169, ISBN 9781804702550
  11. ^ The Shabak, Bektashis, Safawis, and Kizilbash (1 ed.). Syracuse: Syracuse University Press. 1987. ISBN 0-8156-2411-5.
  12. ^ Ahmad Shoukat, Al-Shabak Al-Kurd Al-Mansiyoun, Ministry of Culture Printing Press, Sulaymaniyah, 2004, p. 48.
  13. ^ "Iraq's Shabaks and the Search for Land Rights and Representation". EPIC - Enabling Peace in Iraq Center. 2019-12-13. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  14. ^ Leezenberg, M. (2014). The end of heterodoxy? The Shabak in post-Saddam Iraq. Studies in Oriental Religions, 68, 247-268. pp. 3.
  15. ^ Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects, Matti Moosa, 1987, pp. 5
  16. ^ Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq, 2019, pp. 201, ISBN 9781912997152
  17. ^ "رەوشی کوردانی شەبەک لە موسڵ". Anadolu Ajansı. Retrieved 2025-03-13.
  18. ^ The Handbook of Iraqi People’s Heritage, Mariz Tadros, Shivan Shlaymoon Toma, Juwan Mohammed M. Mahdi Almofti, Wafaa Sabah Khuder, Saaed A. Saaed Majdal, Zubeida Salih Abdulkhaliq, Charley Howman, 2025, pp. 170, ISBN 9781804702550
  19. ^ Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq, 2019, pp. 200, ISBN 9781912997152
  20. ^ Saad Salloum, Minorities in Iraq, p. 211
  21. ^ Saad Saloom, "Mai'at Wahm 'An al-Aqaliyat fi al-Iraq" (A Hundred Myths About Minorities in Iraq), pages 531-532.
  22. ^ "Shabak minority want only Peshmerga to liberate their homes". Rudaw. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
  23. ^ "شبك العراق بين مطرقة القومية وسندان المذهبية". الجزيرة نت (in Arabic). Retrieved 2025-03-23.
  24. ^ The A to Z of the Kurds, Michael M. Gunter, 2009, pp. 182-183, ISBN 9780810863347
  25. ^ Historical Dictionary of Iraq, Beth K. Dougherty, 2019, pp. 683, ISBN 9781538120057
  26. ^ "On Vulnerable Ground". Human Rights Watch. 10 November 2009.
  27. ^ میدیا, گوڵان. "سالم شەبەک: حەشدی شەعبی سووکایەتی بە کوردانی شەبەک دەکەن". گوڵان مێدیا (in Somali). Retrieved 2025-03-10.
  28. ^ Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq, pp. 198-200; 202-204, ISBN 978-1-912997-15-2
  29. ^ Religious Minorities in Iraq: Co-Existence, Faith and Recovery After ISIS, Maria Rita Corticelli, 2022, pp. 130, ISBN 9780755641352
  30. ^ Imranali Panjwani. Shi'a of Samarra: The Heritage and Politics of a Community in Iraq. p. 172.
  31. ^ Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium “Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present”, Berlin, 14–17 April 1995, 2018, pp. 173, ISBN 9789004378988, 9004378987
  32. ^ "IS threatens Iraq's minority Shabak community". www.al-monitor.com. Retrieved 2025-03-27.
  33. ^ Leezenberg, M. (2014). The end of heterodoxy? The Shabak in post-Saddam Iraq. Studies in Oriental Religions, 68, 247-268. pp. 13-14.
  34. ^ The Shabaks: Perceptions of Reconciliation and Conflict, pp. 8-9, Middle East Research Institute
  35. ^ 2009, pp. 54, ISBN 9789953362700
  36. ^ Beyond ISIS: History and Future of Religious Minorities in Iraq, 2019, pp. 205, ISBN 9781912997152
  37. ^ a b عبود، زهير كاظم، (2009). الشبك في العراق (in Arabic). AIRP. p. 42. ISBN 9789953362700.
  38. ^ "'Trust is gone': Iraqi Christians fear returning due to Shiite militia". The Daily Star - Lebanon. 12 February 2019.
  39. ^ Erica Gaston (5 August 2017). "Iraq after ISIL: Qaraqosh, Hamdaniya District". GPPi. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
  40. ^ "US State Dept. says Iraq's takeover of disputed areas caused 'abuse, atrocities'". Rûdaw. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 25 March 2019.

Further reading

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