Kurds are one of the crucial distinguished ethnic teams in Palestinian society, going again to the period of Saladin al-Ayyubi, once they flocked to Palestine to liberate it from the crusaders.
Additionally they headed to Palestine throughout the rule of Najm al-Din Ayyub, the Ottoman Caliphate, and the Mamluks period. They’re largely concentrated in Gaza, which was the trade link between Damascus, Cairo and Europe.
Kurds flocked to Gaza from northern Syria, Iraq, and Turkey. At this time, Kurdish households in Gaza communicate each Kurdish and Arabic and have turn into a part of the Palestinian social material, totally embracing its customs, traditions, and social specificity.
Crucial Kurdish edifice in Gaza is the Hathat Palace, constructed within the twelfth century AH by Ibrahim Hathat, a Kurdish service provider who married the Ottoman Sultan’s sister.
“The Kurds got here to Palestine and noticed it as a historic Islamic vacation spot during which they needed to reside and combine with the Arabs,” Issa Hathat, 81, informed Al-Monitor. “Our household is of Kurdish origin. Hathat Palace was owned by the Damascene textile dealer in Gaza, our ancestor Ibrahim Hathat.”
He famous that Gaza prospered throughout the Mamluk interval when Arab and African delegations visited it, whether or not as retailers, college students of science or refugees.
Historian Nasser al-Yafawi informed Al-Monitor, “The origin of many festivals is traced again to the Kurds. There may be the Prophet Rubin pageant, the Prophet Moussa pageant, Jacob’s Wednesday pageant, and the Prophet Abu Huraira pageant. Saladin al-Ayyubi … allotted to every metropolis a particular pageant as an event to assemble its residents and the residents of the encircling villages.”
He added, “In style Palestinian festivals lasted from 1187 AD till the tip of the summer season of 1947. … In the summertime of the next 12 months, the cities and villages where festivals would be held were destroyed, and there have been no extra festivals and celebrations in Palestine.”
Yafawi indicated that along with Hathat Palace, Kurds in Palestine constructed Ibn Othman Mosque and the Sayyida Ruqayya Mosque. “Ruqayya was a good looking and righteous girl within the Mamluk period. An Ottoman prince fell for her allure and married her. When she and her husband handed away, the residents of the realm, who’re Kurds, constructed this mosque.”
Ibn Othman Mosque, one of many largest and oldest mosques within the Gaza Strip, was constructed by a Kurdish cleric and service provider named Shehab Al-Din Bin Othman in 1430 AD.
Engineer Mahmoud al-Balawi, who works as a vacationer information and undertaking coordinator on the IWAN Heart for Architectural Conservation, informed Al-Monitor, “Al-Shujaiya is the biggest space in Gaza and is house to probably the most distinguished mosques and church buildings. It additionally contains dozens of historical homes that had been constructed throughout the Ottoman rule about 4 centuries in the past and non secular edifices corresponding to Ibn Othman Mosque and the Mosque of Sayyida Ruqayya.”
Within the Gaza Strip, historical websites face extreme official and institutional neglect in mild of deteriorating financial and humanitarian situations. Worldwide help funds are largely channeled to reduction tasks, well being, schooling, and shelter.
A number of books tackle the Kurds in Palestine, most notably “The Kurds of Palestine” by Mohammad Ali Al-Suwairki, “The Palestinian Kurdish Relations: Historic Dimensions and a Brilliant Future,” by Salah Badr Al-Din and many others.
Within the trendy period, Kurds in Palestine performed a legendary position within the battle towards Israel. This prompted the late President Yasser Arafat to determine the Palestinian-Kurdish Friendship Society in 1999, the primary of its variety within the Arab world.
In the summertime of 2014, the Shujaiya neighborhood was virtually utterly destroyed throughout the Israeli army operation on the Gaza Strip. In two days, 350 Palestinians had been killed and greater than 1,500 had been injured.
