Sheik Ubeydullah
| Sheikh Ubeydullah | |
|---|---|
| Religion | Islam |
| Other names | Sheikh Ubeydullah of Nehri Sayyid Ubeydullah of Nehri |
| Personal | |
| Born | Nehri, Kaza of Şemdinan, Van Eyalet, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 1883 Mecca, Hejaz, Ottoman Empire |
| Senior posting | |
| Based in | Ottoman Empire |
| Religious career | |
| Previous post | Leader of Sunni-Kurdish nationalist revolt |
Sheikh Ubeydullah (died 1883) (Kurdish: Şêx Ubeydullayê Nehrî, شێخ وبهيدوڵاي نهری), also known as Sayyid Ubeydullah, was the leader of the first modern Kurdish nationalist struggle. Ubeydullah demanded recognition from Ottoman Empire and Qajar dynasty authorities for an independent Kurdish state, or Kurdistan, which he would govern without interference from Ottoman or Qajar authorities. He was a Sayyid, a descendant from Muhammad. He claimed descent from Abdul-Qadir Gilani.
Sheikh Ubeydullah was an influential landowner in the 19th century and a member of the powerful Kurdish Şemdinan family from Nehri. After his rebellion was suppressed, he was exiled first to Istanbul, then to Hijaz where he died.
The emergence of Islamic scholars and leaders, or Sheikhs, as national leaders among the Kurds was the result of the elimination of hereditary semi-autonomous Kurdish principalities in the Ottoman Empire, especially following the Ottoman centralization policies of the early 19th century. Sheikh Ubeydullah was one of several religious leaders who were there to fill the void and reestablish a sense of lawfulness in the former principalities that had been since left to feuding chieftains. Despite previous revolts by Kurdish leaders to reassert control over territories, mainly their own former principalities, Sheikh Ubeydullah is regarded as the first Kurdish leader whose cause was nationalist and who wished to establish an ethnic Kurdish state.
Sheikh Ubeydullah was from an already powerful family, the Şemdinan from the region of the same name - Şemdinan - who owned considerable amounts of land in the Kurdish areas of the Ottoman Empire. Following the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Ubeydullah filled the political vacuum left by the devastation in the region and assumed the Kurdish leadership role.
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