By: Bradost Mitani
On Foundation and Society
Part One: The Foundation
As we previously noted, before Hasakah was built, it was a hill called Keri Heski, upon which stood the tent of a man named Heski—a Kurdish Yazidi name. Over time, this evolved into residential houses that clustered together as people migrated to the area due to the presence of the waters of the Khabur and Hermas (Jaghjagh) rivers. It began as a small village surrounding an old Ottoman military barracks established in 1907 during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II. This occurred under the administration of the Kurdish Milli tribe, prior to the era of its leader Ibrahim Pasha al-Milli, and continued through his reign and those who succeeded him in tribal leadership until the arrival of the French.
When France occupied what became known as “Syria,” the French army headed toward the Jazira region in May 1922. Colonel Pigeaud-Grandot deployed his forces in the area, and at that time, the city of Hasakah was merely a small town.
Shortly thereafter, the French built the current barracks on the ruins of the Ottoman barracks. Following their occupation of the Hasakah and Jazira regions, they permitted Bedouins to flow in from all directions; they settled in Hasakah and took up residence there. Specifically, they arrived from the areas of Deir ez-Zor, al-Bukamal, and al-Busayrah. Some settled in the Ghuwayran neighborhood, while others built dwellings to the west and north of the Serail (government headquarters), which was constructed during the era of Taj al-Din al-Hasani. In 1933, a large number of Assyrians were settled in the city, specifically on the banks of the Khabur River, against the will of the Kurds, pursuant to a United Nations document. Thus, the demographics of Hasakah were disrupted a second time by settlers arriving from outside the lands of Kurdistan.
When the French departed from the Jazira in mid-1945—and subsequently from all of Syria—the town of Hasakah had grown into a city. It had acquired a Serail after 1930, when Hasakah was separated from the Sanjak of Deir ez-Zor. The first governor (Mutasarrif) appointed for the city of Hasakah was Mr. Nasib bin Muhammad Sadiq al-Ayoubi, appointed in 1930. In 1937, he was replaced by Mr. Bahjat al-Shihabi, who did not stay long in the city due to unrest in the Jazira region, forcing him to return to Damascus. Mr. Haydar Mardam Bey was appointed Governor of Hasakah in his stead in March 1938, but his luck was no better than his predecessor’s. The city of Hasakah saw its first urban master plan in 1963, and the second plan was organized in 1992 AD.
Society
The city of Hasakah currently lives as a beautiful mosaic of social components, where Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Armenians, Chechens, and others form a single rich tableau of peoples representing the nucleus of the entire Syrian people.
The Kurds
In ancient times, the region was inhabited by the Aryan ancestors of the Kurds, such as the Subarians, Lullubians, Gutians, Hurrians, Hittites, Mitannians, Medes, and Sassanids. As previously mentioned, the term “Subartu” was found in geographical tablets preserved in the Royal Library of Ashurbanipal; it was the cradle of civilization. The temple of the god Shamshu (or Shamash) is located beneath the structure of the current Chaldean Church. During the Sassanid era, the term “Tay” was applied to all inhabitants spread across Upper Mesopotamia (al-Jazira al-Furattyia). Over time, the pronunciation shifted to the name Tayy; the Kurdish Tayy tribe still bears that name, and it was likewise applied to the Arab Tayy tribe.
Our Kurdish ancestors left archaeological remains in the Hasakah regions, including the Ayyubid Sukara Castle on Mount Kazwan (which was named Mount Abdulaziz al-Kurdi). At the Tell Brak site, pottery finds, statues, and cylinder seals with mythological significance were uncovered, most of which point to the Hurrian and Mitannian (Indo-European) civilizations. Similarly, Arban (or Araban), located south of Hasakah, is also one of the important centers of the Mitannian Kingdom.
The Kurdish presence in the Hasakah regions was subjected to chauvinistic schemes that affected the Kurdish political situation there. Among these events was what the Milan Tribal Federation experienced in northern Syria: in February 1758, the Sublime Porte warned the governors of both Raqqa and Baghdad of dire consequences if Mahmoud and the Milan did not quickly withdraw from the Khabur Valley, stating they must be expelled and distanced toward Raqqa. According to the Sultanate, the reason behind this demand was Mahmoud’s “audacity” in going—as they put it—without showing respect to the Khabur region, seizing grain stocks in the village of Majdal, subsequently building a fort in the ruins of Arbaḥ, and beginning work on small villages and farms in neighboring areas. His plan involved damming the Khabur waters and digging a new riverbed to seize the entire area for his tribe. His tribesmen managed to disarm one of the Arab Tayy clans and seized the livestock of the Kurdish Kikan tribe.
The order stated that the Milan must return to their original residential areas and their fort in the Khabur region must be destroyed. It is clear that Mahmoud’s independent actions, rather than his projects themselves, provoked the state’s resentment. Four months later, following new incidents, Mahmoud was stripped of his position as the Settlement Officer (İskan-Başi) and was fought at Karaca Dağ, forcing him to flee to Diyarbakir. From there, he led rebellions against the Sublime Porte for several years, which ultimately cost him his head. Ibrahim Pasha al-Milli was buried in the village of Safiyah near Hasakah in 1908 AD, following severe exhaustion resulting from a grinding war with the special forces of the Committee of Union and Progress and their supporting tribes.
Due to the migration of Arab tribes from Saudi Arabia, southern Iraq, and elsewhere, and because of policies restricting Kurds and displacing them—along with deteriorating climatic conditions over time—the number of Kurds in the city diminished compared to the number of Arab brothers. However, several neighborhoods still witness a significant Kurdish presence, including al-Mufti, al-Aziziyah, al-Nasra, Khashman, and others.
Regarding the name Khabur and its connection to the Kurdish language, the researcher Mr. Rubari states:
“The name ‘Khabur’ is a compound Kurdish name consisting of two words: the first is (Akha), meaning ‘land’ or ‘soil,’ and the second is (Bor), meaning ‘virgin land,’ in the sense of uncultivated land.”
I am aware that some Kurdish brothers call it the “River of the Sun” (the River of the God), but this analysis is incorrect and lacks scientific or logical grounding. To align the pronunciation with Arabic phonetics, Arabs replaced the Kurdish vowel (O) with the Arabic letter (Waw), which is natural since the term is non-Arabic. Consequently, the entire name means “The Fallow/Virgin Land,” as the river flowed through uncultivated lands at that time. The initial letter (A) was dropped over time, and the name became Khabur.
To be continued…
Source: PYD
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version… Read the Arabic version: Click here
