History of Kurdistan
One of the world's oldest continuously inhabited regions — from ancient Mesopotamia and Saladin to modern self-rule and recovery.
10,000+ BCE
Ancient origins
The Zagros mountains and foothills of what is now the Kurdistan Region were home to some of humanity's earliest farming communities. The site of Jarmo, near Sulaymaniyah, is one of the world's oldest known agricultural villages, dating to around 7000 BCE.
3000–600 BCE
Mesopotamian world
Successive civilisations — Sumerian, Akkadian, and Assyrian — left their mark on the region. The Assyrian Empire at its height controlled a vast swathe of the Middle East from cities to the south and west. Ruins of ancient Assyrian settlements can still be visited in the Duhok Governorate.
600 BCE – 600 CE
Median, Achaemenid & Parthian periods
Kurdish-speaking peoples are widely believed to descend from the ancient Medes, who helped bring down the Assyrian Empire. The region passed through Persian Achaemenid and later Parthian and Sassanid control, absorbing waves of culture, language, and religion across the centuries.
7th–10th century
Islamic conquest & early Abbasid era
The Arab-Muslim conquest of the 7th century transformed the region religiously and politically. Most Kurds gradually converted to Islam. Under the Abbasid Caliphate (centred in Baghdad), Kurdish tribal confederations maintained significant autonomy in the mountain highlands.
12th century
Saladin — Kurdistan's most famous son
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub — known in the West as Saladin — was born in Tikrit (in present-day Iraq) of Kurdish origin. As founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, he became the most celebrated military commander of the Crusade era and first Sultan of Egypt and Syria. He remains a towering figure of Kurdish identity and pride.
16th–19th century
Ottoman and Safavid competition
The Kurdistan Region sat on the fault line between two great empires — the Ottoman Turks to the west and the Persian Safavids to the east. Kurdish tribes navigated between them, sometimes as allies, sometimes in rebellion. The Treaty of Zuhab (1639) divided Kurdish territory between the two powers.
1914–1918
World War I & the promise of a Kurdish state
The collapse of the Ottoman Empire raised hopes for Kurdish self-determination. The 1920 Treaty of Sèvres included provisions for a Kurdish homeland — but these were abandoned by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which established modern Turkey and left Kurds stateless across four countries.
1946
The Mahabad Republic
In 1946, with Soviet backing, a short-lived Kurdish Republic was declared in Mahabad (in what is now Iran). It lasted less than a year before being crushed, but it stands as a powerful symbol of Kurdish national aspirations. Its leader, Qazi Muhammad, was executed.
1961–1991
Decades of conflict in Iraq
Kurdish political movements in Iraq — led principally by Mustafa Barzani and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) — fought repeated armed uprisings against Baghdad. The 1980s saw the devastating Anfal campaign under Saddam Hussein, which killed an estimated 50,000–180,000 Kurdish civilians. The chemical attack on Halabja on 16 March 1988, which killed around 5,000 people in a single day, remains one of the worst chemical weapons attacks ever recorded.
1991
Safe haven & the birth of Kurdish self-rule
Following the Gulf War, the US-led coalition established a safe haven in northern Iraq. Kurdish forces took control of the region, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held its first democratic elections in 1992. Despite a civil war between the KDP and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the mid-1990s, the foundations of self-governance were laid.
2003–present
Post-Saddam growth & modern Kurdistan
The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq removed Saddam Hussein and embedded Kurdish autonomy in the new Iraqi constitution. The Kurdistan Region experienced a dramatic economic boom — new hotels, roads, universities, and international investment transformed Erbil and Sulaymaniyah. In 2014, the rise of Islamic State (IS/Daesh) brought the Peshmerga to the front lines of a brutal war; the Yazidi community suffered a genocide. IS was defeated by 2017. Today, the KRI is rebuilding and opening to tourism.
"The Kurds have no friends but the mountains."
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