Foreword: the various manifestations of the Kurdish tribe.
Martin van Bruinessen.
English original of a text published as:(ÖNSÖZ: Kürt Aşiretlerinin Muhtelif Tezahürleri), in:Tuncay Şur & Yalçın Çakmak, eds, Aktör, Müttefik, Şaki: Kürt Aşiretleri.
(Istanbul: İletişim, 2022).

Almost a century after Ziya Gökalp completed his interesting but relatively unknown study of Kurdish tribes, Yalçın Çakmak and Tuncay Şur have brought together this fascinating collection of detailed studies of some of the major tribes of North and South Kurdistan. The essays collected in this volume bring out clearly that Kurdish tribes are not all of one type, and that there have been wide variations have in size and internal organization of the tribes, and in the nature of their relations with the natural environment, with the city, and with the state. Each of the chapters deals with a tribe that is unique in at least some respects, and yet all are Kurdish. All of these tribes are still existing and remain important in shaping their members’ lives and political choices, but there is also a widespread perception that tribalism (aşiretçilik) is a thing of the past and remains only relevant to increasingly marginal segments of Kurdish society. Most of the essays in this volume focus on the history of the tribes concerned and do not engage with the question of how the process of modernization and the consolidation of the new post-Ottoman states – with formal education, urbanization,
participation in party politics – has transformed them in the course of the past century. It may be useful to dedicate a few thoughts to these questions.
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