Shabaks

Shabak
Total population
200,000–500,000 (2017 estimation)[1]
Regions with significant populations
Largest settlements:
Mosul, Gogjali, Bartella[2][3]
Languages
Shabaki, Arabic, Kurdish[4]
Religion
Shia Islam (Twelver),[5] Sunni Islam

Shabaks (Arabic: الشبك, Kurdish: شەبەک, romanized: Şebek) are a group of people who live east of Mosul in Iraq. Their origin is uncertain and they are considered Kurds by some scholars.[6][7][8] They speak Shabaki and live in a religious community (ta'ifa) in the Nineveh Plains. The ancestors of Shabaks were followers of the Safaviyya order, which was founded by the Kurdish mystic Safi-ad-din Ardabili in the early 14th century.[9] The primary Shabak religious text is called the Buyruk or Kitab al-Manaqib (Book of Exemplary Acts), which is written in Turkmen.[10]

Members of the three Kurdish tribes Bajalan (or Bajarwans), Zangana and Dawoody live in the same villages as the Shabaks and are commonly mistaken for being Shabak.[5]

  1. ^ "Crossroads: The future of Iraq's minorities after ISIS" (PDF). Minority Rights Group International. p. 9. Retrieved 24 March 2019.
  2. ^ "Part I: ISIS exploited the marginalized minority groups of Iraq". Rudaw. 27 April 2017. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
  3. ^ C.J. Edmonds (1967). "A Pilgrimage to Lalish". p. 87.
  4. ^ Christine M. Helms. Arabism and Islam: Stateless Nations and Nationless States. p. 12.
  5. ^ a b عبود، زهير كاظم، (2009). الشبك في العراق (in Arabic). AIRP. p. 42. ISBN 9789953362700.
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Leezenberg was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Ahmed, M. (19 January 2016). Iraqi Kurds and Nation-Building. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-03408-3. Since Shabak Kurds—a minority religious group—were legally deprivedfrom purchasing land in Mosul and those ...
  8. ^ Leezenberg (December 1994). "The Shabak and the Kakais: Dynamics of Ethnicity in Iraqi Kurdistan" (PDF). Retrieved 23 August 2024.
  9. ^ Amal Vinogradov (1974). "Ethnicity, Cultural Discontinuity and Power Brokers in Northern Iraq: The Case of the Shabak". American Ethnologist. 1 (1): 207–218. doi:10.1525/ae.1974.1.1.02a00110.
  10. ^ Martin van Bruinessen (2000). Mullas, Sufis and Heretics: The Role of Religion in Kurdish Society : Collected Articles. Isis Press. p. 3000.