Milan (Kurdish tribe)

The earliest account of the Milan was in the Maku.[2] However, it was not until the Ottoman times, in the 16th century, that they became prominent. They were mentioned in the tax registers, as being present in Dêrsim as the Lesser and Greater Milli,[3] and they were also the tax-farmers of the district of Mardin.[4] From the early 18th century on, the Ottomans stripped them of their competences regarding tax collection, and, in vain, repeatedly attempted to sedentarize the Milan, even giving them the title İskan Başı, or Head of Sedentarization.[5] Part of them was deported to Raqqah, and in the second half of the 18th century, the Milan tribal leaders were the de facto masters of this region. As such, many notable families of Raqqah could trace their ancestry back to the Milan, though these had been mostly assimilated already in the late 19th century.[6]

Its most renowned chief was Ibrahim Pasha, who lead the tribe from 1863 to 1908. He contributed to the building of Viranşehir, and was a Hamidiye regiment leader, but during the massacres of Christians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he sheltered Christians and revolted against the Ottomans.[7]

The Milan, together with the Zilan, are by many tribes considered to be their legendary parental tribe. According to Sykes,[8] Ibrahim Pasha's own explanation was as follows: "Years and years ago the Kurds were divided into two branches, the Milan and Zilan; there were 1,200 tribes of the Milan, but God was displeased with them and they were scattered in all directions, some vanished, others remained; such as remained respect me as the head of the Milan." According to Ibrahim Pasha, this tradition had pre-Islamic origins, thus explaining that his subjects also included Alevis, Christians and Yezidis and others. He was revered by the Kizilbash of Malatia, was the only stranger who could travel unguarded through Dêrsim, was regarded as a leader by the Shemshiki tribe, as well as by isolated villages in Anatolia and Erzincan.

One variation adds a third branch, the Baba Kurdi. According to one version of the legend, the Milan settled in Dêrsim, but Sultan Selim ordered some to sedentarize and build houses, and others to nomadize southward.[9] Many Kurds tribes, even long after the Milan lost their powerful position, claimed to be of Milan ancestry.

There's another version of the legend, as recounted by Celadet Bedirxan. In it, the ancestor of the Kurds was a man named ‘Kurd' living on the mountains, who died during heavy snow fall; only two of his sons survived, one was named Mil, the other Zil.[10]

A famous semi-historical Yezidi figure of Kurdish folklore, Derwêşê Evdî, was of the Şerqi tribe of the Milan.[11]

• Keleş Ebdî
• Bişêr Paşa (d. 1751)
• Mehmûd (d. 1760)
• Temir Paşa Zengozêrîn (d. 1804)
• Ayyub Beg (d. 1834)
• Teymur (Timo) Beg (d. 1840)
• Mehmud (Memo) Beg (d. 1878)
• Ibrahim Pasha (d. 1908)
• Mehmud Axa (d. 1945)

Being a tribal confederacy, the Milan historically attracted many and lost many constituent tribes. Next to the Mîlan themselves, the following are the six core tribes.[12]

• Iranica