Kurdish emirates

The Kurdish emirates, Kurdish chiefdoms or Kurdish principalities (Sorani Kurdish: میرنشینە کوردییەکان) were various semi-independent entities which existed during the 16th to 19th centuries during the state of continuous warfare between the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Iran.^[1] The Kurdish principalities were almost always divided and entered into rivalries against each other.^[1] The demarcation of borders between the Safavid Shah Safi and the Ottoman caliph Sultan Murad IV in 1639 effectively divided Kurdistan between the two empires.^[1]

The eyalet of Diyarbakir was the center of the major and minor Kurdish chiefdoms. However, other Kurdish emirates existed outside of Diyarbakir.^[2][3]