Molla Mehmet Karayılan
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1888
Molla Mehmet Karayılan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Mehmet 1888 Elifler, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 24 May 1920 (aged 32) |
Molla Mehmet Karayılan (1888 - 24 May 1920) was a Kurdish war hero who famously fought and died in the Siege of Aintab as part of the Turkish War of Independence.[1]
Mehmet was born in 1888 in a tent in the Elifler or Kürt Elif hamlet in the Besni kaza, Ottoman Empire, modern-day Pazarcık, Kahramanmaraş Turkey, to a relatively affluent family belonging to the Kabalar sub-tribe of the Kurdish Atma[1] or Reshwan[2] tribe. His father, Mahmut,[2] was a skillful fighter, earning him the nickname Karayılan (lit. black snake), which Mehmet inherited. In 1904, his father was killed by Armenian bandits raiding the hamlet.[1]
Mehmet took Quran lessons from the imam of the Söğütlü village in modern-day Malatya Province and became the imam of his own village. Because of this, he came to be known as Molla.[1]
World War I
Molla Mehmet fought against Russia for the Ottomans during World War I and got injured on his leg. After healing, he became the leader of his tribe. He collaborated with the Ottoman government to track down and kill the infamous bandit Bozan Agha,[1] who terrorized the region between Pazarcık and Malatya.[2]