BABAN

Baban: translation

   This Kurdish emirate played an important role in what is now northern Iraq from roughly 1550 until its final demise in 1850. According to the Sharafnama of Sharaf Khan Bitlisi, the first chief and eponymous founder of the Baban line was Pir Budak Babe, but his line was soon extinguished. A line claiming a legendary descent from Keghan, a Frank woman captured in battle, then succeeded. Baba Sulayman emerged in 1677 and over the years was followed by 17 additional Baban mirs or pashas.

   Although it pursued an opportunistic strategy, for most of the time Baban was nominally subject to the Ottoman Empire. Its ruling mir received the high Turkish title of pasha early in the 17th century many decades before it was given to others in his position. Qara Cholan was Baban's capital until it was moved to Sulaymaniya in 1785. The emirate of Ardalan in what is now Iran was its longtime rival. Abdullah Pasha, the last Baban mir, was deposed in 1850.