BARZAN

   The eponymous home of the Barzanis, Barzan is a remote old mountainous and economically marginal village in the upper regions of what is today northern Iraq just south of the present Turkish border on the edge of Mt. Shirin and on the left (eastern) bank of the Great Zab River. In his famous Sharafnama, Sharaf Khan Bitlisi called it Baziran and listed it as a possession of the mirs of Bahdinan. During the 1840s, Sheikh Abdul Rahman—sometimes called Tajuddin—(a disciple of the Naqshbandi sufi order established in Kurdistan by Maulana Khalid) settled in Barzan and thus became the first Barzani of today's famous family and tribe. Barzan then served as a sort of utopian society in which refugees were welcomed.

   Since Barzan was located next to the powerful Zibari tribe's territory, however, much fighting took place between the two. The sheikhs of Barzan became noted for their religious authority and martial prowess. The village itself was destroyed by the government 16 times during the fighting between it and the Barzanis but has been rebuilt since 1991. The legendary Mulla Mustafa Barzani is buried here in a simple grave, while a nearby cemetery contains the remains of some of the Barzanis killed by the Saddam Hussein regime.