The Sharafnama, a first history of the Kurds

Sharaf Khan, prince of Bitlis, completes a Persian-language history of the Kurdish dynasties.

Bedlīsī, Šaraf-al-Dīn Khan — Encyclopaedia Iranica
A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)

Well established identityculture

Sharaf Khan Bidlisi (1543–c. 1603) was born at the Safavid court, served the shah, then went over to the Ottomans and was made ruler of his ancestral principality of Bitlis. In 1597 he handed his duties to his son and finished the Sharafnama, written in Persian.

Bedlīsī, Šaraf-al-Dīn Khan — Encyclopaedia Iranica

Its first part is a history of the Kurds, arranged by dynasty and territory. The second covers the Ottoman sultans and the rulers of Iran. His own autograph copy, dated 1597, is in Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

Bedlīsī, Šaraf-al-Dīn Khan — Encyclopaedia Iranica
A Modern History of the Kurds — David McDowall, I.B. Tauris (2004)

Historians value it as the only comprehensive pre-modern history of the Kurds, and Kurds treat it as a national classic.

Why it matters today

Kurds

It is proof, often cited by Kurds, that they saw themselves as a distinct people with their own history long before modern nationalism.