This chapter provides the conceptual and historical underpinnings of the cartographic manifestation of the idea of Kurdistan through an overview of historical documents and the Kurdish revolts in the nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire. It argues that Kurdish nationalist historiography today interprets the historical uses of Kurdistan in history and the revolts through a retrospective lens. In so doing, it attributes modern meanings of territory and nation to past references of Kurdistan. The chapter discusses the use of the concept of Kurdistan in historical texts from the early thirteenth century to mid-nineteenth century and situates this discussion within historical processes such as the expansion of the Ottoman rule to eastern Anatolia, Ottoman–Safavid rivalry in the sixteenth century and the Ottoman Empire’s centralisation policies and the Kurdish revolts against the Ottomans in the nineteenth century. These revolts give significant insights to how Kurdish tribal leaders defined their territoriality. However, these revolts were the result of tribal leaders’ efforts to maintain their territoriality in the face of Ottoman centralisation policies, but these efforts were not underlined by nationalist sentiments in the way nationalism was defined in Europe in the nineteenth century or defined by Kurds today.

This chapter provides the conceptual and historical underpinnings of the cartographic manifestation of the idea of Kurdistan through an overview of historical documents and the Kurdish revolts in the nineteenth century in the Ottoman Empire. It argues that Kurdish nationalist historiography today interprets the historical uses of Kurdistan in history and the revolts through a retrospective lens. In so doing, it attributes modern meanings of territory and nation to past references of Kurdistan. The chapter discusses the use of the concept of Kurdistan in historical texts from the early thirteenth century to mid-nineteenth century and situates this discussion within historical processes such as the expansion of the Ottoman rule to eastern Anatolia, Ottoman–Safavid rivalry in the sixteenth century and the Ottoman Empire’s centralisation policies and the Kurdish revolts against the Ottomans in the nineteenth century. These revolts give significant insights to how Kurdish tribal leaders defined their territoriality. However, these revolts were the result of tribal leaders’ efforts to maintain their territoriality in the face of Ottoman centralisation policies, but these efforts were not underlined by nationalist sentiments in the way nationalism was defined in Europe in the nineteenth century or defined by Kurds today.

The third significant period during which maps of Kurdistan became significant is decolonisation, when self-determination became an officially recognised international principle as a normative ground for creating new states in ex-colonies. This raised Kurdish nationalist hopes for statehood. In this period, Kurdish nationalism transformed from an elite project to a grassroots movement and different movements emerged in the four countries in which Kurds reside. They all sought to benefit from the ongoing new state-formation processes and promote the idea that Kurds have a right to self-determination. Several groups redrew the map of Kurdistan and used it to show the location and boundaries of the Kurdish homeland, using these maps to lobby to Kurds, regional states in which Kurds reside and the international community.