【AA研共催】Sacha Alsancakli氏講演 “Is the Sharafnāma a “Kurdish” History? Contrasting Influences and Representations in Bidlīsī’s Chronicle of the Emirs of Kurdistan”

2025年10月3日(金)、上智大学アジア文化研究所では、この度来日されたSacha Alsancakli博士をお迎えして、下記の要領で、講演会 “Is the Sharafnāma a “Kurdish” History? Contrasting Influences and Representations in Bidlīsī’s Chronicle of the Emirs of Kurdistan”を開催いたします。Alsancakli氏は、近世・近代イラン史・オスマン史・クルド史で優れた業績のある、新進気鋭の研究者です。コメンテーターは、山口昭彦氏(上智大学)が務めます。 本イベントは、対面およびオンラインで開催され、どなたでもご参加いただけます(事前登録制)。

開催日時 Date/Time

2025年10月3日(金)16:00〜17:30(開場15:45)
Friday 3 October 2025 16:00–17:30

会場 Venue

上智大学四谷キャンパス2号館6階603号室・オンライン(ZOOM)
Room 603, 6th Floor, Building No. 2, Yotsuya Campus, Sophia University (7-1 Kioi-chō, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8554, Japan) / Online (Zoom)

(↓上智大学四谷キャンパスまでのアクセスについてはこちらをご参照ください:How to access) https://www.sophia.ac.jp/jpn/aboutsophia/access/campus/

プログラム Program

Chair: Yui Kanda (ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)

16:00–16:05 Introduction

16:05–16:45 Sacha Alsancakli (ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies): Is the Sharafnāma a “Kurdish” History? Contrasting Influences and Representations in Bidlīsī’s Chronicle of the Emirs of Kurdistan

16:45–17:00 Akihiko Yamaguchi (Sophia University): Comments

17:00–17:30 General Discussion

要旨 Abstract

Is the Sharafnāma a “Kurdish” History? Contrasting Influences and Representations in Bidlīsī’s Chronicle of the Emirs of Kurdistan

Sacha Alsancakli, ILCAA, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Composed in Persian in 1597, the Sharafnāma is the only pre-twentieth-century text that presents a comprehensive attempt to address Kurdish history. Its author, Sharaf Khān Bidlīsī, was himself the Kurdish emir of Bitlis—located southwest of Lake Van—then one of the most powerful Kurdish emirates in the volatile political and military landscape of the late sixteenth century. Educated at the Safavid court alongside the children of Shāh Ṭahmāsp, Sharaf Khān later served as a military commander in the borderlands, notably participating in the war of 1578–1590, first on the side of the Safavids and later with the Ottomans. Composed toward the end of his life, his chronicle was deeply informed by this distinctive life story.

Over the past two centuries, the Sharafnāma has been examined primarily through the lens of Sharaf Khān’s contribution to contemporary debates on Kurdish identity and the broader Kurdish question, with little attention paid to the wider cultural context in which the text was produced. The aim of this talk is to explore Sharaf Khān’s intellectual world, particularly how his background as a Safavid-educated emir and military commander shaped his approach—both as a historian and as a leading figure among the so-called “emirs of Kurdistan” (umarāʾ-i Kurdistān).

To this end, I will begin by addressing the sources of the Sharafnāma and, more broadly, the intellectual influences that shaped Sharaf Khān’s historiographical style—a journey that will take us from Herat to Qazvin and, ultimately, to Bitlis. I will then examine his representation of the Kurds, which was also shaped by his background as a man of the imperial centers. Indeed, while he portrays the Kurds as uncivilized and lacking culture, he also depicts them as proud and warlike—a perspective that may be understood as an attempt to reframe the predominantly negative image of the Kurds held by Ottoman and Safavid elites in a more favorable light. By bringing these two approaches together, I will pose a deliberately provocative question: although it is a chronicle of Kurdish emirates, can the Sharafnāma truly be considered a “Kurdish” history?

略歴 Biography

Sacha Alsancakli received a PhD in Oriental Languages and Civilizations from Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris, in 2018, with a doctoral dissertation on the Sharafnāma by Sharaf Khān Bidlīsī (c. 1597). As a cultural historian of the early-modern Turco-Iranian world, he researches historiography, popular literature, and the history of the book through the actors and processes involved in the production and circulation of manuscript texts. He has worked as a lecturer at Sorbonne Nouvelle University (2019–21) and at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (Inalco, Paris, 2021—25), and has co-edited a collective volume on Authorship and Textual Transmission in the Manuscript Age (2023) and published book chapters and articles in various journals including Eurasian Studies, Kurdish Studies Journal, Diyâr, and Die Welt des Islams. From October 2025, he will be appointed as an ILCAA Fellow and will conduct research on “Turco-Persianate Materialities and Subalternities in a Multilingual Space: The Epic Cycle of Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya and Its Transregional Circulation”.

備考 Remarks

使用言語:英語・参加無料・事前登録制
Language: English, Admission: Free, Pre-registration required

※参加を希望される方は、2025年10月1日(水)22:00(日本時間)までに、こちらのフォームよりお申込みをお願いいたします。 参加フォーム:https://forms.gle/LxwutR41aP9Hj8Jz

*Registration Deadline: Wednesday, 1 October 2025, 22:00 (JST)
→ Registration form: https://forms.gle/LxwutR41aP9Hj8Jz

主催/共催 Organizers

主催: 上智大学アジア文化研究所/共催:人間文化研究機構グローバル地中海地域研究アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所拠点
Institute of Asian, African, and Middle Eastern Studies, Sophia University; NIHU Global Mediterranean at ILCAA

お問い合わせ先 Contact

kanda [at] aa.tufs.ac.jp (Replace [at] with @.)

PAGE TOP