Milan (tribe)

The Milan (Kurdish: Mîlan) is a Kurdish tribe that was historically at the head of a multi-confessional tribal confederacy, and is the subject of one of the legends of origin of Kurds, together with their rivals, the Zilan.

The tribal confederacy was most active in the region of Viranşehir, between Urfa, Mardin and Diyarbakir, but the Milan tribe was present in many other places including Dêrsim.

History

The earliest account of the Milan was in the Maku. However, it was not until the Ottoman times, in the 16th century, that they became prominent. They were mentioned in tax registers, as present in Dêrsim as the Lesser and Greater Milli, and they were also the tax-farmers of the district of Mardin. From the early 17th century on, the Ottomans repeatedly attempted to sedentarize the Milan, even giving them the title İskan Başı, or Head of Sedentarization.

In 1758 the Ottomans feared the Milli chief Keleş Evdo (Kalash 'Abdi) was trying to set up an autonomous state in the Khabur Valley, and in 1800 they appointed his grandson Milli Timur Paşa as governor of Raqqa in an attempt to contain his ambitions. During the 19th century, however, the Millis gradually lost their position, and came under pressure from the Ottoman government during the Tanzimat reforms.

Some of them were deported to Ar Raqqah, where some of the Milan tribal leaders had already been the de facto masters of the region. As such, many notable families of Raqqah could trace their ancestry back to the Milan, though these had been mostly assimilated already in the late 19th century.