Shir Sarim

Shir Sarim or Sarim Khan was a Yazidi Kurdish leader who led an uprising against Safavid Persia during the reign of Shah Ismail I.

Sarim was described as being a ”hundred and ten years old, with a white beard hanging down to his navel; and wields an axe that weighs seven maunds, or some 40 kilograms.”[1] In 1505—6, Kurdistan and Diyarbakir were being raided by Shir Sarim and Alā al-Dawla Dhu'l-Qadar. A History of Shah Ismail Safawi (1939) by Ghulam Sarwar, notes that "In the ensuing winter of 1505-6, the Shah proceeded to the frontier of Adharbayjan, for suppressing [Shir] Sarim, a robber-chief of Kurdistan. After slaughtering his followers and plundering the camp, for Shir Sarim succeeded in escaping, the Shah moved to the river Qizil-Uzfln."[2]

In 912/1506—7 a Safavid force which had been despatched in pursuit of Sarim fought a hard battle with the Kurds in which both sides suffered heavy casualties. Two high-ranking Qizilbash amirs were killed: ’Abdī beg Shāmlū, who was Ismail’s brother-in-law, and on the inner circle of his companions (ahl-i ikhtisās), and Sārū ’Alī Muhrdār Takkalū. Shir Sarim's son and brother were captured and taken to Khoy, where they were put to death.[3]

Sarim's uprising lasted for the next four years, from 1506-10. In 1510, Sarim was defeated by a Persian army, and Sarim was captured and killed.[4] The Kurdish prisoners were put to death "with torments worse than which there may not be".[5]