IOTL, historically, Kurdistan has quite rarely been the source of expansive states or empires, with the exception of a few oddball emirates in the Jezira region, Saladin's Ayyubid sultanate that eventually lost most of its Kurdish character after expanding into the Levant and Arabia, and a handful of principalities under Ottoman suzerainty.
So, with a PoD betwee the vanquishing of the Ayyubids by the Mongols and Mamelukes in the 13th century and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Sevres in 1922, how can a large state or even empire form in the Fertile Crescent region (perhaps also controlling Anatolia, Armenia and western Iran) on the condition that it is of Kurdish origin and maintains its capital in an ethnically majority-Kurdish area (Mosul can also work)? What would be possible constraints for Kurdish expansion?
It could form from the efforts of a smart warlord, or from a dissolution of the Ottoman Empire due to internal pressure (such as the Ottoman dynasty going extinct in troubled periods such as 1640 or 1807), or from a Muslim Persian empire (like the Safavids or Afsharids) that conquers the region of Kurdistan but finds itself too weak to hold it and loses control over it. What are your ideas?
So, with a PoD betwee the vanquishing of the Ayyubids by the Mongols and Mamelukes in the 13th century and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Sevres in 1922, how can a large state or even empire form in the Fertile Crescent region (perhaps also controlling Anatolia, Armenia and western Iran) on the condition that it is of Kurdish origin and maintains its capital in an ethnically majority-Kurdish area (Mosul can also work)? What would be possible constraints for Kurdish expansion?
It could form from the efforts of a smart warlord, or from a dissolution of the Ottoman Empire due to internal pressure (such as the Ottoman dynasty going extinct in troubled periods such as 1640 or 1807), or from a Muslim Persian empire (like the Safavids or Afsharids) that conquers the region of Kurdistan but finds itself too weak to hold it and loses control over it. What are your ideas?
