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4 Thematic Essays conclude that the term Kurd was originally a socioeconomic designation, being synonymous with the term “nomad,” and only ­later came to refer to a specific eth- nic community (Jwaideh, 2006: 11 Nikitin, 1956: 9). More recent scholarship has questioned ­these conclusions, suggesting that, while the Kurdish community was often associated with the pastoral way of life, the term Kurd was an ethnonym used to describe a specific population that inhabited a specific territory and possessed other shared attributes, including myths of common origins and linguistic speci- ficities. Nevertheless, prior to the 12th ­ century, it is difficult to ascertain ­ whether any of ­those communities, tribes, and individuals described as being Kurds saw themselves as being part of a larger ethnic community. Medieval Islamic World (610–1500) According to the accounts of Muslim historians and geographers of the medieval period, Kurdish tribes dwelling in the mountains of Upper Mesopotamia and West- ern Iran resisted the advance of Islamic armies in the seventh ­ century. The earliest encounters date back to the late 630s, when Arab armies advanced into regions around Mosul, defeating Kurdish tribesmen in the city’s mountainous environs. Further campaigns in the early 640s, led by the Arab commander ‘Utba ibn ­ Farqad brought the regions of Shahrazur (present-­day Sulaimani Governorate in Iraq) and Hulwan (present-­day Kermanshah Province in Iran) ­ under Muslim control. Prior to the Muslim conquest, the Kurdish populations seem to have possessed a vari- ety of religious orientations, including communities of Christians, and “Fire Wor- shippers,” possibly a reference to Zoroastrians. However, Arab subjugation set the stage from the gradual spread of Islam amongst the Kurdish tribes. The pro­cesses through which the Kurdish population was Islamized are poorly understood, although it might partly be explained by the desire of Kurdish tribal groupings to avoid liability for the jizya, an Islamic tax imposed on non-­Muslim communi- ties. Consequently, between the seventh and ninth centuries the vast majority of Kurds converted to Islam, and most Kurds became adherents of the Sunni branch of Islam and followers of the Shafi’ite School of Islamic jurisprudence (Poladian, 1994: 21–26). The conversion of the Kurds en masse to Islam had a profound impact of the fate of the Kurds, opening the way for integration of ele­ments within the community into the military and po­liti­cal elite of the Islamic World. With the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate in the ninth ­ century, a number of Kurdish tribal leaders ­ were able to seize effective control in their mountainous homelands and establish a series of Muslim emirates, the most significant of which ­ were the Shaddadids (951–1174) in Azerbaijan and Armenia, the Rawwidids (955–1071) in Azerbaijan, the Mar- wanids (990–1096) in Diyarbakır and Lake Van, and the Hasanwayhids (959– 1095) in Western Iran. This relatively brief period of Kurdish ascendancy was largely brought to an end in the 11th ­ century by the arrival of the Selcuk Turks in Iran. The Selcuk dynasty, which established control over Iran, Iraq, and Anatolia, and Syria, as well as their subordinates such as the Zengid Atabeks of Mosul, launched numerous military campaigns against in­de­pen­dent Kurdish leaders.