Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz assembled a military force estimated by historians at between 40,000 and 50,000 fighters, dividing it into two groups: one under his own command and one under his brother Rassul Beg. In early March 1832, these forces crossed the
Great Zab and entered the Yazidi border village of Kallak-a-Dasiniyya, killing many of its inhabitants. The village of Kallak, near
Erbil, marked the border between Yazidi territory and the Soran emirate until the nineteenth century. Tensions between the two had existed since the reign of
Suleiman the Magnificent, who in 1534 ordered the assassination of the Soran emir Izzeddin Shir and authorized the Yazidi ruler Husayn Beg to govern the Soran emirate in his place. Advancing village by village through Yazidi territory, Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces killed all males who fell into their hands, whether men or older boys. Musa Beg, the brother of the Bahdinan emir Said Beg, joined the Sorani campaign against his own brother, further undermining Bahdinan resistance. Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces proceeded to Shekhan, being joined by forces led by
Bedir Khan Beg. The Soran forces seized the village of
Khatarah, approximately 45 kilometers north of
Mosul, and then the town of
Alqosh, where they were met by a joint force of Yazidis and Bahdinan troops led by Yusuf Abdo, a Bahdinan commander from Amedi, and Baba Hurmuz, head of the Christian monastery of Alqosh. These combined forces withdrew toward
Baadre, the residence of Ali Beg. Ali Beg sought to negotiate, but Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz, under the advice of Mulla Yahya Mizuri and Mulla Muḥammad Khatt-i, rejected any possibility of reconciliation. The Sorani forces defeated the combined Yazidi and Bahdinan resistance at Shekhan, committing massacres that included the killing of the elderly and young, rape, and enslavement. According to one account, Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz lost an eye during fighting with Yazidi forces, earning him the epithet Mire Kora, meaning the Blind Emir. The fleeing Yazidi population sought refuge in Mosul, but the city's governor ordered the bridge burned to prevent Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces from crossing, inadvertently trapping the Yazidis on the far bank, where they were overtaken by pursuing troops and massacred. The English missionary and orientalist
George Percy Badger recorded that in 1832 Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces burned Yazidi villages, carried many captives away, and massacred several thousand who had fled to the mound of Kuyunjik hoping the people of Mosul would offer them refuge within the city walls. During his research trips in 1843, the Russian traveller and orientalist
Ilya Berezin mentioned that 7,000 Yazidis were killed by Kurds of
Rawandiz on the hills of
Nineveh near
Mosul, shortly before his arrival. Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces reached Lalish, plundering the sanctuary. A group of Yazidi women and children who had taken refuge in a cave beneath the temple were discovered by soldiers, who lit fires at the cave's entrance, suffocating those sheltering inside. Their remains have been preserved at the site. After Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces controlled most of the Yazidi areas, approximately 10,000 Yazidi prisoners, mostly women and children, were taken to Rawanduz, the capital of the Soran emirate. Upon their arrival, the prisoners were ordered to convert to Islam. Many refused, among them Mir Ali Beg and his entourage. As a result, Ali Beg was executed at the end of 1833 in the valley subsequently known as
Gali Ali Beg. Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz left his body hanging from the Rawanduz bridge for three days. Yazidi women and children were abducted and sold in markets. The women among the prisoners were distributed among Muslim Kurds, and the remaining survivors were forced to convert to Islam. Christian communities lying in the path of Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's army were also victim to the massacres, the town of
Alqosh was sacked, large number of its inhabitants were put to the sword and the
Rabban Hormizd Monastery was plundered and its monks, together with the
Abbot, Gabriel Dambo, were put to death. A large amount of the ancient manuscripts were destroyed or lost. The monastery of
Sheikh Matta suffered the same fate. After the Kurds of Rawanduz sacked
Mosul, they also killed the local
Christians and
Jews. After putting Yezidis of Shekhan to the sword, Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz invaded the rest of the
Bahdinan, attacking
Akre and after a few days, besieging the fortress of Akre which was regarded as almost impregnable and meeting the resistance of the Kurdish tribe of Zibari. Thereafter he marched towards Amedi which capitulated after a brief siege. The entire region, from the
Khabur to the Great Zab, was brought under Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's rule, including
Zakho and
Duhok. Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz appointed Musa Pasha, a relative of the Bahdinan emir Sa'id Pasha, as the governor of the capital. Musa Pasha, who had been on bad terms with Sa'id Pasha, had offered valuable assistance to Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz during the attack on Amedi. After the destruction of Shekhan, Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz also led a large force to Sinjar, which unlike Shekhan had not been under the authority of any neighboring Kurdish or Arab emirates. There his forces encountered sustained Yazidi resistance, including under the leadership of Ali Beg's wife, who commanded the defense in Sinjar. After killing and capturing approximately 700 men, Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's forces took the district in 1834. George Percy Badger later wrote that after facing several defeats Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz finally succeeded in crushing Yazidi resistance there through measures he described as "cruel and barbarous". Survivors of the campaign dispersed across a wide area. Some took refuge in the
Mount Judi and
Tur Abdin regions of
southeastern Anatolia, others fled to
Sinjar or to more distant areas, and others sought refuge in Mosul. The English traveler, archaeologist, and diplomat
Austen Henry Layard, who gathered accounts from Yazidis during a visit to the region shortly after the events, recorded what happened to those who reached Mosul: "The inhabitants of Shaykhān fled to Mosul. It was spring; the river had overflowed its banks, and the bridge of boats had been removed. A few succeeded in crossing the stream; but a crowd of men, women, and children were left upon the opposite side, and congregated on the great mound of Kouyunjik. The Bey of Rowandiz followed them. An indiscriminate slaughter ensued; and the people of Mosul beheld, from their terraces, the murder of these unfortunate fugitives, who cried to them in vain for help — for both Christians and Mussulmans rejoiced in the extermination of an odious and infidel sect, and no arm was lifted in their defence." Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's dominance over the Yazidi regions was short-lived. Between 1834 and 1847 all the semiautonomous Kurdish polities were brought back under complete Ottoman control. Mir Muhammad of Rawanduz's expansion had by this point alarmed the Ottoman state, the empire mobilized military forces against him, and he surrendered, with his mufti Mulla Muḥammad Khatt-i issuing a fatwa stating it was religiously impermissible to fight the
Ottoman Caliphate. He was summoned to
Istanbul to meet the sultan, and upon returning home was murdered. == Aftermath ==