yamaguci[at]sophia.ac.jp

I study the history of the Middle East from the early modern to the modern period. My main interest is the Kurdish people, a minority group living across several Middle Eastern countries. I explore how Kurdish society has changed over time—especially its relationship with surrounding states and the power structures within the community itself. I first became interested in this topic when I was an undergraduate student, learning about current Kurdish issues. As I continued my studies, I realized that to truly understand what is happening today, we need to look at the past over a long span of time. In the Middle East, as in many other regions, history is often told through the stories of dynasties and states. But there are still many untold stories of minority groups. Through my research, I hope to bring these stories to light and show how Kurdish society has evolved from the early modern period to the present.

Kurdish studies, Middle Eastern studies

・“Mediating between the Royal Court and the Periphery: The Zangana Family’s Brokerage in Safavid Iran (1501–1722)” Iran, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/05786967.2023.2170814

(Published online: 01 Feb 2023)

・“The Kurdish Frontier under the Safavids,” Rudi Matthee, ed. The Safavid World, London: Routledge, 2022, pp. 556-571.

・”The Safavid Legacy as Viewed from the Periphery: The Formation of Iran and the Political Integration of a Kurdish Emirate,” in Nobuaki Kondo ed. Mapping Safavid Iran, Tokyo: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2015, pp. 127-154.

・“İran Kürdistanı’nın Safeviler Dönemindeki Kısa Bir Tarihi,” Kürt Tarihi 7 (Haziran-Temmuz 2013), pp. 28-33.

・“Shah Tahmasp’s Kurdish Policy,” Studia Iranica, 41 (2012), pp. 101-132.

・“A Note on Fruit Cultivation in the Early Eighteenth-Century Hamadan Province,” Eurasian Studies, Liber Amicorum, Études sur l’Iran médiéval et moderne offertes à Jean Calmard, Textes réunis par Michele Bernardini, Masashi Haneda, Maria Szuppe, V/1-2 (June-December 2006), pp. 377-392.

・“Urban-rural Relations in Early Eighteenth-Century Iran – A Case Study of Settlement Patterns in the Province of Hamadan,” in KONDO Nobuaki (ed.), Persian Documents: Social History of Iran and Turan in the Fifteenth-Nineteenth Centuries, London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003, pp.147-185.