Lady Adela Khanun (1847-1924), Kurdish leader.** Adela was the de facto head of the Jaff tribe, the largest among Kurds.
Lady Adela Khanun (1847-1924), Kurdish leader.** Adela was the de facto head of the Jaff tribe, the largest among Kurds. Although her husband, Osman Pasha Jaff, was titular tribal leader, he was frequently away (some accounts paint him as little more than an idle playboy), so she ran affairs in his name and, after his death, through her son. Daughter of a Persian Vizeer, Adela was highly educated and had strong business acumen. Through urban planning, legal reform, and arts patronage, she oversaw a cultural flowering and economic boom for the Jaff that spilled over to the rest of Kurdistan. She was known as *Khan Bahadur, *"princess of the brave" to the British, whom she supported against the Ottomans during World War One in the hope of gaining Kurdish autonomy. Her hopes were dashed, however, at the 1921 Cairo conference when Britain and France adopted the Sherifian Solution, a plan to divide their Middle Eastern holdings between Arab Sherifs with no place for Kurds. “Altho...