Shekak is considered as the largest among all the Kurdish tribes

Kurdish tribes

Kurdish tribes of Kurdistan consist of:*Republic of Azerbaijan*Sheylanli tribe*West Azarbaijan Province:*Jalali*Milan*Haydaran*Donboli*korahsuni*Shekak*Herki*Bagzâdah*Zerzâ*Pirân*Pizhdar*Mâmash*Mangur*Mokri*Dehbokri*Gowrâg*Malkari*Suseni...

 in the West Azerbaijan province of Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 and the adjacent area of Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. This large tribe lives around the city of Maku

Maku, Iran

Maku is a city in the West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 41,865, in 10,428 families.It is situated from the Turkish border in a mountain gorge at an altitude of 1634 metres. The Zangmar River cuts through the city. The common languages in Maku are Kurdish and...

 and south as far as Urmia

Urmia

- Demographics :According to official census of 2006, the population of Urmia is about 871,204.- Language :The population of Urmia is mainly Azerbaijani people, with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities...

. They speak the Kurmanji

Kurmanji

Kurmanji or Northern Kurdish is the most commonly spoken dialect of the Kurdish language.- Scripts and books :...

 dialect of the Kurdish language

Kurdish language

Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

, (Shakaki

Shakaki

Shakaki is a sub-dialect of Kurmanji Kurdish and is spoken in a parts of Kurdish regions in Iran and Iraq, especially in Badinan region in Iraqi Kurdistan and among Kurdish tribes around the city of Maku and Urmiye in Iranian Kurdistan....

 sub_dialect). The Shekak consists of many clans and families.

History

Among the clans of the Shekak are the 'Awdoǐ. According to their oral history they came from Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır

Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey...

 in the 17th Century and settled west of Lake Urmia

Lake Urmia

Lake Urmia , ancient name: Lake Matiene) is a salt lake in northwestern Iran, near Iran's border with Turkey. The lake is between the Iranian provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan, west of the southern portion of the similarly shaped Caspian Sea...

, which displaced the Dumbulī tribe. The first known chieftain of the 'Awdoǐ was Ismail Agha who died in 1816 and whose tomb is beside the Naslu River. His grandson Jafar Agha was executed as a bandit in Tabriz

Tabriz

Tabriz is the fourth largest city and one of the historical capitals of Iran and the capital of East Azerbaijan Province. Situated at an altitude of 1,350 meters at the junction of the Quri River and Aji River, it was the second largest city in Iran until the late 1960s, one of its former...

 in 1905. Jafar's brother, Simko Shikak

Simko Shikak

Simko Shikak also Ismail Agha Shikak ) was a Kurdish chieftain of the Shakak tribe...

, was responsible for leading the anti-Christian massacres in the area before and during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

and for trying to create an independent Kurdistan in the 1920s.