Shekak

Shekak (also Shakkak, Shikakan or Shekkāk) is a Kurdish tribe in West Azerbaijan province, Iran. The tribe lives around the city of Maku and Urmia. Some early twentieth-century sources considered them as 'Muslim Assyrians', based on their tradition of calling the Church of the East patriarch 'uncle'

History

Among the clans of the Shekak are the 'Awdoǐ. According to their oral history they came from Diyarbakır in the 17th Century and settled west of Lake Urmia, which displaced the Donboli 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 in 1905. Jafar's brother, Simko Shikak, was allegedly responsible for leading the anti-Christian and anti-Alevitemassacres in the area before and during World War I and supposed organized resistance against the cruel regime of Reza Shah.

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