Keghan Baban • کێغان بابان
Although she was a Frankish woman, she became a military and political leader among Kurds - in a very male-dominated society of the 17th century. Her contribution and that of her husband Faqi Ahmad led to the creation of the autonomous Kurdish Baban principality.
She was a captive of the Ottomans and, according to the story, she was a warrior before. During a war in which Kurdish forces, led by Faqi Ahmad, also fought, she was able to escape captivity. In the fight the was veiled or fully armored, it was not visible that she was a woman. She had attacked my great-great-great...grandfather Faqi Ahmad. They fought and he beat her. The moment he wanted to kill her with his sword, she put off her helmet/veil, and he realized she's a woman. She realized he's not an Ottoman, and he liked her strength and beauty. She was also known as the woman with the green eyes, as far as I can tell. Our family says that it must be because of her that some of us have green eyes. So after the fight, she went back with him to Kurdistan and the both got two sons. Now the following part is not clear enough, but people say that she called her children baba, or baby, and that's why her sons were then nown as the Baba or Baban. But that's not proven.
The story goes on and after several years she missed her family in Europe and left Kurdistan without telling her husband. It was the 17th century, maybe she was afraid he wouldn't let her, or whatever. She left.
Her husband though didn't gave her up and followed her to Europe. There, so the story goes, he didn't knew her exact location, be the approximate place where she had lived before. He asked around and someone told him that Keghan was about to marry. Faqi Ahmad somehow managed to get to that wedding, but didn't do anything. He just remained among the many guests without being noticed.
Later on that day, he saw his wife and her new husband. The new husband insulted her, called her very bad stuff. "You slept with another man before," etc. Europe at that time wasn't much better than the Middle East. So she seemingly repsonded: "When my real husband were here, he would've taught you some respect." Well, Faqi Ahmad was actually there and he duelled that new husband and killed him. Keghan later told him that she was promised to that man, who was her cousin, before she got captured by the Ottomans years before. When she came back to her family, they forced her into that marriage. Faqi Ahmad asked her if she wanted to come back with him to Kurdistan, and she agreed. She never again went to Europe and remained in Kurdistan. Even after her husband's death she didn't go back to Europe. She led the Baban armies into war and shaped the principality which lasted for about 200 years as an independent country.
جهنگاوهرێکی کوردی سهدهی حهڤدهمه ، ههوڵهکانی ئهو و هاوسهرهکهی بووه هۆی دروست بوونی پارێزگای بابان