The Emergence of Kurdish Nationalism and the Sheikh Said Rebellion, 1880-1925The last quarter of the nineteenth century was crucial for the development of Kurdish nationalism. It coincided with the reign of Abdulhamid II (1876 1909), who emphasized Pan Islamic policies in order to strengthen the Ottoman Empire against European and Russian imperialism, The Pan Islamic doctrines of the Ottoman Empire enabled sheikhs (religious leaders)from Sheikh Ubaydallah of Nehri in the 1870s and 1880s to Sheikh Said in the 1920s to become