The origins of the Kurdish Biradost tribe lie in the Arab qabilah of Bani Makhzum, said to be among the descendants of Khalid ibn al-Waleed, the noted commander of the armies of the first four Caliphs. Biradost is the Kurdish word for brother, or friend.

The areas inhabited by the clan extend into Iran, Turkey and Azerbaijan. In Iraq, their main territory is in the district of Sidekan, specifically the villages of Diana, Topzawah, Kazanzan, Biharkah, and Qush Tapeh in Erbil governorate.

A notable member of the Biradost was Sheikh Rasheed Lolan (b.1882), a linguist, jurist and scholar of the Naqshbandiyya Sufi order. He founded a takiya, or Sufi gathering hall, in the Azadiya neighborhood of Erbil. He died in 1964 and was buried near where the biblical Jonah is said to be buried in Mosul.

Source: برداوست
Translated from the Arabic by Andrew Leber, Brown University, Class of 2012.