Sheikh Ubeydullah was from an already powerful family, the Şemdinan from the region of the same name - Şemdinan - who owned considerable amounts of land in the Kurdish areas of the Ottoman Empire. Following the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), Ubeydullah filled the political vacuum left by the devastation in the region and assumed the Kurdish leadership role[1] and he and his followers defended the Ottomans against the Russians.[7]