In the year 1832, about 70,000 Yazidis were killed by the Kurdish leaders Bedir Khan Beg and Muhammad Pasha of Rawanduz.[15] During his research trips in 1843, the Russian traveller and orientalist Ilya Berezin mentioned that 7,000 Yazidis were killed by Kurds of Rawandiz on the hills of Nineveh near Mosul, shortly before his arrival.[16] According to many historical reports, the Bedir Khan massacres can today be classified as a genocide.[17]