The tribal confederacy was most active in the region of Viranşehir, between Urfa, Mardin and Diyarbakir, but the Milan tribe was present in many other places including Dêrsim.
They were mentioned in tax registers, as present in Dêrsim as the Lesser and Greater Milli,[3] and they were also the tax-farmers of the district of Mardin.
[6] Some of them were deported to Ar Raqqah, where some of the Milan tribal leaders had already been the de facto masters of the region.
According to one version of the legend, the Milan settled in Dêrsim, but Sultan Selim ordered some to sedentarize and build houses, and others to nomadize southward.
[11] A famous semi-historical Yezidi figure of Kurdish folklore, Derwêşê Evdî, was of the Şerqi tribe of the Milan.