Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, romanized: Kurd), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syria. Consisting of 30–45 million people, the global Kurdish population is largely concentrated in Kurdistan, but significant communities of the Kurdish diaspora exist in parts of West Asia beyond Kurdistan and in parts of Europe, most notably including: Turkey's Central Anatolian Kurds (these spread through Eastern Anatolia in 1923 following the Armenian genocide in what was then Western Armenia), as well as Istanbul Kurds; Iran's Khorasani Kurds; the Caucasian Kurds, primarily in Azerbaijan and Armenia; and the Kurdish populations in various European countries, namely Germany, France, Sweden, and the Netherlands.
The Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, both of which belong to the Western Iranic branch of the Iranic language family, are the native languages of the Kurdish people. Other widely spoken languages among the community are those of their host countries or neighbouring regions, such as Turkish, Persian, or Arabic. The most prevalent religion among Kurds is Sunni Islam, with Shia Islam and Alevism being significant Islamic minorities. Yazidism, which is the ethnic religion of the Kurdish-speaking Yazidi people, is the largest non-Islamic minority religion among the broader Kurdish community, followed by Yarsanism, Zoroastrianism, and Christianity.
Although they exercise autonomy in Iraq and in Syria, the Kurds are a stateless nation. The prospect of Kurdish independence, which is rooted in early Kurdish nationalism, has been the source of much ethnic and political tension in West Asia since the 19th century. In the aftermath of World War I and the partition of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western Allies made territorial provisions for the establishment of a Kurdish state, as outlined in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, but it was never ratified after being signed. Three years later, when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of the Turkish state, the Western Allies ceased their push for Kurdish statehood in the face of certain agreements and guarantees—chiefly Turkey's relinquishing of territorial claims over formerly Ottoman-ruled Arab lands in exchange for the Allies' recognition of Turkish sovereignty over all of Anatolia. As such, since the 20th century, the history of the Kurds has largely been marked by struggles for independence, predominantly in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict and the Iraqi–Kurdish conflict, and to a lesser extent in the Iranian–Kurdish conflict and the comparatively recent Syrian–Kurdish conflict.
Etymology
The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear. The underlying toponym is recorded in Assyrian as Qardu and in Middle Bronze Age Sumerian as Kar-da. Assyrian Qardu refers to an area in the upper Tigris basin, and it is presumably reflected in corrupted form in Classical Arabic Ǧūdī (جودي), re-adopted in Kurdish as Cûdî. The name would be continued as the first element in the toponym Corduene, mentioned by Xenophon as the tribe who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC.
There are, however, dissenting views, which do not derive the name of the Kurds from Qardu and Corduene but opt for derivation from Cyrtii (Cyrtaei) instead.
Regardless of its possible roots in ancient toponymy, the ethnonym Kurd might be derived from a term kwrt- used in Middle Persian as a common noun to refer to 'nomads' or 'tent-dwellers', which could be applied as an attribute to any Iranic group with such a lifestyle.
The term gained the characteristic of an ethnonym following the Muslim conquest of Persia, as it was adopted into Arabic and gradually became associated with an amalgamation of Iranic and Iranicized tribes and groups in the region.
In 1923, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland claimed that the same way Kerman in Persian was Qarman in Syriac, Kurd in Persian was Qardu in Syriac, stating that "the Persian gurd or kurd, which seems to have been derived from a common origin with the Babylonian gardu or qardu, signifies 'brave', 'valiant', or 'warlike', and bravery and the love of fighting are the outstanding traits of the Kurdish character. From the Persians it passed into Arabic, whence it became the common European name of the Kurds."
Language
Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdî or کوردی) is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, and in Armenia as a minority language. The Kurds are recognized as a people with a distinct language by Arab geographers such as al-Masudi since the 10th century.
Many Kurds are either bilingual or multilingual, speaking the language of their respective nation of origin, such as Arabic, Persian, and Turkish as a second language alongside their native Kurdish, while those in diaspora communities often speak three or more languages. Turkified and Arabised Kurds often speak little or no Kurdish.
According to Mackenzie, there are few linguistic features that all Kurdish dialects have in common and that are not at the same time found in other Iranian languages.
The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as:
Northern group (the Kurmanji dialect group)
Central group (part of the Sorani dialect group)
Southern group (part of the Xwarin dialect group) including Laki
The Zaza and Gorani are ethnic Kurds, but the Zaza–Gorani languages are not classified as Kurdish.
Population
The number of Kurds living in West Asia is estimated at between 30 and 45 million, with another one or two million living in the Kurdish diaspora. Kurds comprise anywhere from 18 to 25% of the population in Turkey, 15 to 20% in Iraq; 10% in Iran; and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan. The Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East after Arabs, Persians, and Turks.
The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 24% in Iran, 18% in Iraq, and 4% in Syria.
Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries, about half of them in Germany.
A special case are the Kurdish populations in the Transcaucasus and Central Asia, displaced there mostly in the time of the Russian Empire, who underwent independent developments for more than a century and have developed an ethnic identity in their own right. This group's population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990.
Religion
Islam
Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims who adhere to the Shafiʽi school, while a significant minority adhere to the Hanafi school and also Alevism. Moreover, many Shafi'i Kurds adhere to either one of the two Sufi orders Naqshbandi and Qadiriyya.
Beside Sunni Islam, Alevism and Shia Islam also have millions of Kurdish followers.
Yazidism
Yazidism is a monotheistic ethnic religion with roots in a western branch of an Iranic pre-Zoroastrian religion. It is based on the belief of one God who created the world and entrusted it into the care of seven Holy Beings. The leader of this heptad is Tawûsê Melek, who is symbolized with a peacock. Its adherents number from 700,000 to 1 million worldwide and are indigenous to the Kurdish regions of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, with some significant, more recent communities in Russia, Georgia and Armenia established by refugees fleeing persecution by Muslims in Ottoman Empire. Yazidism shares with Kurdish Alevism and Yarsanism many similar qualities that date back to the pre-Islamic era.
Yarsanism
Yarsanism (also known as Ahl-I-Haqq, Ahl-e-Hagh or Kakai) is also one of the religions associated with Kurdistan.
Although most of the sacred Yarsan texts are in the Gorani and all of the Yarsan holy places are located in Kurdistan, followers of this religion are also found in other regions. For example, while there are more than 300,000 Yarsani in Iraqi Kurdistan, there are more than 2 million Yarsani in Iran. However, the Yarsani lack political rights in both countries.
Zoroastrianism
The Iranian religion of Zoroastrianism has had a major influence on the Iranian culture, which Kurds are a part of, and has maintained some effect since the demise of the religion in the Middle Ages. The Iranian philosopher Sohrevardi drew heavily from Zoroastrian teachings. Ascribed to the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster, the faith's Supreme Being is Ahura Mazda. Leading characteristics, such as messianism, the Golden Rule, heaven and hell, and free will influenced other religious systems, including Second Temple Judaism, Gnosticism, Christianity, and Islam.
In 2016, the first official Zoroastrian fire temple of Iraqi Kurdistan opened in Sulaymaniyah. Attendees celebrated the occasion by lighting a ritual fire and beating the frame drum or 'daf'. Awat Tayib, the chief of followers of Zoroastrianism in the Kurdistan region, claimed that many were returning to Zoroastrianism but some kept it secret out of fear of reprisals from Islamists.
Christianity
Although historically there have been various accounts of Kurdish Christians, most often these were in the form of individuals, and not as communities. However, in the 19th and 20th century various travel logs tell of Kurdish Christian tribes, as well as Kurdish Muslim tribes who had substantial Christian populations living amongst them. A significant number of these were allegedly originally Armenian or Assyrian, and it has been recorded that a small number of Christian traditions have been preserved. Several Christian prayers in Kurdish have been found from earlier centuries. In recent years some Kurds from Muslim backgrounds have converted to Christianity.
Segments of the Bible were first made available in the Kurdish language in 1856 in the Kurmanji dialect. The Gospels were translated by Stepan, an Armenian employee of the American Bible Society and were published in 1857. Prominent historical Kurdish Christians include the brothers Zakare and Ivane Mkhargrdzeli.
History
Antiquity
The country Kar-da-ka is mentioned on a Sumerian clay tablet dated to the end of the 3rd millennium BC. This land was located next to "the people of Su", which G. R. Driver placed to the south of Lake Van. A thousand years later, a people called the Qur‑ṭi‑e, thought by Driver to be related to Kar-da-ka—written Kar-da by him—and located west of Lake Van, are mentioned in the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I. In the late 5th century BC, Xenophon mentioned the Karduchoi, a people living to the east of the Bohtan River; this name survived in later times as Qardu or Corduene and other similar toponyms near Mount Judi, on the left bank of the Tigris. The connection between Kurd and Qardu and the identification of the Kurds with the Karduchoi, based on the similarity of the names and the correspondence of the inhabited territory, was widely accepted at the beginning of the 20th century, but it was deemed philologically impossible by Martin Hartmann, Theodor Nöldeke and F. H. Weissbach, who instead identified the Cyrtians, a tribe living in Media and Persia, as the ancestors of the Kurds. Since then, the connection between Kurd and Qardu / Karduchoi has been rejected by many scholars.
Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, and even use a calendar dating from 612 BC, when the Assyrian capital of Nineveh was conquered by the Medes. The claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem: "We are the children of the Medes and Cyaxares." Both Kurdish and the Median language (about which very little is known) are categorized as Northwestern Iranian languages, but the current scholarly consensus is that there is no attested pre-modern ancestor of the Kurdish languages. The existing evidence suggests that Kurdish is not a descendant of the Median language. D. N. Mackenzie theorized that Kurdish split off from the linguistic sub-group of Median at an early point and evolved in parallel with Persian. Certain essential similarities exist between Kurdish and Persian, more than other Northwestern Iranian languages, which has led some scholars to conclude that Kurdish developed from early on in close proximity to Persian, with Kurdish speakers later migrating into the Median territory.
The term Kurd is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century. Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends such as the Shahnameh and the Middle Persian Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name Kurd. The Kurds have ethnically diverse origins.
During the Sasanian era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, a short prose work written in Middle Persian, Ardashir I is depicted as having battled the Kurds and their leader, Madig. After initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, which is also featured in the same work, he is referred to as being a Kurd himself.
The usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group.
Similarly, in AD 360, the Sasanian king Shapur II marched into the Roman province Zabdicene, to conquer its chief city, Bezabde, present-day Cizre. He found it heavily fortified and guarded by three legions and a large body of Kurdish archers. After a long and hard-fought siege, Shapur II breached the walls, conquered the city and massacred all its defenders. Thereafter he had the strategically located city repaired, provisioned and garrisoned with his best troops.
Qadishaye, settled by Kavad in Singara, were probably Kurds and worshiped the martyr Abd al-Masih. They revolted against the Sasanians and were raiding the whole Persian territory. Later they, along with Arabs and Armenians, joined the Sasanians in their war against the Byzantines.
There is also a 7th-century text by an unidentified author, written about the legendary Christian martyr Mar Qardagh. He lived in the 4th century, during the reign of Shapur II, and during his travels is said to have encountered Mar Abdisho, a deacon and martyr, who, after having been questioned of his origins by Mar Qardagh and his Marzobans, stated that his parents were originally from an Assyrian village called Hazza, but were driven out and subsequently settled in Tamanon, a village in "the land of the Kurds", identified as being in the region of Mount Judi.
Islamic conquest
Although the Kurds sporadically appeared in Arabic sources after the Islamic conquest of Iran in the early Middle Ages, the term "Kurd" was not used for a specific people, and instead referred to an amalgam of nomadic western Iranian tribes distinct from Persians. By the High Middle Ages, the Kurdish ethnic identity gradually materialized, with clear evidence of Kurdish ethnic identity and solidarity in texts of the 12th and 13th centuries. However, the term also remained in use in the social sense. Several Arabic texts after the 10th century, including al-Masudi's works, referred to the Kurds as a distinct linguistic group. The term "Kurd" after the 11th century was explicitly defined as an ethnonym and did not suggest synonymity with the ethnographic category nomad used earlier.
After the Islamic conquest of Iran, the Arab Muslim geographers and historians generally included the Kurds within the regions of Zawzan, Khilat, Arminiya, Adharbayjan, Jibal, and Fars, before the term Kurdistan came into use during the Seljuk era. Before the term Kurdistan was introduced around the 12th century, historical sources often mentioned the Kurdish regions as "Bilad al-Akrad". In the early centuries of Islam, Arab and Persian historians, among them Masudi and Istakhri, frequently mentioned Kurds living outside of Kurdistan, in areas such as Khorasan, Sistan, Kerman, and especially in Fars. At that time, the term "Kurd" did not have ethnic connotations and generally referred to nomadic people, and later scholars claimed that the Kurds of Fars mentioned in the Islamic texts were likely not Kurds but nomads speaking dialects related to Persian and Luri. Before the 20th century, no basic distinction was recognized between Kurdish and Luri, and they were only later found to follow the Northwestern-Southwestern division of Iranian languages.
The Arab Muslims first encountered the Kurds after the occupation of Tikrit and Hulwan in 637. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas marched on Mosul where there were districts with a Kurdish population such as al-Marj, Ba-Nuhadra, Ba-Adra, Hibtun, and Dasin. The conquest of the region was completed by Iyad ibn Ghanm and Utba. In 640, the authority of the patriarch of Zawzan was confirmed after he paid the kharaj. Sources mentioned the Kurds having fought against the Arabs in 639, when they sided with al-Hurmuzan, the Persian governor of Ahwaz, and in 642, when they supported the Persians in the defense of Fasa and Darabjird.
The caliph Umar sent several expeditions against the Kurds of Ahwaz, while at the same time the Kurds had invaded the region of the central Karkheh (Saymara, Masabadhan). Although the Arabs had reached Shahrizur before Islam, the final occupation of Shahrizur, Darabadh, and Samghan in 643 was only achieved after bloody fighting. Abu Musa al-Ashari, the governor of Basra, suppressed Kurdish uprisings in Berudh and Balasjan in 645, although the Kurds, having been forced into Islam, apostatized in large numbers. Under the caliph Ali, the Kurds joined the Persians and Christians in the revolt of al-Khirrit near Ahwaz and in Fars, although he was defeated at Ramhormoz. Sulayman ibn Burayda al-Aslami, the qadi of Merv, reported that the caliph Umar instructed Salama ibn Qays to lead the campaign against the Kurds, but to first offer them three choices. If they accepted Islam but wanted to stay in their homeland, they should pay zakat and receive none of the fay' of the Muslims. If they joined the conquerors, they received their same benefits and were subject to the same duties. If they refused Islam, they should pay kharaj, and if they refused that as well they should be fought. He also reported that Umar later enquired about the campaign against the Kurds, calling them migrants.
The Kurds were an important element in the Sasanian Empire and strongly supported the Sasanians as they resisted the Muslim armies between 639 and 644. However, when it became clear that the Sassanids would soon fall, the Kurdish leaders gradually submitted to the Muslim armies and accepted Islam. By the 8th century, most of the Kurds were converted to Islam. Despite most Kurds having converted to Islam, there were smaller communities of Kurds throughout the impenetrable mountains which had not converted to Islam. Some of them survived as late as the 13th century, and sometimes even attacked the Muslim settlements. Bar Hebraeus wrote that it "in the year six hundred and two of the Arabs [1205 AD], a race of the Kurds who were in the mountains of Madai (Media), and who are called Tirahaye, came down from the mountains, and wrought great destruction in those countries. And troops of the Persians were gathered together, and they met them in battle and many of them were killed. Now these mountaineers had not entered the Faith of the Muslims, but they had adopted the primitive paganism and Magianism. When a Muslim fell into their hands they put him to death with cruel tortures." The Mazdakites and Khurramites also had many followers among the Kurds. Dabestan-e Mazaheb mentioned two Mazdakite leaders in later periods who were Kurds.
Al-Mukhtar, who seized Arminiya and Adharbayjan during the reign of Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malek, appointed a governor at Hulwan in 685 with the main task of fighting the Kurds, although his death disrupted the plan. In 702, Abd al-Rahman ibn al-Ash'ath made an alliance with the Kurds of Sabur in Fars, and in 708, the Kurds ravaged Fars and were punished by al-Hajjaj. In 746, the Kurds of Sabur resisted Sulayman the Khariji. Under the caliph al-Mansur, the Kurds were mentioned in connection with the rising at Mosul and its repercussions in Hamadan. Under the caliph al-Mu'tasim, in 839, Jafar ibn Faharjis, from a noble Kurdish family, revolted in Mosul and was defeated at Babaghesh, after which he took refuge in the mountains of Dasin and defeated the troops of the caliph but was finally defeated by a Turkish commander Aytakh. In 845, the Kurds revolted in Jibal, Isfahan, and Fars, but was quickly suppressed by a Turkish general Wasif. In 866, the Kurds of Mosul joined Musawir the Khariji. In 875, the Kurds played a considerable part in the Zanj Rebellion led by al-Khabith, and the uprising of Ya'qub al-Saffar.
Ya'qub al-Saffar appointed a Kurdish lieutenant Muhammad Ubayd Allah Hazarmand in Ahwaz, although he ambitiously engaged in secret negotiations with al-Khabith, who sent reinforcements to Muhammad as he marched on Sus, but was defeated by Ahmad ibn Laythuya, another Kurd who was the commander of Kurdish levies sent by the caliph to suppress Ya'qub al-Saffar. When Ahmad left, Muhammad secured more reinforcements from al-Khabith and seized Shushtar, where he was supposed to read the khutba in the name of al-Khabith but read it in the name of al-Mu'tamid and Yaqub al-Saffar, after which his Zanj allies deserted him, and Ahmad ibn Laythuya reoccupied Shushtar and Muhammad retired to Ramhormoz but was expelled. Muhammad sought help of al-Khabith again due to differences with the Darnan Kurds, and al-Khabith sent him troops as he agreed to proclaim him as caliph. The situation stabilized after the death of Yaqub al-Saffar in 879 and al-Khabith in 883.
In 894, the Kurds were among the supporters of Hamdan ibn Hamdun at Mosul. There was also a failed Kurdish rebellion in 897 led by Abu Layla. In 896, the Hadhabani Kurds and their leader Muhammad bin Bilal laid waste to Nineveh, and the new governor Abd Allah bin Hamdan pursued them but was defeated in Ma'tuba. Next year, he sent reinforcements from the caliph to pursue 5,000 Hadhabani families who had retreated to Adharbayjan and fortified themself. The Hadhabani eventually surrendered, followed by the Humaydi tribe, and the Kurds of Dasin mountain. Under the caliph al-Muqtadir, the Kurds plundered the environs of Mosul but were punished by the Hamdanid governors, and the Jalali tribe particularly put up stubborn resistance. In 943, Ibn Miskawayh mentioned that Jafar ibn Shakkuya, the Hadhabani leader in Salmas, supported the Hamdanid Husayn in his expedition in Adharbayjan.
Numerous Kurdish dynasties emerged alongside Daylamite and Khorasani dynasties during the Iranian Intermezzo. Scholars added that there was a Kurdish interlude throughout the Near East from 950 to 1050 with the rise of several distinct but similar mountainous dynasties. At the same time, as more Turkic migrations entered the region, despite sometimes intermingling, the Kurds increasingly asserted their distinct identity as a cohesive group, evident during political disputes between Kurdish and Turkoman rulers or dynasties.
Daysam ibn Ibrahim eventually rose to prominence and was closely associated with the Kurds. His followers were Kurds with the exception of a fee Daylamites. He was a Khariji who seized Adharbayjan after Yusuf ibn Abi al-Saj, and in 938 he used his Kurds to defeat Lashkari bin Mardi, a lieutenant of the Ziyarid ruler Vushmgir. The Musafirid ruler Marzuban later took Adharbayjan, and Daysam fled to his friend Hajik bin al-Dayrani, an Armenian king. He later returned to Adharbayjan when Marzuban was imprisoned by the Buyids, but was later again driven out by Marzuban and again sought refuge with Hajik bin al-Dayrani, who handed him to Marzuban against his will. He was blinded and died in prison in 956-7. While Marzuban was imprisoned, several rulers set themselves up in Adharbayjan, among them was Muhammad Shaddad bin Qartu of the Rawwadi tribe in 951 who founded the Shaddadid dynasty, which were allied to the Byzantines and Seljuks, and were also the ancestors of the Ayyubid dynasty. In 960, a pretender appeared in Adharbayjan named Ishaq ibn Isa, supported by Qahtani Kurdish leader Fadl, while the Hadhabani Kurds supported his adversary, Jastan ibn Marzuban. Ishaq was soon killed. The Kurds and Daylamites played a considerable role in the conflict between Jastan and his brother Nasir al-Dawla, and between Ibrahim ibn Marzuban and his cousin Ismail ibn Vahsudan.
Around 959, the second Kurdish dynasty rose in Jibal, known as the Hasanwayhids, founded by Hasanwayh ibn Hasan, the leader of the Kurdish Barzikani (or Barzini) tribe. He had earlier assisted Rukn al-Dawla in his expedition in Khorasan. He died around 979, and his possessions were overran by Adud al-Dawla, although Adud al-Dawla later granted investiture to Badr ibn Hasanwayh. The successor of Badr was Tahir (or Zahir) who reigned for one year before being driven out by Shams al-Dawla. Adud al-Dawla was more severe with the Kurds than Rukn al-Dawla. In 978, the Kurdish leader Ibn Baduya became independent with the support of the Hamdanid Abu Taghlib, but later sided with Adud al-Dawla. In 979, Adud al-Dawla sent an expedition against the Kurds of Shahrizur, who had established business and marital ties with the Banu Shayban Bedouins, occupying Shahrizur while the Bedouins returned to the desert. Another expedition was sent against the Hakkari Kurds in 980, and they were crucified along the road from Ma'althaya to Mosul. Even during the lifetime of Adud al-Dawla, the Humaydi leader, Abu Abd Allah Husayn ibn Dushanj (or Abu Shuja Ba'dh ibn Dustak), had attained notoriety.