KURDS

[s. 401] : To say that the Kurds are the Carduchi mentioned with painful reminiscences by Xenophon, does not answer the question of their Nor can one define their relations by saying that they are the people of Kurdistan. No definite territory called by that name exists, and the Kurds, wherever found, live as detached groups in the midst of other races. They abound in the regions extending from the Ru ian border at Erivan on the north to the fig-producing hills of the Sinjar in Upper Me so pot am i a and the flower-gardens of Shiraz on the south, and from the plains of Urmia and Ispahan on the east to the Tigris, the Euphrates at Samosata, the Taurus at Marash, and the Anti-Taurus in Cappadocia and Pontus on the west. The districts where they are most numerous include the Turkish provinces of Erzerum, Van, Hekkiari, Mosul (eastern portion), Bitlis, Diarbekir and Mamuriet el Aziz (Harpoot, eastern portion), and in Persia the western portion of Azerbaijan, Ardilan and Luristan. The ma of the Kurds dwell to this day within these limits, that is to say, near the western end of that mountainous highland which forms a raised causeway from the east to the west of Asia. Any map will reveal within these limits mountain chains running in all directions. The central portion of the region is west of Lake Urmia and east of Tigris. About the size of Palestine in its palmiest days, the part best beloved by the Kurds is a perfect sea of mountains, with mountain peaks that vie with one another in their efforts to pierce the regions of the upper air, and rise from 10,000 feet to 15,000 feet above the level of the sea. The antiquity of the region as the abode of man is attested by the absence of forests. Out from this system flow the Araxes and the Halys on the north, the one to the Caspian and the other to the Black Sea; and to the south, the Euphrates, and the Tigris, with its tributaries, into the Persian Gulf. Such endle combinations of mountains and valleys, lakes and gorges, rivers and plateaus, snow-clad peaks and gra y plains, render the origin. KnrdB and wild by scenery beautiful, grand, weird, turns. The region described above was inhabited, in the times of the A yrian Empire, by a warrior The A yrace named “Gutu,” i. e., warrior. rians called them Gardu and Kardu; the Greeks They later called them Kardokas (Kardakes). were Scythians or Turanians. After the subjugation of As syria the Gardu were absorbed by a still more energetic race (the southern Kurmanj), who claim to be lineal descendants of Madai, the son of Japheth, and of the same stock as the Medians. The Kurds also claim that one of the tribes of the “Gutu” remaining in its early habitat produced Nebuchadnezzar and in the Babylonian Empire became imbued with Semitic qualities of blood. P’rom this stock sprang the Guran tribes of southern Kurdistan. In a similar manner emigrations of Lurs from Persia and of Wends from Afghanistan brought in Aryan blood, so that the eastern Kurds have distinctly Aryan qualities. These various traditions of the Kurds conform to the truth in one particular, namely, that the Kurds of to-day are of mixed Aryan, Semitic and Turanian stock. But to seek to identify the various strains of blood or their source is usele in a land where the people have clung to their rocky heights while they have been trampled into many forms during fifteen centuries by conquering hosts coming from south and north and east and west. The Kurds to-day are found in three great groups, the Kurmanj, the Guran and the Lur. The Lur are found in Persia, and the two first named groups in both Turkey and Persia. The language of each group is a separate dialect, and many of the tribes of each family have also their own dialect. For various reasons exactne in statements of the numbers of the Kurds is simply impo ible; the following tabulation gives only approximate estimates: Northern— Turkey Iboutnem jpersia ( Kurmanj 4 s„,,,i,pm— i Turkey ™„ U,.ran Turkish Provinces ” ^Persian /- IT Turkish w™.i and) o„,^ Wend pg^ i „ ( ^“^ i”.. Afghani.«tan (southwest portion) As to mode of life the 2,000,000 150,000 200.000 200,000 150,000 110,000 g^’opQ 500,000 Total, 3,400,000 Kurds are of three cla es: (a) Those who are purely pastoral are nomadic (called Gochers) and oscillate between the mountains and the plains, occupying the former in summer and the latter in winter. (6) Those partly pastoral and partly agricultural occupy fixed abodes in winter, but in summer dwell in tents among pastures not remote from their harvest fields, (c) Those purely agricultural remain throughout the year in fixed abodes. Some Kurds also have taken up trades and live in Generally cities as merchants and mechanics. speaking, one-half, perhaps more, of the Kurds the remainder are dis while belong to cla a, tributed between cla es 6 and c in the proportion of 2 to 1. The Kurds of these three cla es are of two the northern and the southern. distinct types The northern Kurd is bold, but not courageous, hospitable but full of theft and treachery, loud voiced and brutal, lazy and ignorant, fond of He is thriftle and like intrigue, feudatory. wise shiftle in regard to his person, dre and — Knrds KTvei-tBl-hslem manners. He has black eyes and hair, is of fine physique and athletic, is temperate and of sturAs a rule he dier morals than his Turkish ruler. is monogamous, and treats his wife more after the manner of Europe ans than of the Turk. He is intellectually dull, and dogged in his commercial dealings; ready to owe and acknowledge a debt, but slow to cancel it. The southern Kurd who has learned to dwell in a fixed abode is not le athletic, but of finer grain, more polite in his bearing, more quiet in his manners, and more careful of his person and dre than the northern type or the southern nomad Kurds. He has a more intellectual cast of features, and is brighter looking. The organization of the southern Kurds is more compact than that of the northern tribes, and there is among them the quiet consciousne of power. They obey Abdul Hamid more as Caliph than as Sultan. A considerable number of the southern Kurds have been educated in Arabic and Persian literature, and such are to be found in high office under the Turkish Government. In general, Kurds are the untamed highlanders of Turkey and Persia fond of freedom, but lawle in their use of it, thereby occasioning great uneasine to both those powers. Clannishne and tribal feuds are powerful preventives of their racial homogeneity and political power. All Kurds are Muslims. They are about equally divided between the Sunni and the Shi’i denominations. The Shi’i Kurds are the Lur and Wend tribes of Persia and Afghanistan, the Kurmanj of Bohtan, Sert, and Bitlis, and the Gurans of the Dersim Mountains in Turkey. All Kurds are bigoted and are fanatically attached to their Sheikhs, if not to their religion. Comparatively few of them have an intelligent grasp of Islam, which indeed is a foreign religion in a foreign tongue. Mi ionary work among the Kurds does not exist, because neither Turkey nor Persia would tolerate organized work in their behalf; and their contact with the evangelistic efforts of the Eastern Turkey and West Persia mi ions for the nominal Christians residing in their midst is of the sliglitest. The evangelical churches of Turkey support a “Kurdish Mi ion,” which is conducted from Harpoot; but it is for Kurdish-speaking Armenians, and not for the Kurds. In connection with this work a translation of the New Testament and also a small hymn-book have been published in Kurmanj Kurdish. Some effort for Kurdish-speaking Syrians is now prosecuted by the Mardin station of the ABCFM. It would seem the intention of Providence to use these evangelized Kurdish-speaking Christians as an entering wedge for work among the Muslim Kurds when “all things are ready” for such a movement. The Persian Mi ion of the PN and that of the CMS are also making efforts to reach this neglected people in many unobtrusive ways. As a rule those who have come into close acquaintance with Kurds have acquired a profound respect for their sturdy and admirable qualities of heart, their mental abilities and their capacity for religious and political development. Not a few believe that through their progre in culture may be found a solution of the Eastern question. 402