KURDISTAN 157
Attempts have been made to classify this Kurdish population as sedentary and nomad, and in connexion with the classification to distinguish between tribal and non-tribal communities; but all such divisions are arbitrary and fallacious, and ought not to be admitted in a statistical account of the nation. No doubt the original Kurdish organization was tribal, and the prevailing habits of the tribes have always been nomadic and pastoral; but such habits are ever liable to be modified by local circumstances, and at the present day it is quite incorrect to suppose that the tribal Kurds are universally pastoral and migratory, while the non-tribal Kurds are sedentary and agricultural. In reality the distinction between living in villages as cultivators and living in tents as shepherds mainly depends on the localities where the tribes happen to be established. The Deyrsimlis, for instance, who inhabit the ranges of Dujik and Mezoor between the two arms of the Euphrates, and who number, according to Consul Taylor's estimate, above 200,000 souls, reside almost exclusively in villages, owing to the severity of their northern climate, while they follow agricultural and pastoral pursuits indifferently. But, on the other hand, the tribes to the south who have easy access to the Mesopotamian plains, prefer a nomadic life, sheltering their flocks and herds in the warm pastures beyond the Tigris during the winter, and driving them up in the summer to feed on the rich herbage of the mountain sides; and the same rule may be held to apply generally throughout Kurdistan, the tribesmen, whose natural instincts lead them to migrate between summer and winter quarters, becoming sedentary only when obstacles, either political or geographical, are placed in the way of their movements. With regard also to the distinction that is sometimes drawn between tribal and non-tribal Kurds, the hypothesis being that the latter, who live in villages and cultivate the soil, are the descendants of the aboriginal peasantry, while the former, who live in tents and support themselves with their flocks, are conquering invaders, the explanation will certainly not hold good. There is in reality no ethnic distinction between the two classes. Tribal Kurds who settle in villages very soon lose their distinctive name, and mix with the peasantry of the neighbourhood, while it constantly happens that a chief of village extraction, either by his individual character or through Government support, founds a new tribe and takes his place among the aristocracy of the nation. It may be added that in respect to the relative importance of the two classes the sedentary Kurds greatly outnumber the nomads, but that they are not so wealthy, nor so independent, nor do they stand nearly so high in popular estimation.
Character. – The Kurds generally bear a very indifferent reputation, a worse reputation, perhaps, than they really deserve. Being aliens to the Turks in language and to the Persians in religion, they are everywhere treated with mistrust, and live as it were in a state of chronic warfare with the powers that be. Such a condition is not of course favourable to the development of the better qualities of human nature. The Kurds are thus wild and lawless; they are much given to brigandage; they oppress and frequently maltreat the Christian populations with whom they are brought in contact, – these populations being the Armenians in Diarbekir, Erzeroum, and Van, the Jacobites and Syrians in the Jebel-Túr, and the Nestorians and Chaldæans in the Hakkári country, – but they are not as a general rule either fanatical or cruel. In the Hakkári country, indeed, they live under ordinary circumstances in perfect amity with the Nestorians, from whom in outward appearance they are hardly distinguishable. It must be added, too, that they are naturally brave and hospitable, and in common with many other Asiatic races possess certain rude but strict feelings of honour. Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the Kurdish chief is pride of ancestry. This feeling is in many cases exaggerated, for in reality the present tribal organization does not date from any great antiquity. In the list indeed of eighteen principal tribes of the nation which was drawn up by the Arabian historian Massoudi, in the 10th century, only two or three names are to be recognized at the present day. A 14th century list, however, translated by Quatremère,[1] presents a great number of identical names, and there seems no reason to doubt that certain families both in Bohtán and Hakkári, which are extant at the present day, can really trace their descent from the Ommeyide caliphs, while the Babán chief of Sulimaníeh, representing the old Sohrans, and the Ardelán chief of Sinna,[2] who also represents an elder branch of the Guráns, each claim an ancestry of at least five hundred years. There was up to a recent period no more picturesque or interesting scene to be witnessed in the East than the court of one of these great Kurdish chiefs, where, like another Saladin, the bey ruled in patriarchal state, surrounded by an hereditary nobility, regarded by his clansmen with reverence and affection, and attended by a bodyguard of young Kurdish warriors, clad in chain armour, with flaunting silken scarfs, and bearing javelin, lance, and sword as in the time of the crusades.
Language and Religion. – The present Kurdish language which is called Kermánji – a title difficult to explain – is an old Persian patois, intermixed to the north with Chaldæan words and to the south with a certain Turanian element which may not improbably have come down from Babylonian times. Several peculiar dialects are spoken in secluded districts in the mountains, but the only varieties which, from their extensive use, require to be specified are the Zaza and the Gurán. The Zaza is spoken throughout the western portion of the Deyrsim country, and is said to be unintelligible to the Kermánjí-speaking Kurds. It is largely intermingled with Armenian, and may contain some trace of the old Cappadocian, but is no doubt of the same Aryan stock as the standard Kurdish. The Gurán dialect again, which is spoken throughout Ardelán and Kirmánsháhán[3] chiefly differs from the northern Kurdish in being
- ↑ See Notices et Extraits des MSS., vol. xiii. p. 305. Of the tribes enumerated in this work of the 14th century who still retain a leading place among the Kurds, the following names may be quoted: – Guránieh of Dartang, modern Guráns; Zengeneh, in Hamadan hills, now in Kirmánsháhán; Hasnani of Kerkuk and Arbil, now in the Deyrsim mountains, having originally come from Khorásán according to tradition; Sohríeh of Shekelabad and Tel-Haftún, modern Sohrán, from whom descend the Babán of Sulimaníeh; Zerzari of Hinjarín mountains, modern Zerzas of Ushnei (cuneiform pillars of Kel-i-shín and Sidek noticed by author); Julamerkíeh, modern Julamerik, said to be descended from the caliph Merwán-ibn-Hakam; Hakkaríeh, Hakkári inhabiting Zuzan of Arab geography; Bokhtieh, modern Bohtán. The Rowadi, to whom Saladin belonged, are probably modern Rewendi, as they held the fortress of Arbil. Some twenty other names are mentioned, but the orthography is so doubtful that it is useless to try to identify them.
- ↑ The Sheref-nameh, a history of the Kurds dating from the 16th century, tells us that "towards the close of the reign of the Jenghizians, a man named Baba Ardilán, a descendant of the governors of Diarbekir, and related to the famous Ahmed-ibn-Merwan, after remaining for some time among the Guráns, gained possession of the country of Shahrizor"; and the Ardelán family history, with the gradual extension of their power over Persian Kurdistan, is then traced down to the Saffavean period.
- ↑ The Gurán are mentioned in the Mesalik-el-Absár as the dominant tribe in southern Kurdistan in the 14th century, occupying very much the same seats as at present, from the Hamadan frontier to Shahrizor. Their name probably signifies merely "the mountaineers," being derived from gur or giri, "a mountain," which is also found in Zagrus, i.e., za-giri, "beyond the mountain," or Pusht-i-koh, as the name is translated in Persian. They are a fine, active, and hardy race, individually brave, and make excellent soldiers, though in appearance very inferior to the tribal Kurds of the northern districts. These latter indeed delight in gay colours, while the Guráns dress in the most homely costume, wearing coarse blue cotton vests, with felt caps and
