S ectio^ ' Y I I .—The Kûrds. ,
Paragraph 1 .—Land of the Kûrds.
The Kûrds are a semiburbarous race, of predatory habits,
divided inter a number of different bribes, who have for âges
inhabited'the mountainous region of the Cardu'ehian and
Gordyæan chains forming the natural barrier bétween
Mesopotamia and Persia, and the political boundary
between the two great Mohammedan empires in the East.
-The land of the Kûrds is divided;into Eastern and Western,
or Persian and Turkish Kûrdistan, by the chain of Mount
Zagros, which runs in this’ part nearly north and south, and
bv a line or ridge of highlands which forms IT continuation
of that chain, and passes to the northward4 between the
lakes of Van and Urumiyeh, towards the lofty mountaimLof
^Ararat.
A correct idea of the physical'geography of K’imdTsïaû
will be formed if we consider it as a region of lofty terrassfeV,
separated by valleys, and forming a Jsepe'shif mbhntairious
elevations, leading up from the low country of Mesopotamia
to the high table-land of Iran.*
The most remafkable'Teature, as it has beeirobserved by
a late traveller,'!' of this tract of hill country, is the parallelism
of its ranges, the general direction of which is nearly
■N.N.W. and S.S.E. Chains of hills, which 1Sre>prolonged
to the south by comparatively low ranges, constituting what
has beén termed the Persian Apennines, assume the
height and character of true Alps, or principal mountain-
masses, in the districts of Lûristâmand Kirmânshâlf j^ but
there, as to the south of Kûrdistan Proper, in the districts
of Suleïmâniyeh and Ardelân, and to the northward in the
districts of Betlis, Sèrt, and Zâkh6 , the parallel ranges are
not so numerous, nor so extensive as to prevent the tribes
of mountaineers from being tributary on one side to Persia,
* Ritter’s Erdkundevon Asien.
tAins worth’s Visit to the Chaldeans.—Journal of the Royal-Geographical
Society, vol. xi.
and on the other to Turkey. It is between the parallels of
f36P’iand 38° N., or in Kermanj, or Kürdistan Proper, that
èlis'e chains appear to attain their greatest extent and
elevation.- The number of ranges succeeding one another
l^fthere great, and itlis only within them that two tribes of
mountaineers,—the Tiy&ri and the Jellu, belonging to an
ancieift Christian community, have preserved their independences
for ages. These Christian villages are inhabited
kÜy a people distinct from the Kurds who are Moham-
anedans, and'aclbiowie^e;'their ^|ubjbctidii on the oner
side lo'the Sultan of iCbnstan’tjnople, and op the other to
the Persian Shah*
, The Kurda-aye distinguishedby a peculiar language, which
prevails wherever the, people, are spread. , The Kurdish
race and language reach northward to Armenia,, eastward
to. Azerbaijan and thè Persian- Irak, southward to
Khuzistan ^hd the proviage-"of Bagdad, and westward to
the Tigris. With the wanderings of the Kurdish people their
idiom has-also extended into the plains which border on the
mountains óf Kurdistan. Particular Kurdish'dribes and
p p n iliè ’ are. found in parts very distant from their proper
country, as in Laristan, and near the Persian Gulph; others
’have been transplanted to Khorasan, and some hordes
westward into the pasbaliks of Aleppo, Damascus, and
mMser Asia.b 4 ^
jParagraph 2 j^rKurdish Tribes and Castes.
The Khrds are divided info two castes or. races of different
habits and employment. The peasants, or labouring
p e o p l e , though not slaves, are a subordinate caste; they are
termed Guran.l They are quite' distinct frpm the warrior
Kurds, who are the Assireta, a name which Roediger sup-
* To Persian Kurdistan belong Senna and Kirmanshah; to the Ottoman
empire, Suleimamyeh and Shekerezur.
t jtitter, Erdkunde, Th. ix. s. 629.
Roediger and Pott, Kurdische Stadien, Kunde des Morg. Th. 3.—Ritter
Erdkunde, s. 629.