Kurds

Kurds
(Kurdish: ‫کورد‬, Kurd) or Kurdish people are an Iranian[33][34][35] ethnic group native to the

mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey,
northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northern Syria.[36] There are exclaves of Kurds in Central
Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in
the cities of western Turkey (in particular Istanbul) and Western Europe (primarily in Germany).
The Kurdish population is estimated to be between 30 and 45 million.[2][37]
Kurds speak the Kurdish languages and the Zaza–Gorani languages, which belong to
the Western Iranian branch of the Iranian languages.[38][39]
After World War I and the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the victorious Western allies made
provision for a Kurdish state in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres. However, that promise was broken
three years later, when the Treaty of Lausanne set the boundaries of modern Turkey and made
no such provision, leaving Kurds with minority status in all of the new countries.[40] Recent history
of the Kurds includes numerous genocides and rebellions, along with ongoing armed conflicts
in Turkish, Iranian, Syrian, and Iraqi Kurdistan. Kurds in Iraq and Syria have autonomous
regions, while Kurdish movements continue to pursue greater cultural rights, autonomy,
and independence throughout Kurdistan.
Etymology
Main article: Name of the Kurds
The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear.[41] The underlying toponym is recorded
in Assyrian as Qardu and in Middle Bronze Age Sumerian as Kar-da.[42] Assyrian Qardu refers to
an area in the upper Tigris basin, and it is presumably reflected in corrupted form in Classical
Arabic Ǧūdī, re-adopted in Kurdish as Cûdî.[43] 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.[44]
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 Iranian group with such a lifestyle.[45]
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 Iranian and
Iranianized tribes and groups in the region.[46][47]
Sherefxan Bidlisi in the 16th century states that there are four division of
"Kurds": Kurmanj, Lur, Kalhor, and Guran, each of which speak a different dialect or language
variation. Paul (2008) notes that the 16th-century usage of the term Kurd as recorded by Bidlisi,
regardless of linguistic grouping, might still reflect an incipient Northwestern Iranian "Kurdish"
ethnic identity uniting the Kurmanj, Kalhur, and Guran.[48]
Language
Main article: Kurdish languages
Kurdish-inhabited areas in the Middle East (1992)
Maunsell's map of 1910, a Pre-World War I British Ethnographical Map of the Middle East, showing the
Kurdish regions in yellow (both light and dark)
Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdî or ‫ )کوردی‬is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds.[48] It is

mainly spoken in those parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey which comprise Kurdistan.[49] 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.[50]
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.[51]
The Kurdish dialects according to Mackenzie are classified as:[52]
 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,[53] but the Zaza–Gorani languages are not classified as
Kurdish.[54]

Kurds

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kurds

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kurds

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Kurds

(Kurdish: ‫کورد‬, Kurd) or Kurdish people are an Iranian[33][34][35] ethnic group native to the

Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdî or ‫ )کوردی‬is a collection of related dialects spoken by the Kurds.[48] It is

 Northern group (the Kurmanji dialect group)

You might also like