Who are the Kurds? Why are there no "Kurdic peoples" and "Kurdish peoples",...
Turcoman
"Arabish", when everyone seems to be hellbent on writing about the difference between "Turkish" and
"Turkic" languages and peoples?
Caught up in all the hoopla about Ocalan is about 300 years of history which the journalists and TV
newspersons cannot and do not tell. It started with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire by the European
powers Austria, Poland, Russia, and Venice in the 15 years following the Ottoman failure in the
siege of Vienna in 1683..."
http://www.turcoman.btinternet.co.uk/kurdish-versus-kurdic.htm
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REAL
Kurdish lands, rich in natural resources, have always sustained and promoted a large population. While
registering modest gains since the late 19th century, but particularly in the first decade of the 20th,
Kurds lost demographic ground relative to neighboring ethnic groups. This was due as much to their less
developed economy and health care system as it was to direct massacres, deportations, famines, etc. The
total number of Kurds actually decreased in this period, while every other major ethnic group in the
area boomed. Since the middle of the 1960s this negative demographic trend has reversed, and Kurds are
steadily regaining the demographic position of importance that they traditionally held, representing 15%
of the over-all population of the Middle East in Asia-a phenomenon common since at least the 4th
millennium BC.
Today Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in the Middle East, after the Arabs, Persians and Turks.
Their largest concentrations are now respectively in Turkey (approx. 52% of all Kurds), Iran(25.5%),
Iraq (16%), Syria (5%) and the CIS (1.5%). Barring a catastrophe, Kurds will become the third most
populous ethnic group in the Middle East by the year 2000, displacing the Turks. Furthermore, if present
demographic trends hold, as they are likely to, in about fifty years Kurds will also replace the Turks
as the majority ethnic group in Turkey itself.
There is now one Kurdish city with a population of nearly a million (Kirminshan), two with over half a
million (Diyarbekir, Kirkuk), five between a quarter and half a million (Antep, Arbil, Hamadan, Malatya,
Sulaymania), and quarter of a million people (Adiyaman, Dersim [Tunceli], Dohuk, Elazig [Kharput],
Haymana, Khanaqin, Mardin Qamishli, Qochan, Sanandaj, Shahabad, Siirt and Urfa).
Source: Kurdish Information Network
QALEH-I YAZDIGIRD- CULTURAL
TREASURE OF THE KURDISH PAST:
by Mehrdad Izady, Harvard University
In the mid- 1 960s the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto, under the supervision of archaeologist
E.J.Keall, carried out excavations on the site of Qaleh-i Yazdigird and found a vast and artistic
landmark complex of palaces abandoned by the end of the Parthian era (AD 226). Qaleh-i Yazdigird
is situated on a superbly formed high tableland at the edge of the Zagros Mountains north of the town
of Sarpuli Zohab in southern Kurdistan. From these heights it commands the famous Silk Road. The
wealth of plaster decoration and statuary on the site has always been used by local peasants as a ready
source of gypsum for construction. Unfortunately, this practice has destroyed untold numbers of
cultural and historical treasures of the Kurdish past.
Keall's excavations unearthed a fortress town with palaces, fortifications, temples and the like, all
richly
decorated. The highly sophisticated artwork at Qaleh-i Yazdigird depicts a wealth of themes
representing artistic traditions of the East (stylized animal and floral designs) and West (life-like
humans
and animals). Among these voluminous decorations was found the earliest evidence for theatrical plays
in Kurdistan, as preserved in scenes of acting men, women and pans, some wearing face masks. The
finds are so impressive as to belie the traditionally held view of the late Parthian era as a time of
deterioration.
Qaleh-i Yazdigird also held coins of a ruler described by numismatists, who examined specimens of his
coinage, as the "unknown king". He issued coins used exclusively and extensively in the Kurdish
highlands around the middle of the 2nd century AD. Keall states: "Whether the 'unknown king' was the
one who built and ruled from the magnificent palaces of Qaleh-i Zazdigird, the independent minting of
coins reflects the autonomy claimed by a powerful lord." (Keall, 1983:44). Yet, despite these
achievements, Keall consistently refers to the king as the "robber baron."
In fact, it is not at all difficult to tentatively identify Keall's "robber baron" and the numismatists'
"unknown king" in history. He could well have been the father or grandfather of the mighty ruler Haftan
Bukht of the sacred and powerful Kurdish kingdom of Kirm (or Kram) that covered southern
Kurdistan, the area of modern Kirmanshah and Awraman. According to historical accounts,
Haftan-Bukht's twoyear defense of his domain and his Kurdish allied kingdoms nearly cost the
invading Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian Persian cultural treasure empire, his life. Haftan-Bukht
installed viceroys, many of them his own sons, to rule the myriad of mountain provinces and carry his
writ, presumably continuing the same administrative structure of the "unknown king" whose coinage
carried the economy of the Kurdish mountains. Surviving statuary may well provide an image of this as
yet nameless Kurdish king. In addition to his profile which appears on his coinage, a naturalistic
frontal
depiction is often repeated in the wall decorations at Qaleh-i Yazdigird.
There is no exact date for the sack and abandonment of the Qaleh-i Zazdigird complex. But it is not
unreasonable to assume that it too fell victim to Ardashir's wrath. In his battle chronicle, the
Karnamak,
Ardashir boasts of the death and destruction he wrought on the Kurds, their cities and their sacred
places of worship in the course of AD 224-226 (Karnamak-i Artakhsher-i Papakan, v-xi) It is
fascinating that in his Karnamak chronicle the first reference to the ethnic term "Kurd" appears in a
preIslamic Persian source. In fact, the term 'Kurd' is used repeatedly to identify the inhabitants of
the
Zagros, including Mada (Media, ie, region of Hamadan), Sanak (region of Sahna), Shahrazor (region
of Sulaymania), Barchan (region of Barzan), Hakar (region of Hakkari), Mukran (region of Mahabad)
and most importantly Kram, the region of Kirmanshah and therefore Qaleh-i Yazdigird. (These are
actual place names which appear in the text.)
Ethnic Kurds are thus identified as the inhabitants of the region of Qaleh-i Yazdigird at the time of
its
destruction in this chronicle of the man who was in all likelihood its destroyer. Consequently, there is
no doubt that it is the artistic heritage of these same ethnic Kurds that has been unearthed at Qaleh-i
Yazdigird. Interestingly a representation of a peculiar pointed hat (apparently made of felt) is
indentical
in its configuration to a modern Yezidi felt hat now on display in the Kurdish Museum in New York.
The artistic repertoire of Qaleh-i Yazdigird is crucial for the new light it sheds on the origins of
some of
the most famous Persian Sasanian motifs. For example, a senmurv griffin appearing on its plaster wall
decorations is almost identical to that executed at the grottos of Taq Bustan near Kirmanshah four
centuries later by order of Chosroes II Aperves, a descendant of Ardasher. Yet the griffin motif has
been considered a hallmark of Persian Sasanian art. The Keall excavation of Oaleh-i Yazdigird reveals
that this motif was in fact borrowed from the Kurdish artistic repertoire, possibly a representation of
ancient Anzu (predecessor of the Yezidi bird-angel, Anzal). Furthermore, the square-shaped column
capitals at this Kurdish site also anticipate those of the Sasanians, which came later. Despite this
formidable evidence of highly sophisticated art and culture, an organized state apparatus issuing
currenices for its integrated economy within the folds of the Zagros - much of which is paradoxically
revealed thanks to Keall's own excavations - Keall deliberately and consistently refers to the
illustrious
Kurdish statesman and ruler of Qaleh-i Yazdigird as a "robber baron". Take this statement, for
example: "This stronghold may well have been the luxurious mountain retreat of a robber baron bent on
plundering or exacting booty from caravans travelling the Silk Road." Yet he never offers a single shred
of archaeological or historical evidence to prove that his unknown monarch was a bandit. In fact, the
complexity and sophistication of his own findings is the best evidence to refute the archaeologist's
characterisation. It is tempting to conclude that this defamatory label for the king may well derive
from
Keall's assumption that the lord of Qaleh-i Yazdigird was a Kurd and therefore, as a Kurd, must have
been a robber or a predator. This is not a farfetched hypothesis considering that as recently as 15
years ago 'Kurd' was defined by the Oxford Standard Dictionary of the English Language as "one of a
tall, pastoral and predatory people" until it was revised thanks to the efforts of the founder of the
Kurdish Library in New York.
When in history has a highway robber leading a band of brigands had the time and the talent to gather
sophisticated town planners, skilled architects and artists to create a entire city (in which local and
Greek theatrical plays were performed), establish an integrated administration over a vast region for
which his own treasury minted coins as the primary currency? Were not such "robber barons" called
kings and emperors in the past? Why then is this ancient Kurd, this lover of art, this able
administrator,
this master builder and town planner defamed and diminished?
Unfortunatly, Keall's facile conclusion simply follows the long trail of researchers who continue to
obscure and to derogate highly original contributions of the now stateless Kurds. This must be
criticised as an insufferable affront to the cultural heritage of this ancient nation.
Months ago, writing in this same journal, on the topic of the discoveries at Godin Tapa (130 miles east
of Yaleh-i Yazdigird), I made reference to the chronic tendeney of archaeologists to ascribe the source
of any and all things of importance that are found in the Zagros to outside cultures, even when none
were available. The character and contribution of the patron-builder of Qaleh-i Yazdigird is simply one
more example of this inexcusable ignorance of scholars and scientists who know virtually nothing of the
people from whose earth they excavate
these archaeological treasures. Consequently, the Kurds to this day are non-people, even a race of
ancient criminals, to those who excavate the rich archaeological sites of Kurdistan. Ironically, it is
these
digs that will provide irrefutable proof that in Kurdistan originated many of the achievments for which
ancient, traditionally recognised cultures outside the mountains have been given, or have taken credit.
Casual characterisations might be amusing were they not trivializing the artistic heritage and thus the
history of the Kurdish nation. They are more disconcerting coming from the archaeologist responsible
for unearthing ground-breaking evidenee indicating that the arts of early Kurds significantly influenced
the later and much heralded Sasanian Persian school of art.
Oaleh-i Yazdigird remains a masterpiece of classical Kurdish urban planning and monumental
architecture, a treasure trove of art, a history book waiting to be read properly, courtesy of the
cultured ancestors of the Kurds, the "robber barons".
From Kurdish Life , No 6, 1993
E. J. Keall 'A Persian castle on the silk roads' in Silk roads, China ships, J Vollmer and E J Keall et
al, Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 1983
Atoglan
east, that puts the Kurds at the fifth position.
Azeri Turks population of only Iran is about 30 million. ;-)
Atoglan
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