'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎108] (117/568)

108
INHABITANTS
them 240,000 souls, another would make them three times as strong
as the Kuhgalu, who are put at 100,000. Both these estimates in
their different degrees are probably much exaggerated.
(c) Lurs between KJmrramabad and Dizful. The nomadic Lurs of
the highlands above Dizful are noted mule-breeders—especially the
Sagwand. They cultivate patches of ground both in the lower and
in the higher valleys. The Sagwand descend in winter to the plains
about Dizful, where they have made themselves troublesome by their
depredations. The country between Dizful and Khurramabad had
been in a state of anarchy for some time before the war.
(d) The Faili Lurs are a group of tribes in Pusht-i-Kuh under the
paramount chieftainship of the Vali of Pusht-i-Kuh. They cultivate
the lower valleys in winter and spring, and have some permanent
villages here, but almost the whole body move into the mountains
in summer.
The summer quarters of the vali have usually been at Deh Bala
under the Manisht Kuh, on a track from Kut el-Amara to Kirman-
shah, but in 1916, to make sure that his neutrality would not be
compromised, he retired to a spot on the Mama River near Zarinabad.
There are colonies of Faili Lurs to be found in the towns and villages
on the lower Tigris (Amara, Kut el-Amara, Bogheileh) and on the
Shatt el-Hai (Kut el-Hai, Qalat Sikr).
kueds
Distribution
North of Luristan (i. e. north of a line drawn from near Mandali
eastwards to Kangavar) the Kurds are spread over all the hill-
country which borders the Mesopotamian plain on the east and
north, and along the edges of the plains under the hills. Within
our area they are found :
(a) In the Persian province of Kirmanshah and in the hills of
southern Turkish Kurdistan ; some Kurdish tribes moreover spend
a part of the year in the plains east of the middle Tigris, where they
are in contact with the Arabs. (Beyond the eastern limit of our
area the Kurds in Persian territory extend about as far as the line
Mianduab—Bijar—Kangavar.)
(&) In central Kurdistan, where they live interspersed with other
elements of the population—Armenian and 4 Syrian ? Christian.
Some of their tribes move between the high central Kurdish moun
tains, or the Van plateau, and the lower valleys and the plains north
and north-east of Mosul and near Jezlret-ibn-'Omar.