'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎109] (118/568)

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INHABITANTS 109
(c) In the country between the eastern Taurus ranges, forming
the northern limit of our area, and the great plains of the Jezlreh.
Here also they form a part of a mixed population, which includes
Armenians, 'Syrian' Christians (Jacobites), Turkomans, &c. Kurdish
tribes descend to the northern edges of the Jezlreh plains for some
months of the year and come into contact with the Arabs. (Beyond
the eastern Taurus the Kurds are spread over the Armenian plateau,
and are found in eastern Anatolia South-east Turkey today. .)
The Kurds within our area probably number less than 500,000.
Race, Language, Modes
The Kurds are mainly of Iranian stock, but in some regions they
include a good deal of wreckage and cross-breeds of other races
(Aramaean, Arab, &c.). and the name covers a very heterogeneous
collection of tribes. The race is on the whole least mixed in southern
Kurdistan (Turkish and Persian), though even here on the Turkish
side there is known to be a certain amount of Arab blood in some
of the Kurdish communities.
The main body of the Kurds speak many dialects of Kermanji,
a language allied to Persian. The Zaza group of ti-ibes, which speaks
what may be regarded as a language of its own, though of Iranian
type, is found mainly north of the eastern Taurus. Mixtures of
Kermanji and Aramaic (Syriac) and of Kermanji and Arabic occur
here and there.
The Kurds outside the towns are partly nomads or semi-nomads,
and partly settled cultivators. Almost all are tribally organized, and
the sedentary as well as the nomad communities are usually addicted
to tribal feuds, raiding, and general lawlessness.
Among the nomads and semi-nomads there is the movement
between the lower and the higher grazing-grounds which is usual
among pastoral hill-tribes. Sometimes they move considerable dis
tances, e.g. from the neighbourhood of JezIret-ibn-'Omar up to the
Van plateau. The tribes who winter in the plains east of the Tigris
mostly go up in summer to the Persian plateau (e. g. to the Wazneh
district).
Many of the sedentary Kurds are industrious cultivators.
There is a Kurdish element in the population of most of the towns
in the hill-country, and sometimes, e. g. at Suleimaniyeh, Koi Sanjaq,
Kowanduz, Amadiyeh, Bitlis, it predominates.
Great differences of character are found among the Kurdish tribes.
Some are described as very low sets of thieves, e. g. some of the
tribes frequenting central Kurdistan and others in the Qarajeh Dagh.
But the Kurds of most tribes—nomad or settled—though they may