'Kurdistan and the Kurds' [‎8v] (16/122)

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Mosul and Diarbekr. Tlie merchants deal with the native tribes through
their chieftains, called aghawdt, who assist them to fix the price, for which
they receive a commission, which is called aghawaghi, and occasional
advances of money. In the mountains of Pusht-i-Kuh, nomad Kurdish
tribes breed mules, big-boned draught-animals, which they take down for
sale unbroken to Dizful and Shushtar.
§ 4 .—The Kurds.
The Kurds were introduced in the 17th century of the Christian era
to colonise the plains between the Tigris and the Euphrates; but they soon
left the low-lying ground and migrated to the mountain-slopes to the north
and east, in the direction of Armenia and of Persia. When Kurds and
Armenians meet, the Kurds are invariably found occupying the high
ground, while the Armenians cling to the valleys; and in this they are
animated by the spirit which led them to quit the plain of the Euphrates,
for they are essentially a virile race of mountain-dwellers. But the hill-
tribes descend to the lower slopes and the plains in the winter, when the
heights become uninhabitable on account of the cold both by man and
beast. Both Kurds and Armenians still remain unabsorbed by the
surrounding Turkish element; for there still flows in their veins a remnant
of their old Iranian blood. But they are beginning to show a tendency to
succumb to the influence of Sunnism, as a result of service in the Turkish
army and the extension of Turkish administration in the country. The
Kurds, indeed, who dwell to the south of Lake Urmiyah are more Sunnite
than Iranian in character; from the Zagros onwards the Kurds exhibit an
inclination to become Shi‘ites, though they are at heart little more than
animists, as are their kinsfolk the Lurs. Be that as it may, religion sits
but lightly on the Kurd, though he is generally regarded as a follower of
Islam, of which he has but little knowledge, even though he himself claims
to profess its creed.
There is a Kurdish element in the composition of the modern Osmanli
Turk; this characteristic is most strongly marked in the Turks of old
Armenia, where the type is predominantly Aryan on a Kurdish basis.
The intermixture of Turk with Kurd is supposed to have occurred chiefly
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries of the Christian era. In Cilicia
especially, Kurds and Turkomans have similar customs and manners, and,
as they often live together and have a common tribal organisation, they
are liable to be confused. They come, however, from different regions,
the Turkomans from Turkestan and the Kurds from the western confines of
Persia,. The principal mixed tribes, according to Cuinet, are the Berbes-
Ashireti, the Turkmen-Sirkintli, the Jerid-Kurd, the Karsant-Ashireti,
and the Menemenji-Ashireti. Both races were nomads, addicted to
brigandage, till the measures taken against them by the Ottoman Govern
ment in 1866 forced them to build villages and to adopt a more orderly
manner of life ; but the instinct of nomadism is still strong within them