'Kurdistan and the Kurds' [‎10v] (20/122)

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paying great attention to the proposed candidate’s capacity to rule. If they
disagree, the result often is that the tribe breaks up. It should further be
noticed that the Kurds often speak of sub-tribes by the name of the aghd
or by that of his ancestor; thus the Alai-ud-Din, a sub-tribe of the Batazi
Kurds, can be called either by their tribal name of Alai-ud-Din or by the
name of their chief, Mustafa Bey, or by that of his father, Shahin.
Public opinion in a tribe only sets towards preserving tradition. The
only sanctions of tribal society are ancient custom and the blood-feud, and
it is regarded as an honourable duty incumbent on every Kurd to carry on
a feud till full vengeance is exacted. Nevertheless, before the aggrieved
party lias recourse to such a feud, a private dispute is referred for settle
ment to the chief, or to holy men, on whom both the litigants agree, or to
the tribal council; but the dissatisfied litigant often brings about a feud by
murdering his opponent. A quarrel may, however, be settled by the payment
of blood-money, though this course is avoided as tantamount to a confession
of weakness. It can also be suspended for an indefinite period in the face
of a common danger threatening the whole tribe. There are, further, the
4 sure and unwritten laws of God,” which make for the security of life,
and the two most stringent poifits in the tribesman’s code of honour ordain
that a man who throws himself on another’s protection must be defended,
and that a guest who formally claims assistance must receive support.
These ordinances, indeed, would tend to prove an intolerable buiden, were
it not for the fact that a tribesman only appeals to them in the last extremity.
Very few Kurds are at all educated, for they have not the intelligence
to grasp abstract ideas; their genius is practical rather than speculative.
They have never, as has been said before, reduced their language to
writing. Those Kurds who have attained distinction outside Kurdistan
have all been educated in schools at Constantinople, where they were
trained for the Army or the Civil Service; and the number of them is very
small, perhaps not amounting to a dozen in all. Among them may be
mentioned five men who attained high office in the government, Sayyid
‘Abd-ul-Qadir, General Sherif Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , Izzet and Sayyid Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , and Zeki
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. ; the last two held at different periods the portfolio of the Minister
of the Interior in Turkey. Sayyid Abd-ul-Qadir Effendi was in exile during
the reign of the Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid ; upon the announcement of the
Constitution he was promoted to the rank of Senator, and is now Piesident
of the Council of State; General Sherif Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. was formerly Turkish
Minister in Stockholm and is now Minister for Foreign Affairs. Zeki
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , surnamed El-Halebi, the Aleppine, who was a member of the Com
mittee of Union and Progress, was a man of moderate views ; he
commanded the Uskub Army against the Serbians in the Balkan War and
was driven into Albania; later, he preceded Jemal as Commander-in-chief m
Syria, a post which he relinquished to become one of the Kaiser s aides
de-camp in Berlin.