'Kurdistan and the Kurds' [‎34r] (67/122)

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agriculture and for selling the produce of their farms. They are expert
smiths, weavers, and tent-makers. Mentally they are far superior to the
majority of Kurds, being apt to education, astute men of business, and
very industrious. The tribes live under the rule of hereditary nobles, who
are generally very quarrelsome, frequently engaging in feuds and inter tribal
wars. These semi-nomads, who are knowm as Baba Kurds, are noted for
their chivalry, valour and thievish proclivities. They are all line horsemen
and skilful marksmen, having recently discarded the lance and sword in
favour of the rifle and dagger. All these tribes are orthodox Sunnites; their
patron saint is Khalid ibn Walid, whom they hold in great reverence, and
who, according to tradition, converted them from paganism. From
October to February they dwell in villages ; in March they move into
tents; early in June many families from each tribe migrate with their
flocks towards the Persian frontier, especially to the neighbourhood of the
Wazna pass; they live there in tents or leafy bowers till the nights grow
cold in September, when they return to their permanent villages. Most
of their noble families inter-marry freely with the Arabs of Upper Mesopo
tamia. Their women are strikingly beautiful and are allowed great freedom,
many of them lading and shooting as well as the men ; they perform no
manual labour except butter-makingand theordinary dutiesof the household.
The following tribes or clans of Kurds, of whom little is known, are
reported to have settled in this part of the country :—round Suleimaniyah
the Belkan, Shadian and Charekan ; round Kirkuk, the Bodkan, Khttisu ran,
Hasanan, Khotban, Churran, Dilbaz, Dimilan, Shervan, Gharzan, Botan
and Khimenan, with some others; all are probably small colonies, w ho have
left the main tribe and migrated to the south. There are also many other
sections of larger tribes who have crossed the border and taken up their
quarters in Persia.
§ 7 .—The Yezidi Kurds.
The Yezidi are a semi-barbarous race of mixed Kurdish and Arab
origin, speaking a dialect of Kurdish, who dw r ell in the Jebel Sinjar, a
range of hills lying on the east of the Tigris, opposite Mosul; starting
about 25 miles west of the city, it runs in a semi-circular form across the
plain for 70 miles, where it sinks,again to the level of the low T ground at a
distance of 25 miles from the river Khabur. Hidden in the heights of the
mountain, the tribesmen have always been able to defy with impunity the
Turkish authorities and to maintain an almost complete independence, in
spite of the repeated efforts of the government to reduce them. In par
ticular, ‘Omar Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. led a force against them in 1892, harrying the
villages and massacring all whom he could seize; his hands fell heavily in
particular on the unfortunate inhabitants of the few villages w’hich the
Yezidi possess in the lowlands between the mountains and Mosul. The
last expedition which the Turks undertook against this people occurred in
uo j