'Kurdistan and the Kurds' [‎37v] (74/122)

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§ 8 .—In Syria.
It is a difficult, if not impossible, task to estimate the number of
Kurds in Syria; partly, they form an unstable element in the population,
never settling for long in any one place, and partly they have become to
a large extent merged in their Arab neighbours by intermarriage. The
figures supplied by native agents Non-British agents affiliated with the British Government. have always to be taken with the greatest
caution, in view of their well-known tendency to exaggeration and their
inability to be accurate: for example, five natives, who were questioned,
gave figures so far apart as 50,000, 80,000, 20,000, 12,000, and 10,000.
Taking however into consideration only those families who are known to
have kept alive the memory of their Kurdish extraction, and working on a
basis of five or six persons in a family, their total cannot exceed 10,000
persons, while the lowest figure might come to not less than 6,000
persons; other observers have given from 6,000 to 7,000as a fair estimate.
The most important centre where they are found in Syria is Damascus;
there is also a considerable colony in and around Hama. A Kurdish
notable who has long resided in Damascus compiled the following table to
indicate how they are distributed in the country:—
Place.
Damascus: City
Damascus: Salahiyah Quf
Izra
Hama
Krad Ibrahim, near Hama
Krad Otma.no, near Hama
Kunaitra, Hauran, Kerak
Scattered families
There are a few families in the Lejah and the Hauran where they were
sent during the war by the Turkish government, nominally on an
agricultural venture, but really to expel some rebellious Arabs from their
villages. The Arabs, however, were pardoned, and the Kurds, being
unsupported by the government, settled down in the country as labourers
or cultivators.
Most Kurdish emigrants into Syria have been actuated by two
motives ; either they have followed in the train of an exiled ayha, or
differences of opinion in the councils of the tribe have led them to break
off from the main body. In the attached list of tribes many will be
recognised as offshoots of the parent-tribes in Kurdistan, which have been
already described, such as the Milli, the Sheikhan, and the Barazi. Others
may perhaps be corrupted forms of names better known in their northern
homes ; but most are rather the names of individual clans or families
which have lost all connection with their original tribes.
^rter
Number of families.
125
1600
50
100
50
100
150
400
Total
2575