'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎251r] (506/862)

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION 377
several small tribes and also non-tribal elements controlled by town
aghas. At the head of the northern tributaries of the Rubar-i-Ruwandiz
and northward to the Barasgird valley and Persian frontier are the
Baradost tribe and their former sections, now independent, the Ro-
wandok, and Pirahasani (Pirastini). The Shirwan hold the valleys of
the Rukuchuk (Barasgird) below and to the west of the Baradost
lands, and to the east of Chia-i-Shirin range. The small sections of the
Shirwan retain their coherence better than the Baradost. The two
together may number 8,000.
The Balik, at the head of the Rubar-i-Ruwandiz and astride the
Ruwandiz road, are a tribe divided into three sections, with some
sixty small villages of which Rayat and Walash are the chief; the agha
of Walash is regarded by the Government, though not by the sections,
as the paramount chief (photo. 39).
South of the Rubar-i-Ruwandiz the passes to the Pizhder plain in the
basin of the Little Zab are controlled by the small Mangur tribe,
which contains nomadic elements that go for summer pasture to the
Vasneh Alp in Persia.
On the Great Zab above its junction with the Rukuchuk the Zibari
to the south-west and the Barzan Kurds to the north-east of the
Zab have a perpetual feud. The Barzan sections are by origin Zibari
Kurds who have been dominated by the truculent shaikhs of Barzan
village. Together with the Shirwan these are known as diwana, or the
‘mad folk’.
In late autumn the Herki, a purely nomadic tribe whose summer
quarters are in Persia, south of Lake Urmia, move down the Rubar-i-
Ruwandiz to pastures in the territory of the Surchi between Aqra and
the Bastura Chai, bringing great flocks of sheep with them. They are
a dark-skinned people and very hardy, numbering about 20,000, of
whom some 8,000 visit the Bastura and perhaps as many again reach
Aqra and the Erbil plain. They have free grazing rights in certain
areas and pay dues in others. Their tribal organization, which con
tains at least four sections, is intact. In 1938 the Persian Government
tried to stop the annual migration.
From Upper Zab to Tigris (figs. 27-28, 71). Northern Kurdistan,
west of the Rubar-i-Shin, becomes progressively more open and the
inhabitants, who are mostly settled cultivators, have been dominated
by the Kurdish tribes of Hakari from beyond the Turkish frontier.
The Raika and Nerva are small tribes between the Rubar-i-Shin
and the Great Zab, formerly dominated by the Oramar tribe of Tur
kish Kurds. The Barwar-i-Bala who populate the tributary valleys