'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎99] (132/714)

FROM ASHKABAD TO KUCHAN
99
during the last twenty years and more, especially since the advent
of the Russians on the north, and the consequent disappearance
of the particular necessity to which the Kurds owed both their
position and their power, the strength of the latter and the
authority of their chieftains have very sensibly declined.
Of the five Kurdish states originally settled in Khorasan, three
alone—Kuchan, Bujnurd, and Deregez—now remain. Of a simple,
Their ^ ru< ^ e auc l independent, character when first they
character entered the country, their turbulent existence and the
opportunities of plunder which they enjoyed soon exercised a
deteriorating influence upon the morale of the colonists; and
travellers who visited them during the days of Turkoman border
warfare, and saw both parties at work, reported that there was
very little to choose between the methods of the two. Both
raided, pillaged, and massacred whenever they had a chance. A
Turkoman was always fair game to a Kurd, and a Kurd to a
Turkoman; and if we have heard more of the awful results of the
Tekkes' devastations in Persia than of the return compliments
paid by the Kurds to the Atek, it is probably because no curious
stranger ever dared to penetrate the Turkoman desert, while a
hundred eyes have witnessed the desolated villages and hamlets
of Khorasan. In appearance the Kurds are easily distinguishable
from the Persians, both in physiognomy and dress. They are a
fine masculine race, with open countenances, strongly marked and
well-shaped features, sometimes fair complexions, and untrimmed
beards and hair. They have adopted the principal articles of
Persian costume, but they wear rough sheepskin bonnets (instead
of the smug kolali or the small egg-shell felt cap) and long sheep
skin coats or poshtms. Until quite recently they were distin
guished for their tribal cohesion and attachment to their chiefs,
whom they were ready to support at any time in an insurrection
against the central power.
The title of Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. has always been hereditary in one family,
though nominally subject to the ratification of the Shah. r Lhe
. Persian Government has, on occasions, tried the experi-
of the tJ ment of appointing its own officials; but this has in-
llkham variably led to rebellion and the compulsory withdrawal
of the intruder. Till the accession, or rather till the assertion in
the last twenty-five years of the authority, of the present Shah,
the Kurds have uniformly regarded the Kajar dynasty as an alien
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