'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎550] (613/714)

550
PERSIA
solved, and which I am content, therefore, to relinquish. One
may still vindicate for the Kurds a respectable antiquity bv
identifying them, as it is tolerably safe to do, with the Carduchi
of Xenophon (probably the Kudraha of the cuneiform inscrip
tions), who, in this very region, harassed and tormented the
retreating Ten Thousand. Alike in country, character, and
name (though this last is not universally admitted), the two
peoples correspond ; and dismissing the more nebulous past, we
may, therefore, usher them into history with credentials of identity
which they have ever since sustained. Included, but never
a isorbed m the successive empires that have claimed the
sovereignty of Western Asia-Macedonian, Roman, Parthian
Byzantine, Tartar, Persian, and Turkish-they have proved a
thorn m the side of every ruling power. The famous Saladin (lit.
Salah-ed-Dm) of the Crusades, was, according to Abulfeda, a
Kurd, bo was Edrisi, the historian, who, when Sultan Selim I.
wrested these regions in battle from Shah Ismail, the first Sefavi
ving of Persia, in 1514, was appointed by the conqueror to organise
and administer the territory of his unruly countrymen. Over a
century later, in 1639 a.d ., a treaty between another Sultan and
another Shah, Murad IV. of Turkey and Sefi of Persia, esta
blished a frontier line between the two empires, substantially
identical with that which has ever since prevailed; and from this
period, therefore, dates the divided and, as a rule, in both cases
i usory allegiance of the Kurdish tribes. On either side of
the frontier, the subsequent history of the Kurds is obscure,
iliey are a people without a literature, and almost without a
iistory The tribal feeling was very strong amongst them, and
m the absence of any interference—for the best of reasons, fear-
on the part of the central power, individual chieftains acquired a
position that was little short of despotic independence. About
J jeais ago, m 1834, the Turks, under the capable lead of
veshid Mohammed Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. , set about destroying this system and
replacing it by Ottoman vilayets and valis in Turkish. Kurdistan:
while in I ersian Kurdistan, where the problem, because smaller,
^vas always less acute, the reigning dynasty, and particularly the
present Shah, have pursued the familiar Kajar policy of breaking
up e co esion and ruling families of the dangerous tribes, and
reasserting the authority of Teheran. At the present time,
lere ore, e Kurds, though addicted to outbreaks of lawlessness,