Annotated Copy of Persia and the Persian Question by George Curzon, with Inserted Papers [‎395r] (792/1814)

efo "*’ *« M.
fp««bk ;*
“ f * " '"KiuSt
a.a
country
PSalI y a ^mitte,j
^actet
ath cre dential s i l "
L ^uded ; ^
that ha ™ claiJ'J
:n R °r- ^
■ u t,h ?y ta ve
dhe famous Sal a ii,|
ccordmg to Ab^,
°, when Sultan Selim [
h Ismail, the first § 4 i
the conqueror to orp®,
ily countrymen. Oven
.veen another Saltan d
11 d Sefi of Persia, eslm
T o empires, substantial;
prevailed; and from i
as a rule, in both cases
)es. On either
the Kurds is
, and almost wi
ong amongst them, ami
te best of reasons, fear-
ual chieftains
c independence,
der the capable
fcroying this
in Turkish Kurd* 1 '
•oblem, because sni» ®
sty, and parti^J 1
?ajar policy ofbr(
ie dangerous tn e >
At the F
utbreaks of
■esent
lawl®®*
Os
ftfCuAh
(XL
cuuy ^ k^> £p 7~2
Jx. i /ux-i-, tff ~nt »
THE NORTH-WEST AND WESTERN PROVINCES 551
U re, in both territories, more subject to discipline than at any
previous epoch of their history.
I am here more especially concerned with the Persian Kurds,
and I shall, therefore, omit any details that relate to the Turkish
Kurds only; though of what I have to say upon the
^ lgl ° former subject, there is scarcely anything that is not
language e q Ua iiy applicable to the Turkish side of the border.
The Kurds are illiterate, but bigoted Sunnis of the Shafei sect
(one of the four subdivisions of orthodox Mussulmans) ; bigoted,
not because they are, as is frequently supposed, fanatical by
temperament, but because, in Persia, they are brought into contact
with a Shiah people and dynasty whom they cordially detest and
despise. The root of the Persian Kurdish question, whenever it
becomes acute, is the religions hatred between Sunnis and Shiahs;
the root of the Ottoman Kurdish question is the religious hatred
between Mohammedans and Christians. Some of the more
Persianised Kurds are, however, Shiahs; whilst in some places of
the mountains are to be found communities belonging to the
peculiar Ali Illahi sect, who combine with a belief in the godhead
of Ali, certain strange ceremonies and esoteric doctrines of which
not very much is known . 1 The language spoken by the majority
of the Kurds is Kurmanju (sometimes called Kirdasi) which is
generally accepted as an old Persian patois, intermingled with
alien words. In Ardelan, however, and Kermanshah, what is
called the Gnran dialect is spoken, presenting an even greater
affinity to modern Persian.
1 Sir H. Rawlinson wrote of the Ali Illahis in vol. ix. of the Journal of the
B. G. S. (1839): ‘They believe in a series of successive incarnations of the
Redhead, amounting to 1001. Benjamin, Moses, Elias, David, Jesns Christ, Ali,
and his tutor Salman, a joint development; the Imam Husein and the Haft Tun
(Seven Bodies) are considered the chief of these incarnations. The Haft Tun
were seven Pirs or spiritual guides, who lived in the early ages of Islam, and
each, worshipped as the Deity, is an object of adoration in some particular part
of Kurdistan. Baba Yadgar was one of these. The whole of the incarnations
are thus regarded as one and the same person, the bodily form of the divine
manifestation being alone changed; but the most perfect development is sup
posed to have taken place in the person of Benjamin, David, and Ali. Ali is,
indeed, frequently invoked by them under the name of Daud or David; and there
are evident marks of Judaism in their creed. In the twelfth century Rabbi
Benjamin of Tudela appears to have regarded them as Jews. Their sacred place
is at Zardah on Mount Dalaku (near Zohab), and there their chief priest resides.
Vide also note by Sir H. R. to Rawlinson’s Herodotus, vol. i. p. 258; W. F. Ains
worth, Personal Becollections, vol. i. p. 381; and J. T. Bent, Scotch Geogr. Mag.
Feb. 1890.
V",
, , •