"كردستان والأكراد" [ظ‎‎٦] (١٢٢/١٢)

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About 6,500 Kurdish families live round it; they have been debased and
spoilt by contact with the surrounding Arabs, and retain few national
characteristics; they affect Arab dress and Arab customs; and their
correspondence is conducted in Arabic. Its importance lies in the fact
that it is the centre for the Tayy Arabs and the Dakshuri, Tamiki, and
other Kurds ; their chiefs are noted for the protection which they have
always extended in times of persecution to the Christians, who possess
seven villages in the surrounding country, mostly to the north of the
town. The Tayy Arabs, who number about 3,000 families, occupy 35
villages, chiefly to the south-west; all these Arabs owe allegiance to one
sheikh only, and are more than a match for the Kurds.
Other places of moderate importance in Northern Kurdistan are
Samsat on the Euphrates, Severek between Uriah and Diarbekr, and
Derek between Uriah and Mardin, Itas-el-‘Ain down in the plain, Challek
at the bend of the Tigris above Jezirat-ibn-‘Omar, and Sairt on the Bohtan
Su. None of these places, however, deserve special mention, being for
the most part only local centres for trade. The great drawback to all
commerce in the country is the lack of railways; the sole main line is
the Baghdad Railway, which only reaches Nimatli, 10 kilometres east of
Nisibin; a branch-line runs up from near Ras-el-‘Ain to Mardin, but it
goes no further; other sectors of the line, though commenced, remain
unlinished. Mardin is connected by a line of narrow gauge with Izzet
Pasha and Ba’ Dina, a village containing 30 Kurdish huts, and situated on a
high, well-wooded mountain to the west-south-west of Mardin ; other
incomplete decauvilles exist. These were all built by the German
engineers during the war, whose intention it doubtless was to extend
the system. Thus Kurdistan is linked up with Asia Minor by one main line
only, whereas with Mesopotamia and Southern Kurdistan on the other
side it is unconnected; internally, also, the country has hardly been opened
up at all. With these limits, therefore, commercial enterprise is necessarily
very restricted.
§ 3 .—Southern Kurdistan.
Southern Kurdistan’is that part of the country which runs roughly
from Lake Van along the east bank of the Tigris on the one side, and the
Persian hills on the other side, from Lake Urmiyah down to Mendali and
the Pusht-i-Kuh. Below Lake Urmiyah the main ridge changes to sand
stone and broadens out into “ a wide highland swell, the rolling home of
the Persian Kurds, rich in flocks and grain ” (Hogarth), in which the Lesser
Zab and the Diyala Shirwan rise. This country, which is the original
home of the Kurds" has yielded the first place in importance now to
* The modern Kurds are probably descendants of the Cordueni, who are described
by Pliny and Strabo as being a warlike, marauding people, practically independent
of any control; these latter are generally identified by commentators with the
Carduchi, who hampered the march of the Ten Thousand under Xenophon through the
mountains which lay to the south of Armenia and to the east of the Tigris (Xen.
A nab. hi. 5, iv. 1, v. 5, and vii. 8).