"العراق والخليج الفارسي" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٠] (٨٦٢/٤٤٤)

PEOPLE
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325
Iraq there are four main forms of it which are by no means mutually
intelligible. The common Kurmanji dialect is spoken north of the
Great Zab both by Kurds and Yezidis; this has no literature. South
of the Great Zab two closely related Kurdish dialects are spoken, one
called Sorani in the Erbil province between the two Zabs, and the
other called Sulaimani Kurdish south of the Little Zab, which is
pre-eminently the language of Kurdish literature and the printed
word. A fourth dialect, Gorani, is spoken by the unorthodox com
munities of Sarlis, Kakais, and Shebeks (p. 329), and by some of
the southernmost Kurdish tribes such as Zangana and Bajlani.
The Arabic alphabet is used for Kurdish, though it is said that
the Latin suits it better.
In northern Iraq the Syriac language, derived from ancient
Aramaic, is spoken by the Christian communities; an east Syriac
dialect is used by the Chaldeans and Nestorians, and a west Syriac by
the Jacobites and Syrian Catholics. It would seem that most of these
people also speak Arabic or Kurdish.
The fourth language spoken in Iraq is Turki, which is the language
of the Turkoman communities of Mosul and Erbil provinces and is
said not to differ very greatly from Osmanli Turkish; it is written in
Arabic script. Jews speak Arabic, though Hebrew is now being
introduced.
Certain foreign languages are spoken by some individuals in the
towns, such as English in the Ashar quarter of Basra, and Persian
in Khanaqin, Karbala, Najaf, and as a commercial language in
Baghdad. Some Christians educated by the Dominican Mission at
Mosul may speak French.
Religion
In general terms four-fifths of the population are closely enough
related to be called Arab by race and language, and one-fifth might
be styled Iranian. But the only distinction to be felt in terms of
nationality or race in Iraq is that between Kurd and Arab. This is
expressed by the Kurdish proverb ‘A camel is not an animal, an Arab
is not a human being’, and its repartee ‘There are three plagues in the
world, the Kurd, the rat, and the locust’. Otherwise the fundamental
distinctions are those not of race but of religion, in which there is
a homogeneity that is more apparent than real. About 93 per cent,
of the people are Moslems, and Islam is the official religion of the
State. But the Moslems are divided between the mutually intolerant
Shia and Sunni sects, a division which is the most disturbing factor