512 



C U R D I S T A N. 



Govern 



meat. 



Iftu-distaij. with the children and household utensils. The men are 

 V " P ""Y"™"»' generally well mounted, and take great care of their hor- 

 ses, of which there is here an admirable breed, much 

 esteemed for their size, beauty, and activity. In the 

 management of these, as in that of their arms, the Curds 

 are understood to excel : their principal weapon is the 

 lance. The women ride either on horses or on oxen. 

 The children can suffer little in this migratory sort of 

 life, being brought up very hardy, and accustomed to 

 go almost naked even in the coldest weather. In some 

 of the parts which have already received our more par- 

 ticular notice, there is to be observed somewhat of a 

 more stationary manner of living. That division of the 

 territories of Ardelan, which extends in the direction 

 of Kella Shah Khanee, is peopled by a tribe named 

 Gheshkee, who are honoured by the Curds as the most 

 expert and daring robbers of their nation. That tor- 

 ture may not induce them to betray their accomplices, 

 the people of this tribe are habituated to pain from their 

 earliest infancy, being beaten so unmercifully when 

 children, that their bodies, in course of time, become 

 almost insensible to outward feeling. The rugged dis- 

 trict of the Lower Curdistan, situated between Sarak- 

 poola and Solymania, is also noted as the habitation of 

 one of the most savage of the Curdish tribes. 



The Curds possessing a wild and inaccessible coun- 

 try, have never been completely subdued by any of the 

 great neighbouring states, but continue to live under 

 the rule of a number of independent princes, who go- 

 vern th«ir subjects as absolutely as either the King of 

 Persia or the Grand Seignior. According to the account 

 given of them by Niebuhr, who travelled in these coun- 

 tries in 1769, they are subject in their mountains to a sort 

 of feudal government, similar to that wheih is observed 

 among the Druses. They are for the most part tribu- 

 taries, at least in appearance, to the Porte, but they 

 pay little respect to the orders of the Sidtan or of his 

 deputies. The wandering tribes in the vicinity of Bay- 

 azid, Van, Khoonoos, Moosh, Betlis, &c. pay no tribute 

 at all to the Turkish government ; but in cases of emer- 

 gency they furnish the pachas with certain bodies of 

 horse, equipped and maintained at their own expence. 

 The most powerful of the Curdish chiefs are the Wal- 

 lees of Ardelan and Solymania, of whom the former, 

 though he condescends for the preservation of peace, 

 to pay an annual tribute to the king of Persia, is in all 

 other respects completely independent. He has the 

 power of life and death over his vassals, whom, how- 

 ever, he governs more as a patriarch than as a tyrant. 

 He is said to be the lineal descendant and representa- 

 tive of the great Salahadeen, and holds his court at Sen- 

 na, his capital, 60 miles from Hamadan, and 77 from 

 Kermanshaw. The governor of Solymania holds in a 

 similar manner of the pacha of Bagdad. At the period 

 of the late troubles, so much was the usual order of 

 authority set aside here, that a creature of the Curdish 

 chief was advanced to the chair of his superior, which 

 had been previously vacated in consequence, in a 

 great measure, of his vigorous and spirited proceed- 

 ings. 



The Curds in their different tribes are proud of their 

 descent, and fond of tracing the families of their chiefs 

 to the most fabulous ages. In this respect they differ 

 from their neighbours the Turkmans, also a wandering 

 and pastoral people, who pay no respect to nobility or 

 antiquity of extraction. Instead too, like them, of gi- 

 ving a portion with their daughters whom they bestow 

 in marriage, they receive a premium for them. But 

 what is to those in their vicinity the most offensive line 



of distinction between them and a people with whom Curdistan. 

 in the main they agree as to their modes of life, is, that '— " i — J 

 the Curds are every where considered to be addicted 

 to theft and robbery. On this account they are much 

 dreaded in the neighbourhood of Aleppo and Antioch, 

 where, under the name of " Bagdashlia", they occupy 

 the mountains to the East of Beelam, as far as near 

 Kles, their number in this pachalic and in that of Da- 

 mascus exceeding 20,000 tents and huts. Their tribes 

 taken altogether are estimated to contain more than 

 ] 40,000 men capable of bearing arms. 



The Curds dress in a manner different from either 

 the Persians or Turks. They speak also a language 

 of their own. In this language there are three distinct 

 dialects. It is said neither to have the aspirations or 

 the gutturals of the Arabic, nor to resemble the Persi- 

 an : in which case it is most probably an original lan- 

 giiage. Volney conjectures, that a knowledge of this 

 tongue, considering the antiquity of the people by 

 whom it is spoken, and that they are related to the 

 Medes, Assyrians, Persians, and even the Parthians, 

 might throw some light on the ancient history of these 

 countries. 



The state of the Curds, as to mental cultivation, is Education 

 very deficient. They are seldom taught to read or a "d reli- 

 write. In respect to religion, the majority of them are S 10 "* 

 reputed to be Mahomedans of the Soone sect ; but they 

 trouble themselves little about religious opinions or rites. 

 Several of them, distinguished by the name of Yardia, 

 worship Shartan, or Satan, according to the ancient sys- 

 tem of the good and evil principles, which has been so 

 prevalent in the Diarbekr, and about the frontiers of 

 Persia. There are among them also Armenians, Jaco- 

 bites, and Nestorian Christians. Indeed every where 

 throughout Curdistan, there are many towns and villa- 

 ges entirely inhabited by persons of the latter persua- 

 sion, who have their priests and bishops, and are in ge- 

 neral an industrious people. The Gheshkee, though 

 thieves and robbers by profession, are slaves to the most 

 abject superstition. Of this the following is an exam- 

 ple. There have been collected at Kella Shah Khanee 

 the ruins of the castle of Shah Khan, a distinguished 

 Ameer in the court of Chosroes Purviz, a few loose stones 

 for the purpose of marking the abode of a peer ghaib, 

 or invisible saint. On one of these stones it is usual, 

 when any person belonging to the neighbouring tribes 

 is unwell, to place a piece of bread steeped in oil or 

 butter, with the view of propitiating the saint, and in- 

 ducing him to recover the patient, which it is concei- 

 ved in these circumstances he seldom fails to do. 



There are among the Curds few of the means for 'the 

 prosecution of any considerable commerce. The fine 

 timber produced in the oak forests of Ardelan being • 

 made into rafts, is floated down the Zab into the Tigris. 

 The gall-nuts, of which they likewise yield abundance, 

 are, as an article of trade, exported to India. To the 

 north of Kerkook, likewise, in the vicinity of Mendeli, 

 there are naphtha pits, which yield an inexhaustible 

 supply of that useful commodity. It is thence distri- 

 buted over all the neighbouring country. This sub- 

 stance is an excellent substitute for pitch. The bottoms 

 of most of the vessels which navigate the Euphrates 

 and the Tigris are covered with it, and it is also used 

 by the natives in their lamps instead of oil. 



The circumstances and national character of the 

 Curds appear to have undergone little change even from 

 the remotest times. They are supposed to be the same 

 people who are mentioned by Xenophon under the de- 

 nomination of the Carduchai, and whom he states to 

 3 



