Kurdish people

Kurds (Kurdish: کورد, romanized: Kurd) or Kurdish people are an Indo-European and Iranian^[1][2][3] ethnic group indigenous to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans today's southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq and northeastern Syria.^[4][5]

There are exclaves of Kurds in Central Anatolia, Khorasan, and the Caucasus, as well as significant Kurdish diaspora communities in the cities of western Turkey, particularly Istanbul, and Western Europe, primarily in Germany. In 2017 The Kurdish population was estimated to be between 36.5-45 million.^[6]

Kurds
Kurd کورد

Total population
36.5–45 million[7] (Kurdish Institute of Paris, 2017 estimate.)
Turkey	est. 15-20 million[7]
Iran	est. 12 - 12 million[7]
Iraq	est. 8–8.5 million[7]
Syria	3–3.6[8][9]
Germany	1.5–2.5 million[10][11]
Turkmenistan	50,000[12]
Azerbaijan	180,000 - 4 million (inc. Ancestral)[12]
France	150,000 - 300,000[13]
Netherlands	100,000 - 210,000[14]
Sweden	83,600 - 115,600[15]
Russia	63,818 - 130,000[16]
Belgium	50,000[17]
United Kingdom	49,841 - 186,000[18][19][20]
Kazakhstan	46,348[21]
Switzerland	51,000[22]
Denmark	30,000[23]
Jordan	30,000[24]
Austria	110,000[25]
Greece	61,000[26]
United States	20,591[27]
Canada	16,315[28]
Finland	15,368[29]
Georgia	13,861[30]
Kyrgyzstan	13,200[31]
Australia	10,551[32]
Armenia	37,470 - 900,000 (inc. Ancestral)[33]
Languages
Kurdish In their different varieties: Sorani, Kurmanji, Pehlewani, Laki[34] Zaza, Gorani[35]
Religion
Predominantly Islam (Largely Sunni majority with a small Shia minority) with minorities of Yazidism and Alevism
Related ethnic groups
Other Iranian people

Kurds are one of the largest and most important ethnic groups in the Middle East. There are between about 60 million and about 80 million Kurds.^[36]: 19

Most of the Kurdish population lives in Kurdistan. Kurdistan is the area where Kurds live. Today, it is a border country with lands in the east and southeast of Turkey, in the north-west of Iran, in the north of Iraq and in the north-east of Syria.^[36]: 19 (Lands in Armenia and Azerbaijan also have small Kurdish populations.)^{[4][36]: 19, 21}

Languages

Many Kurds speak the Kurdish language. The two largest Kurdish dialects are Kurmanji Kurdish and Sorani Kurdish. The Kurds of Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur) and of Syrian Kurdistan(Rojava)speak Kurmanji. About half of Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) and Iraqi Kurdistan (Bashur) speak Kurmanji, while other Kurds there speak Sorani. Some Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan (Rojhelat) speak the Gorani Kurdish dialect, while others in Turkish Kurdistan (Bakur) speak Zazaki Kurdish.^{[4][36]: 26–27}

Lifestyles

Until the 20th century, most Kurds were nomadic people.^[36]: 23 The Kurds' economy had a close connection with pastoralism and animal husbandry.^[36]: 23

In the 21st century, nomadism is not common among Kurds.^{[36]: 23–24} Most Kurds now live in cities.^[36]: 27 In the 21st century, farming is the most important work in Kurdistan. Industrialization means that fewer Kurds work as farmers, and this has caused urbanization of the Kurdish population. In the past, Kurds were part of the Silk Road economic system. Trade routes form connections between different countries through Kurdistan.^{[4][36]: 24}

Some scholars make an argument that the meaning of the name was not an ethnonym at the time, because many different groups of nomads and pastoralists had the name "Kurds" during the Middle Ages.^[source?] However, other scholars make the argument that the name was not the name of lifestyle or economic system, such as nomadism or pastoralism, but the name of a population. This population shared a common character in linguistics, shared an area to live in, and shared a mythology.^{[37]: 3–4} Whether the people and groups who had the name "Kurds" thought that they were a common community before the 12th century is unknown.^[37]

History

Middle Ages

The word "Kurd" appears in early Islamic sources in Arabic and Tabari sources, meaning nomads, Shepherd or mountain dwellers — not the name of an ancient people.

Tabari's and Ibn al-Athir's texts use the word "Kurd" to refer to non-urban Iranian-speaking groups in the western Iranian plateau, not to refer to a historical or ethnic group. Linguistically, "Kurd" is a post-Islamic descriptive term that gradually became an ethnic name; no ancient pre-Sassanian or pre-Islamic document uses the word "Kurd" in an ethnic sense.

There are no Avestan or cuneiform inscriptions, petroglyphs, or texts that record a people called "Kurd".

Since 10th century, Arabic texts including al-Masudi's works, have referred to Kurds as a distinct linguistic group.^[38] From 11th century onward, the term Kurd is explicitly defined as an ethnonym and this does not suggest synonymity with the ethnographic category nomad.^[39]

20th century

After modern international borders came into existence after World War I, many Kurds went out of Kurdistan. They migrated to the large cities in the Middle East and to Western Europe.^[36]: 21 Since the Middle Ages, there have also been Kurdish communities in Cairo, Beirut, Damascus, and Aleppo.^{[36]: 20 [40]: 38} Since the Early Modern Period, there have also been Kurdish communities in Khorasan, a region covering modern north-eastern Iran and Afghanistan.^{[4][36]: 21}

Persecution in the Soviet Union

The Soviet Union also committed ethnic cleansing against Kurds by forcing them to migrate from the Caucasus to Central Asia. When the Soviet Union ended, the First Nagorno-Karabakh War between Armenia and Azerbaijan harmed most Kurds in the Caucasus.^[4][41]

Religions

The Kurds are a mostly Muslim people associated with Sunni Islam. Most Kurds are part of the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, but some Kurds are part of the Hanafi school. Sufism is also common among Kurds. There are also Kurds who are part of Shia Islam and Kurds who are part of Alevism. There are also Kurdish Jews and Yazidi people.^{[4][36]: 26}

Classical antiquity

In Classical antiquity, the most important deities of the Kurds' lands were Ahura Mazda and Mithra.^{[42]: 48–50} The most common religion was Zoroastrianism. Zoroastrianism was probably the state religion of the Achaemenid Empire. There are connections between the writings of Zoroastrianism and the Vedas, the Hindu writings of ancient India.^{[42]: 48–50}

Middle Ages

In the 7th century, Kurds had many different religious beliefs.^{[37]: 4 [42]: 48} There were Christians and Zoroastrians.^[37]: 4 There were also Kurdish Jews.^[42]: 48 Some sects among the Kurdish Christians and Jews had religious beliefs from Zoroastrianism and Mithraism in their religion.^{[42]: 48–50} There may have been Kurds among the Companions of the Prophet.^{[42]: 50–51}

Islamic conquests in the 7th century meant that most Kurds became Muslim in the 7th and 8th centuries.^[37]: 4 Most Kurds converted to Islam between the 7th and 9th centuries CE. Kurds who were not Muslim had to pay the jizya, a tax.^[37]: 4 Most of these were part of the Shafi'ite system of Islamic jurisprudence.^[37]: 4

While most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, there are also Kurds of many other religions and sects.^[42]: 48 There are Kurdish Jews in Iraqi Kurdistan and in Israel as well.^[36]: 25