Kurdistan

Kurdistan is literally the “land of the Kurds,” a territory without an official state that is usually described as being located in southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, western Iran, and northeastern Syria, along with smaller swathes of territory in Azerbaijan and Armenia. The majority of the terrain is characterized by the steep plateaus and austere mountains of the Zagros and eastern Taurus Mountains. The actual territories that constitute Kurdistan have fluctuated over centuries, contracting and expanding in response to pressures from outside powers, including the Persians, the Arabs, and the Ottomans. The designation Kurdistan was first introduced by the Seljuks in the 12th century as a geographical term. Today, Kurdistan is the self-proclaimed nation-state of the Kurds, although not a recognized sovereign entity.

The Kurds are the descendants of various Indo-European tribes that migrated to the region as early as the second millennium BCE and eventually mixed with nomadic Semitic, Arab, Turkic, Persian, and native tribes. Their language belongs to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. There is no single, unified Kurdish dialect, with Kurmanji generally spoken in northern Kurdistan and Sorani spoken in southern Kurdistan. Within the two dialects, there is further subdivision into various, lesser spoken Kurdish dialects.

Current Kurdish population estimates vary due to state attempts at suppressing Kurdish nationalism and possible exaggeration of such numbers by nationalist-leaning intellectuals. A common estimate, however, is that there are approximately 25 million Kurds in the Middle East, with approximately 13 million in Turkey, 7 million in Iraq, 6 million in Iran, and 2 million in Syria. There is also a sizable Kurdish diaspora in the West.

The Kurdish people are divided along numerous clan and tribal lines, though most adhere to a common religion—that of Sunnā Islam. A small percentage are Shi'ite, while an even smaller number are members of other faiths, including Christianity.

The introduction of Islam into tribal Kurdish society in the 13th century further diversified and complicated tribal relations while also merging [Page 680]with the common practices of the time to produce a hybrid society based on tribalism and Islam.

Sufism, a form of Sunnī mystical Islam, was first introduced into Kurdistan in the 14th century in the form of the Qadiri order. Sufism denied materialism and was against the complex, rigid religious teachings of the time. Followers of the Qadiri order stressed piety and demonstrated the power of religion through self-mutilation and ecstatic trances. Another order of Sufism, that of the Naqshbandiya order, began to enjoy increasing popularity beginning around 1811, though it had already by that time established a presence in the region. Followers of the Naqshbandiya order believed in piety as best expressed through social activity and meditation.

Coinciding with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Sufism as expressed by the Naqshbandiya order began to play a vital role in the proliferation of nationalist ideas, but it was the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire that provided the conditions for religion to be the primary means of early nationalist expressions among Kurds. It was this movement that evolved into the contemporary Kurdish nationalist movement, which has counted among its leaders notable figures such as Mullah Mustafa Barzani and Jalal Talibani.

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