The Dispersion of the Kurds in Ancient Times

G. R. Driver

doi:10.1017/S0035869X00149305

The Dispersion of the Kurds in Ancient Times

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011

G. R. Driver

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G. R. Driver: Affiliation:
Magdalen College, Oxford.

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The territory occupied by the Kurdish race in historic times seems to have been the district called by the Greeks Kardûchia, and by both Greeks and Romans Corduene or Gordiaea, and by the Syriac writers Qardū, whence the earliest Arabic authorities derived the name Qardā, the country bounded roughly on the north by Armenia, on the west by the river Euphrates, on the south by the Arabian desert, and on the east by the ancient kingdom of Media. Strabo, the Greek geographer, states that Armenia and Atropatene consisted of prosperous districts, but that the northern part was a mountainous country occupied by wild tribes, such as the Kyrtii, nomads and brigands dispersed over the whole of Armenia and extending eastwards over the Zagros mountains. More closely he defines the land of the Gordiaei, whom the earlier writers called Kardūchi, by locating it on the banks of the Tigris and by adding that one of its chief cities was Pinaka, the modern Finik, “a very strong fortress, having three hill-tops, each fortified with its own wall, so as to form as it were a threefold city; yet Armenians subjugated it and Romans took it by storm, although the Gordiaei were apparently good builders and skilled in siege-works, for which reason Tigranes so employed them.”

Type: Articles
Information: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 53 , Issue 4 , October 1921 , pp. 563 - 572

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0035869X00149305 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1921

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^{page 563 note 1} The root underlying these names seems to have been Gortu, of which the Armenians formed a plural Gortukh, Kurds, by adding the regular termination kh; from this the Greeks borrowed the word Καρδοχοι, retaining the termination of the Armenian plural, as heard in some form of Urarmenisch current in the days of Xenophon, and only assimilating -ukh to the familiar Greek termination -οχος. The same phenomenon also occurs in Xenophon in the case of a neighbouring tribe called by him the Τοχοι (Anabasis, iv, 4, 18Google Scholar; 6, 5; 7, 1; v, 5, 17), whom Stephanus of Byzantium states to have been called the Τοι by Sophænetus (Steph. Byz., s.v. Τοχοι; Sophæn., fragm. 4, in Müller's Fragmenta Historicorum Grœcorum, vol. ii, p. 75). Later the Armenian termination -kh was dropped and the Greek gentilic terminations -αος or -ηνς were added, forming Γορδιαος or Καρδυηνς, which thus passed over into Latin.

^{page 563 note 2} Strabo, , Geographica, xi, 13, p. 523Google Scholar, and xv, 3, 1; see also Simocatta, Theophylactus, Historiœ, ii. 10, 3.Google Scholar

^{page 564 note 1} Id. ib., xvi, 1, p. 747.

^{page 564 note 2} Id. ib., ii, 1, p. 26; xi, 14, pp. 527, 529; xii, 13, p. 532; xvi, 1, pp. 736, 739, 746.

^{page 564 note 3} Id. ib., xi, 12, p. 522. Ptolemæus located them at 75°/39° 40′ (Geographia, v, 12, 3Google Scholar; see also v, 12, 9).

^{page 564 note 4} Plinius, , Historia Naturalis, vi, 30, 118.Google Scholar

^{page 565 note 1} Philostorgius, , Historiœ Ecclesiaslicœ, iii, 7Google Scholar. where “Syria” is clearly an error for “Assyria”; this passage is copied in Callistus, Nicephorus, Historia Ecclesiastica, ix. 19.Google Scholar

^{page 565 note 2} Honorius, Julius, Cosmographia, B. 10.Google Scholar

^{page 565 note 3} Berossus, , Fragment No. 7 in Bibliotheca Grœcorum Scriptorum, vol. ii, pp. 501–2Google Scholar; Josephus, , Antiquitates, i, 3, 6Google Scholar; Eusebius, , Onomasticon, p. 208Google Scholar, s.v. Ararat, ; Chronicon (ed. Karst), p. 11Google Scholar; Epiphanius, , Adversus Hœreses, i, 1, 4Google Scholar, who calls it “the land of the Cardyei”; Die Schatzhohle (ed. Bezold), Syr. p. 98Google Scholar, Arab. p. 99; Khurdâdhbih, Ibn, Al-Masâlik wa-'l-Mamâlik (ed. de Goeje), pp. 76 and 245Google Scholar, who states that the ark came down, not on Mount Arârât, but on the Jabal Jûdî in Qardā; Dionysius of Telmaḥrê in Asseman, 's Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. ii, p. 113.Google Scholar

^{page 565 note 4} Epiphanius, , Adversus Hœreses, ii, 2, 82Google Scholar; Chronicon Pascale (ed. du Fresne), p. 31d.Google Scholar

^{page 566 note 1} Talmud, Babylonian, Bābâ Bathrâ, 91a.Google Scholar

^{page 566 note 2} “Primates Orientis,” in Asseman, 's Bibliotheca Orientis, ii, p. 548Google Scholar; Bar Hebræus (ib.), ii, p. 262; Thomœ Historia Monastica (ib.), iii, pt. i, p. 499; Amri et Ṣlîbâ, de Patriarchis Nestorianorum Commentaria (ed. Gismondi), p. 80Google Scholar. Another Syriac writer records that two forts had to be built to prevent Persian marauders crossing the frontiers and penetrating in Qardā and Arzûn and pillaging Naṣîbîn and Râs-ul-'Ain, the respective capitals of those two provinces (Wright, , Catalogue of Syriac Manuscripts at Cambridge, p. 1136, col. ii).Google Scholar

^{page 566 note 3} Al-Balâdhurî (c, A.D. 892) mentions the conquest of Qardā and Bâzabdâ by 'Iyâḍ ibn Ghanam in A.D. 640 (Al-Futûḥ, p. 176)Google Scholar, and Ibn-ul-Faqîh (c. A.D. 903) mentions both in a list of places in Jazîrah (Al-Buldân, in de Goeje, 's Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, p. 136).Google Scholar

^{page 566 note 4} Khurdâdhib, Ibn, op. cit., p. 95.Google Scholar

^{page 566 note 5} Id. ib., p. 251.

^{page 567 note 1} Al-Yaqûbí, , Al-Buldân (ed. de Goeje) in Bibliotheca Geographorum Arabicorum, vol. vii, p. 236.Google Scholar

^{page 567 note 2} Id. ib., p. 270, s.v. Aṣ-Ṣamiarah.

^{page 567 note 3} Id. ib., p. 270, s.v. Ḥulwân.

^{page 567 note 4} Id. ib., p. 275.

^{page 567 note 5} Rustah, Ibn, Al-A'lâq-un-NafîsahGoogle Scholar (ib.), vol. vii, p. 128.

^{page 567 note 6} Id. ib., p. 165.

^{page 567 note 7} Al-Mas'ûdî, , Murûj-udh-Dhahab (ed. de Meynard and de Courteille), vol. iii, p. 253.Google Scholar

^{page 567 note 8} Id. ib., vol. v, p. 231.

^{page 567 note 9} Id. ib., vol. iii, p. 253.

^{page 567 note 10} Id., At-Tanbîh wa'l-Ishrâf (ib.), vol. viii, pp. 88–91; elsewhere he mentions 'Alî ibn Dâ'ûd the Kurd as a prominent chief near the Jabal Jûdî in the land of Zauzân (or Zawazân) (id. ib., p. 54). Zawazân is described by Yâqût as “a fair province between the mountains of Armenia, Khilâṭ, Adharbaijân, Diyârbakr, and Mauṣil, of which the inhabitants are Armenians, although there are also Kurdish families there”, in which he certainly seems to underestimate the Kurdish population (Mu'jam-ul-Buldân, ii, 957Google Scholar, s.v. Zawazân).

^{page 568 note 1} Al-Istakhrî, , Mas'alik-ul-MamâlikGoogle Scholar (ib.), p. 283.

^{page 568 note 2} Id. ib., p. 103.

^{page 568 note 3} Id. ib., pp. 125–6.

^{page 568 note 4} Id. ib., p. 137. Ibn Ḥauqal (c. A.D. 978) also mentions the city of Kurd (Al-Masâlik Wa'l-Mamâlik, ib., pp. 182, 196), but states on the contrary that it was very fertile (id. ib., pp. 197, 214). Elsewhere Al-Istakhrî records that the chief of the Kurds in this district, by name Azârmard ibn Khûshâdb, rebelled, but was defeated by the Sultan and fled to Umân, where he died; the amîr who succeeded him was Al-Ḥusain ibn Ṣâliḥ, and the government of the district remained in his hands and in those of his descendants until the time of 'Amr ibn ul-Laith, who deprived them of it and transferred it to Sâsân ibn Ghazwân, who was also a Kurd and in whose family it remained until Istakhrî's own time (op. cit., p. 145).

^{page 568 note 5} Id. ib., p. 145.

^{page 568 note 6} [Istakhrî, ], Oriental Geography (ed. Ouseley), p. 83.Google Scholar

^{page 568 note 7} Id. ib., p. 171.

^{page 568 note 8} Id. ib., p. 92.

^{page 569 note 1} Ḥauqal, Ibn, op. cit., pp. 185–7Google Scholar. He also mentions a Qariyat-ul-Akràd or “Village of the Kurds” in the middle of the district of Isdâbâdh in Khurâsân, (op. cit., p. 331).Google Scholar

^{page 569 note 2} Al-Muqaddasî, , Aḥsan-ut-TaqâsîmGoogle Scholar (ib.), p. 277.

^{page 569 note 3} Yâqût, , Mu'jam-ul-Buldân (ed. Barbier de Meynard), pp. 263, 410Google Scholar, who is perhaps only copying from Ibn Ḥauqal, as quoted above.

^{page 569 note 4} Id. ib., pp. 263–4.

^{page 569 note 5} Id. ib., p. 479.

^{page 569 note 6} Id. ib., p. 290.

^{page 570 note 1} Id. ib., p. 92.

^{page 570 note 2} Id. ib., pp. 128, 479–80.

^{page 570 note 3} Id. ib., p. 158.

^{page 570 note 4} Id. ib., p. 233.

^{page 570 note 5} Id. ib., p. 246.

^{page 570 note 6} Id. ib., p. 294.

^{page 570 note 7} Id. ib., p. 311.

^{page 570 note 8} Id. ib., p. 335; Al-Balâdhurî, , Futûḥ-ul-Buldân (ed. de Goeje), p. 310 ( = 358).Google Scholar

^{page 570 note 9} Yâqût, , op. cit., p. 349.Google Scholar

^{page 570 note 10} Id. ib., pp. 356–8.

^{page 570 note 11} Id. ib., p. 412.

^{page 570 note 12} Id. ib., p. 466.

^{page 570 note 13} Id. ib., p. 504.

^{page 570 note 14} Id. ib., p. 51.

^{page 570 note 15} Id. ib., p. 52.

^{page 570 note 16} Id. ib., p. 123.

^{page 570 note 17} Id. ib., p. 76.

^{page 570 note 18} Id. ib., p. 210.

^{page 570 note 19} Id. ib., p. 219.

^{page 570 note 20} Id. ib., p. 228.

^{page 570 note 21} Id. ib., p. 516.

^{page 570 note 22} Id. ib., p. 404.

^{page 570 note 23} Id. ib., p. 594.

^{page 570 note 24} Id. ib., p. 115.

^{page 571 note 1} Id. ib., p. 240.

^{page 571 note 2} Id. ib., p. 524.

^{page 571 note 3} Mustaufî, , Nuzhat-ul-Qulûb (ed. Le Strange), p. 76.Google Scholar

^{page 571 note 4} Id. ib., pp. 105–7.

^{page 571 note 5} Baṭâṭah, Ibn, Voyages (ed. Defrémery and Sanguinette), vol. ii, pp. 22–3.Google Scholar

^{page 571 note 6} Id. ib., vol. ii, p. 97.

^{page 572 note 1} Id. ib., vol. ii, p. 141.

^{page 572 note 2} Outside Kurdistân the Kurds did not roam far afield. Ibn-ul-Athir speaks of Kurds in Syria, whom the governor of Aleppo summoned to his aid in A.D. 1082 or 1083 to repel the onset of the Saljûqî Tutush (Kâmil, x, 82)Google Scholar, and twenty years later he speaks of a settlement of Kurds living peaceably with their Arab neighbours along the banks of the Khâbûr in A.D. 1101 or 1102 (Kâmil, x, 236)Google Scholar; Ibn Khaldûn (A.D. 1332–1406), in his History of the Berbers, mentions the presence of Kurds in Morocco (vol. iii, p. 413), and Auliyâ, the Turkish traveller, came upon some colonies of them on the northern shores of the Black Sea in the seventeenth century. It should be added that the early presence of Kurds in Syria is attested by Ḥiṣn-ul-Akrâd or “the Fortress of the Kurds”, a stronghold on an almost inaccessible height in the Lebanon.

^{page 572 note 3} See Le Strange, , The Lands of the Eastern CaliphateGoogle Scholar and Mesopotamia and Persia under the Mongols.

^{page 572 note 4} About £1,000,000 in English money.

^{page 572 note 5} About £100,750 in English money.

^{page 572 note 6} Mustaufî, , op. cit., pp. 105–7.Google Scholar

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