History has recorded their presence for 2000 years on the lofty plateau on the eastern border of Asiatic Turkey, between Armenia on the north and the fertile province of Mosul on the west. Doubtless, however, they had held their savage highlands for innumerable generations before the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. As now under the Turk, so through the periods of Assyrian and Median as well as of Persian supremacy, they had seen spread out at their feet the accumulations of peace and wealth, tempting their love of plunder. Well acquainted with the mountains among which they dwell, they can readily retreat where cavalry and artillery cannot reach them, and where, behind rocks and on lofty peaks, they are a full match for any trained soldiers who dare follow them. Before Kurdistan was subdued by the Turkish and Persian Governments, Beys or chiefs were the feudal rulers of the country ; their authority was based partly on hereditary descent, and partly on personal influence and character. Obedience to their commands, though voluntary, was nearly absolute. Since the subjugation of the provinces of Kurdistan, many of these Beys and their descendants have retained great influence with their followers. the war between Turkey and Russia, as well as during the Crimean war, the Turkish Government negotiated directly with the Beys for their services, including a stipu lated number of irregular cavalry. It was found, however, that such troops, indifferent as to the main results of the contest, and eager only for the spoils of battle, were easily panic-stricken, yet ever ready to violate the rules of civilised warfare by shooting defenceless prisoners who had laid down their arms. Kurds have to-day very much the same characteristics that they had 2500 years ago ; their manner of life is much the same now as then. They are now taking more to agriculture, but they are chiefly engaged in sheep farming and cattle-breeding. With their sheep, the proportion of male and female births is three-fifths and two fifths respectively. , They dislike manual labour ; they are treacherous ; like the Indians, they are fond of roving about from one part of the country to another ; like them, also, they are slow to adapt themselves to the restraints and discipline of a regularly-organized government. Several hundred
determined men would be enough to hold many of the passes of the Kurdish mountains, and put .a stop to commercial intercourse. Past experience has proved that the military expeditions of the Turks against the Kurds have generally been very barren of results. The difficulties of transport are very great ; the summers are short, the winters long and terribly severe, and the physical features of the country such that an enemy can readily avoid an invading army.
Nomado Kurd tribes occasionally occupy the elevated valley of Dasht-i-be-Daulat, N.W. of Mnstung, at the head of the Bolan pass. On the west of Saharawan, the country is held by pastoral tribes, the Sirpherra, and their branch the Rodani Kurd of the Dasht-i-be-Daulat ; Sher ward of Khad, and the Raisani of Dolai and Khanak. The Daslit-i-be-Daulat, in the northern part of Saharawan and west of the Bolan Hills, is about 15 miles in length and breadth. In spring it is covered with lovely flowers and grasses, and is then dotted with the toinan of the Kurd, who retire to Mery after the harvest of autumn, and then predatory bands of Kaka roam over the ground and attack travellers. The Kurd possess the Dasht-i-be-Daulat and Merv, also Tikari in Cutch Gandava. The Kurd of the Dasht-i-be Daulat are surmised to have come from the west in the train of some conqueror, and settled where they now are.
.Kurd occupy the S. part of Azerbijan. They are bravo horsemen, and on one occasion they drove the whole Russian cavalry off the field. The Kurds who inhabit the district of Khorasan from Nishabur up towards Astrabad along the northern frontier of Iran, had long been estab lished in this locality, and always constituted a principal portion of the forces of Khorasan.
In their wide distribution, the Kurd speak the Kurmanji between Mosul and Asia Minor and the Z070.1. ; the Baluchi, the Lur dialects, viz. Bashiari and Feili ; those of the Tats in the S.E. of the Caucasus, and of the Iron or Assetes in the same neighbourhood. —Rawlinson ; MacGregor, iv. p. 381; Arnzinius Vanzbery of Bokhara, p. 77; Sayce, ii. p. 83.