KURDISTAN, koor-cle-stan' (Persian, °land of the Kurds"), an extensive territory of western Asia, comprehending the greater part of the mountainous region which borders on the western side of the great plateau of Iran or Persia, and stretches westward till it overhangs the low plains of Mesopotamia on the southwest, and reaches the borders of the Turkish provinces of Diarbekir and Erzerum on the northwest. The surface is very moun tainous, and is traversed by lofty ranges with summits reaching above 10,000 feet in height, stretching northwest to southeast. The whole surface on the west of the Persian frontier is drained by the Tigris and the Euphrates and their tributaries. Unless Lake Van is consid ered as .partly within the territory, there are no lakes of any consequence. The mountains are covered with forests of oak and other hard timber. Many of the valleys are under regular culture, with corn-fields, orchards and vine yards. One of the most remarkable vegetables is manna, expressively called in Turkish Kudret had-vassiz, or the Divine sweet-meat, which is used as food. Fine horses and oxen are bred, and sheep and goats are kept in large numbers.
The Kurds are a stout, dark race, well formed, with dark hair, small eyes, wide mouth and a fierce look. Most of the men are armed, a using lances, sabres, daggers, muskets and pis tols. Many of the tribes are still nomadic. The language is of the same stock as the modern Persian. The great body of the Kurds are Mo hammedans. They care little for trade, although they send to Kirkuk, Hamadan, etc., gall-nuts, tobacco, honey, sheep-skins and cattle; obtain ing in return coffee, rice, leather and clothing, (chiefly cotton goods). Their allegiance to the Turkish sultan is but slight. The famous Sul tan Saladin was a Kurd. In the terrible massacres of Armenian Christians instigated and carried through by the Turkish government in 1914 and 1915, during the progress of the Great European War, the Kurds took an active and sinister part. It is very difficult to form even an approximate estimate of the whole Kurd population; the Turkish portion is sup posed to contain about 2,500,000, and the Per sian portion 400,000; but another estimate would give for these numbers 1,300,000 and 500,000, respectively.