The Kurds; History and Culture

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Jemal Nebez The Kurds; History and Culture
Jemal Nebez
THE KURDS

Honoured guests and participants,
Good evening and a warm welcome,
Our subject is the history and culture of the Kurds. I would like to say beforehand, that the Kurds do not only have a very long history, but also a very moving and complicated one as well as a correspondingly rich culture. 
Therefore, I ask you to be understanding as I can do no more in one hour than give you a brief outline.

Today the Kurds are about 40 million. Their homeland is called Kurdistan, which means “country of the Kurds”. 
Kurdistan is not the name of a country or state, but rather, a land which in the 20th century was obligatorily divided among five states (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and the Soviet Union). After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the beginning of the 1990`s, the Soviet part of Kurdistan (“red Kurdistan”) became a part of Azerbaijan and Armenia. 
The Kurds are today the largest stateless territorial nation in the world.

Kurdistan extends from the Caucasus to the Mediterranean Sea and from there to the Gulf. A part of it lies in Mesopotamia, which is regarded as the “cradle of humanity”. 
In this region, high cultures such as Mithraism or the Sun Cult already existed thousands of years ago. There was Buddhism; there was Mazdaism, the religion of the Zoroastrians which dedicated itself to the relation between good and evil as a dualism of the nature of life. There was also the religion of Mani or Manichaeus, i.e. Manichaeism, which symbolically transmitted the dualism of nature into the existence of light and darkness. There was (and still is today) Judaism, Christianity, and also Islam in Kurdistan. 
In the 19th century there were also many Kurds who converted to the Bahai-religion.
The origin of this religion comes from Babism, which was established by the Persian Shiite priest Ali Mohammadi Shirazi (1819 – 1850). Shirazi was also called Bab, which takes its reference from the Arabic word for “door “(bab) and from the fact that Shirazi understood himself as the “door between God and the humans”. 

Through Bahaollah (1817 – 1892) Babism later became the Bahai-Religion. 
World peace and distance from politics are the basis of this, in the Islamic world, often disputed religion. Enough concerning the religions. What about the peoples who lived in this “cradle of humanity”? 
Here I name only for example the Elamites, Hittites, Hurrites, Medes, Mittanis, Karduchoi, Corduenes, Sassanides, Assyrians, Greeks, peoples who either originated in that outstanding part of the world or invaded it. 
The autochthon Kurds shared these cultures and the wealth of their culture is essentially founded thereupon, as will be shown here.

We can divide the history of Kurdistan into two periods, into pre-Islamic time and that after the advent of Islam. The arrival of Islam in Kurdistan and in Iran in the 7th century after Christ was a world-changing event for the region. Consider this for a moment: Islam came to this region in the 7th century after Christ, and six centuries after that, in the 13th century to be exact – there was another important event, the Mongol-Turkish invasion, occurring throughout Kurdistan down to Baghdad. The Mongol-Turkish invaders, when they came, took over Islam en bloc, and – what is quite important – they also took on Arabic and Persian as a religious and ruling means of communication. 
Apart from there being a new Islamic ruling class, supplied by the ethnic newcomers to the region, in the cultural-religious
sense there were no major changes following the Mongol-Turkish invasion. And so, despite the Mongol- Turkish invasion, it is reasonable to assume that the cultural-religious development of the Kurds on all levels splits in two segments, the time before the arrival of Islam and the time after that.

In pre-Islamic time, there were the already mentioned variety of religious ideas; Mithraism or Sun Cult, Buddhism, Mazdaism and Manichaeism, Judaism and Christianity, whereby Mazdaism and Manichaeism carried the most weight at the time of the arrival of Islam.
There was Mithraism all over the world in the early times of humanity, and relics of this sun cult tradition are correspondingly found everywhere. 
When people ask God to fulfil a wish, they turn their head subconsciously towards the sky in the direction of the sun. It is this way everywhere. In the Kurdish culture, these relicts of Mithraism are undoubtedly very clear. The Kurdish flag, which became the official flag of Kurdistan when the Republic of Kurdistan was established in its capital Mehabad in 1946, carries the sun in its middle, a contemporary example of how significant the sun is to the Kurds. Worth mentioning as well, is that the colours red/yellow/green together represent the national colours of the Kurds.

Based upon a years-long scientific preoccupation with Kurdish mythology, I can say that the sun, moon and stars have a special value in Kurdish mythology. In this context, we can see also that Kurds engaged in astronomy as well as mathematics and science quite early.

There were several moon and star observatories in Kurdistan. The best known was located on the mountain Gilazarda in the vicinity of Sulaimani. Those interested can read an article about this observatory in the periodical of the German Morgenländische Geselllschaft (no. 122 of the year 1972) which I wrote together with the well known German astronomer
Professor Wolfhard Schlosser. Mazdaism and Buddhism emerged at about the same time, around 6 centuries before Christ. Since Zoroaster was an Iranian (if not a Kurd), Mazdaism could easily spread in Kurdistan. The many temples and monuments in numerous places (especially in the region of Kirmashan in East Kurdistan) give witness to this until today.

The religion of Zoroaster is based on a Trinity: “Think positively, talk positively, and act well”. To be able to identify with this Trinity, a person must reject “lies and deception”1. According to Zoroaster, there are two powers in the world, the power of good and the
power of evil, and it is never clear which power will win in the struggle between them. If the people stand on the side of good, or are part of the “army of the righteous”, the good will be successful. The case will be the opposite and the power of evil will succeed if people stand on the side of evil. Kurdish-Iranian dualism is unlike Semitic dualism. In the Semitic
religions, in Christianity, Judaism and Islam, God himself created evil (the power of evil); and God (or good) will always win in the end. This is not so with Zoroaster. It depends rather on how people behave. If people stand on the side of good, God (Ahura-Mazda, or Hurmiz with the Kurds) will win. The contrary will happen if people choose evil, then evil (Ahriman, or Harmin with the Kurds) will rule.

The Buddhist religion began in Asia in the 6th century B.C. and thereafter soon came to Kurdistan. The religious leader Sadr Harta, with the surname “Buddha” (560 – 480 B.C.) was raised in a very wealthy and influential family in a city near Nepal. He left his family early and gave up wealth and power. He proclaimed the renouncement of the world, including avoidance of alcohol and savoury meals, and indecency. Buddha propagated the love of all living beings. He forbid the killing of any animals or birds. It should be noted here that the Kurds today still do not regard birds as animals. In my opinion, this has an
ancient religious connection. In Kurdish mythology, the highest being at the beginning of creation is represented in the shape of a bird, and the bird as a symbol for the supernatural is in many different ways still anchored in the Kurds today.

Buddha not only forbade the killing of any living being, including animals and birds, influenced by Zoroastrism and/or Mazdaism, he also told people not to lie, to be honest. Theft belonged among the greater sins. Influenced by Hinduism, Buddha believed in the transmigration of the souls. The interpretation of Buddhists that Buddha “son of God” was born perfectly pure, as Jesus Christ through Mary, shows the
influence that Buddhism had on the later Christian religion, but also on many Kurdish-syncretist religions, like Ahl-i Haqq, which later, through a concrete example, I will bring to light.

Zoroaster lived six centuries before Christ. Mazdaism was therefore already a rather old religion when the prophet Mani developed Manichaeism. Mani was initially Christian with religious intuition and declared himself as a prophet in the year 242 A. D. Unlike Zoroaster and Mazdaism, Mani did not speak about good or bad, but rather of light and darkness. Light is the soul, and is pure. Darkness is matter, and is dirty.
When a living being dies, its soul goes into the sky, and the matter – which is bad – into the earth. In the being of each person, there are two strains, the pure and the unclean. For people to cleanse themselves, they must die, and when people die, eventually there will be no one on earth; there will be only souls and they will be pure. 

Therefore Mani was against the institution of marriage and of children being born. So that mankind will end and in this way cleanse itself. When Mani started to spread his religion in Kurdistan, Christianity already existed there. Mani lived in the 3rd century after Christ. When his religion came to Kurdistan there were many Kurds who were Christians. This is confirmed by the old Aramaic sources, among them Mar Mari who was a monk in Urfa and who died in 226 A.D. His memoirs were even translated into the German language in the second part of the last century.

Furthermore, Judaism existed in Kurdistan at that time, in the sense that many banished Jews came to Kurdistan. In historic documents (among them the old testament) reference is made to the country of the Medes. 

The Medes are regarded as the ancestors of the Kurds and the praise you find in the old testament to the Medes can also be regarded as one for the Kurds. It is interesting that there are numerous hypotheses about the origin of the Kurds. They extend from mythical beliefs (i.e that the Kurds came forth from a mythical connection between spirits and the servants of King Salomon) to a range of politically bound opinions (i.e that the Kurds origins are Arabic or Turkish). If one earnestly wants to understand the genealogy of a people one must study its language, history and all the archaeological remnants of this people. The strongest hypothesis for the Kurds’ origins leads back to the Medes. The most outstanding proponent of this theory was the internationally renowned Russian orientalist and Kurdish expert Vladimir Minorsky (1877 – 1966). My own linguistic researches, which I published in Germany in the 1970`s in Kurdish and in German, came to the same conclusion, namely that there is undoubtedly a connection between the Medes and the Kurds. 

The same connection is witnessed to this day by old traditional names referring to ancient geographical sites in Kurdistan, for example Amed (the original name of the city Diyarbekir), Amedi, Amoude. It is to be noted that the letter A in this case refers to Ava, Avah(y)i (place, house, settlement). And if the Kurds are not the descendants of the Medes but are the descendants of the old Hurrites (as some scientists think, namely Egon von Eickstedt and, nowadays, Mehrdad R. Izady), they nevertheless lived together with the Jews in the empire of the Medes, in a land which the Jews had turned to for protection and which - after the Medes had vanished - was referred to as Kurdistan. And not only in ancient times did Jews live in this region. Many still lived there in the 20th century, before the foundation of Israel, where they then migrated to. They are the so called Kurdish Jews as they tend to settle together, sometimes in quite large numbers. Even today these persons of Jewish belief and citizens of Israel culturally identify 
themselves with the Kurds and even say of themselves; “Ana Kurdi” 
(Hebrew, meaning “I am a Kurd”).

Honoured guests, dear participants, 
When Islam came to Kurdistan there were already a lot of religions not yet mentioned, notably the Kurdish syncretistic religion. They are religions that combine very old mythical ideas with elements of the before mentioned religions. These Kurdish syncretistic
religions differ from each other concerning some of their content and rites. What they have in common is that they logically connect and arrange a varying host of old beliefs yet do not fuse them. This is what is meant when we talk about syncretism. You can’t talk of mixed religions in this case because in a mixed religion the elements are much more intertwined, so that they can only be recognised with difficulty, if at all. As a comparison to a syncretistic religion we can take this bunch of flowers here. There is a yellow blossom, one is red, one is white, and there are the green leaves.

Each component is special, but altogether they form a bouquet. The bouquet is what is syncretistically new. If one separated the blossoms and the leaves from each other and even tore them apart and then accumulated these components, that would be a mixture. The degree of a mixture can differ. One may be able to recognise some of the original components, otherwise one can not speak of a mixture. Nevertheless, the difference between what syncretism is, and what a mixed religion is, is still more basic and more substantial.

 In Syncretism the variety remains but something new emerges as well. This is in contrast to what happens when a mixed religion emerges. In that case the variety invariably decreases. A feature of the Kurdish religions is that they are syncretistic, and that is one reason why the Kurdish culture is so rich, why the Kurdish culture is inherently a pluralistic culture.

Islam since it came to Kurdistan in the 7th century A.D. has undoubtedly formed and enriched the Kurdish syncretistic religions in varying manners. Here are some examples. The “Yazidis” (Ezidis) are often called “devil worshippers” by outsiders. But that is a malicious discounting. Actually it is a syncretistic religion that has preserved many elements of Mithraism and Manichaeism. When Yazidis perform their religious service they turn themselves in the direction of the sun. That is a mithraistic tradition. Yazidis say that each person is “his own dark shadow (devil)”, which corresponds to Manichaeism and the idea that every living being consists of a light, pure soul (“good”), as well as of unclean matter (“bad”). When the Yazidis celebrate Good Friday, which they do – and which can be witnessed by any scholar of religion – they follow a Christian tradition. When Yazidis organise like Kurdish dervishes and perform their well-known trance dances then they perform what can be called a Kurdish Islamic cult. 

Little to no credit has been given to the Kurds and their culture thus far. As the riches of this
culture are seen now, the sad amount of past discounting and discrimination becomes clear. The Alevis are considered to be followers of Ali, who was a Muslim caliph and yet this is an incorrect interpretation. Following a similar logic, the Yazidis
became followers of the Yazid, who was a son of the Muslim caliph Muawiyah. This is a folk etymology, which is only based upon the resemblance in sound. Using this same logic some Arabs think “Shakespeare” was originally an Arab and was called “Shaikh Zubair”. As a matter of fact, the Yazidis call themselves Ezidi (and not Yazidi), and this should be taken seriously. “Ezd” means “God” (or angel) in Kurdish and “Ezdi” correspondingly means believer in God (and not devilworshipper).

In my seminar titled “The Yazidis Are No ‘Devil-Worshippers’” which I held at the University of Bremen in May 1990, I explained in detail how the phonetic resemblance between the Kurdish expression “Sha-tan” and the originally Semitic word “Shaitan” (in Hebrew meaning ”satan”) led to another grave misunderstanding. The Kurdish “Sha-tan” means “with the body of an angel” and has nothing to do with the devil. Another confusion emerged concerning the name of the Yazidis’ most holy figure “Taus-e Malak”, which was translated
literally, by taking the present day meaning of “Taus” in the 
Kurdish language, i. e. “peacock”. Most probably the word “Taus” is derived from the Greek and is related to the word Zeus and Theos, alluding to the meaning God. Accordingly Tause Malak is God’s Angel. And this is how the Yazidis themselves see Taus-e Malak.

How the Yazidis/Ezidis reacted to the twisting of their religious beliefs by onlookers, how they adjusted to that and reinterpreted that in turn, cannot be observed here and now. Instead, we must consider the similar circumstances of the Alevis. Due to total ignorance or because of politically obscure motivations, the Alevis are sometimes interpreted as descendants of Ali, the fourth Islamic caliph. 

At other times they are interpreted as “pseudomuslims”. And sometimes they are linked to the racist ideology of Mustafa Kemal (“Atatürk”). I saw an “essay” expounding that view from the Ethnological Institute of the FU – Berlin. Miserable science! It is astonishing that the level of Kurdology in Germany which was the homeland of Kurdology until the Second World War has sunk to the point where such pseudo-science is possible. 

Many masters and doctoral dissertations at German universities are so tendentious that one knows when reading them, where and/or in which organisational contexts the authors have posts or will have posts, often at the “German Orient- Institute” in Hamburg. Whoever wants to understand the belief of the Alevis, must see it in the context of the other syncretistic religions in Kurdistan. Alevi has as little to do with Ali as the Ezidis (Yazidis) have to do with Yazid. According to extensive research, the term Alevi refers to the power of the fire which is a symbol of light in the Kurdish culture. 

The Kurdish word “halav/hilav” means “steam of cooking water” or “tip of the
fireflame”. The Alevis have little to do with Ali and all the more with halav/hilav as the Alevis regard fire as holy, as do other Kurds, who in general, highly value the sight of fire. It is their custom not to extinguish a fire or candle without naming God and/or to apologise. By the way, it was the Kurdish word “halav/hilav” that as “alev” became part of the Turkish language, and not the other way round as Turks, of course, would have it. Even the original meaning of the Kurdish “hilav/halev” (tip of the fireflame) remained after it had been taken into the Turkish language.

There are also some misunderstandings regarding the Ahl i-Haqq (people of the truth), also called Kakayi or Yarsan. It is said, that they are “Aliollahi” (Aliworshippers), and as such are classified as pseudomuslims. The fact is that the God of the Ahl i- Haqq is not Ali but Sultan Sahak. It is said that he was given birth by a Kurdish maiden and as in the case of Mary it had been an immaculate conception. Once while sleeping under a pomegranate tree, a kernel of fruit fell into her mouth, because a bird had nibbled the fruit directly over her and had made the kernel fall.

In many ways we can see that these religions, which until today exist in Kurdistan – the Ezidis, the Alevis, Shabak, Haqqa, the Ahli-Haqq (or Kakayi or Yarsan) – all consist of various elements and have established new beliefs, as well as having various basic similarities among them. They all regard God as the Creator, who alone rules. He is monotheistic and omnipresent.

Nevertheless this God does not rule directly, but rather through his seven assistants, who are responsible for different regions or departments. There is a super assistant or super angel who commands the other angels among whom is a female angel. In all these religions, the existence of a devil is denied and the human himself is regarded as his or her own “devil”. In addition, the Buddhist idea of the transmigration of souls is part of the Kurdish syncretistic religions, in as much as the divine being from time to time appears through the incarnation of its souls. Moreover, all mythical representations of these religions are connected with certain places in Kurdistan. Last but not least: song and music belong to all the ceremonial traditions in these religions. They have a place in all religious events in all of the Kurdish syncretistic religions, and what is also very important, along with song and music, both women and men participate in these events. Especially on the part of oriental Christians and Muslims, these various religious events became discredited as “orgiastic meetings” because both sexes participate. In comparison to Islam, which stresses the value of praying and fasting, all Kurdish syncretistic religions regard the relations between people and helping fellow man as more important than fasting and praying.

All Kurdish syncretistic religions have, to a certain extent, that kernel of Kurdish culture in common which we have just described, and all confronted Islam in the seventh century. Islam came with the sword and through battle. In the 7th century, Kurdistan was part of the Sassanidic Empire, a powerful empire, which stood in opposition to the Roman Empire. 

When the Islamic Arabs came out of the desert, they had no other weapons than the sword. The Sassanidic army had bows and arrows. Although the Arabs were fewer in number and on unfamiliar ground, they could not be beaten. The Arabs were able to bring the Sassanidic Empire to a fall. 

They were able to occupy the capital of the empire, Tisafoun (near Baghdad), and therefore to enter Kurdistan. Until today, the boundary of Kurdistan is near Baghdad. By the way, the name Baghdad is not Arabic but rather a Kurdish-Iranian word. It is derived from “Bagadata”, which means town “given by God”. “Bag” means God (as in Russian which is also an Indo-European language). The first two syllables of the word “Bagadata” relate to God, the third (data) refers to the Kurdo-Iranian root “dan”, which makes Bagadata/Baghdad to a “place given by God”. The Turks have also taken the word “bag” into their language, but they changed it to “bey” with the meaning of “gentleman” or “master”.

When the Arabs came to Kurdistan and Iran their first goal was to spread Islam. They were successful although their weapons were weak. Until today the secret of their success has not been found. A clarification of this question would serve both the Islamic and oriental history. Of course, there are many, more or less satisfying, points of view on how the Arabs were able to overcome an entire army, but until today there is no real explanation. Today there are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. 

Honoured guests, dear participants,
The Kurds resisted the intrusion of the Muslims in Kurdistan and they also resisted the new religion that was being imposed on them and which affected their social life. The largest Kurdish uprising lasted for 20 years under the leadership of Papak-i Khorram(din) and took place in the first half of the 9th century A.D. One of the goals of this revolution was the establishment of a society without classes, in which women should have the same rights as men. The Kurds also took part in the uprising of other suppressed people. They militarily supported e. g. the revolution of the slaves (known under the name “Negroes’ revolution”) in the southern part of Iraq. This lasted from 868 to 883 A.D. The resistance of the Kurds against the Arab/Islamic rule lasted for centuries.

Beyond doubt the Kurds wanted to remain with the ancient religions and with their syncretistic religions. Concerning the ancient religions the majority of Kurds belonged to the Zoroastrian religion or Mazdaism. We have already talked about the Zoroastrian religion, about “Good” and “Bad” and the Trinity of “Think only good, speak only well, act only well”. The Kurds in the municipal centres wanted the Zoroastrian religion to
exist further. One must know that the Zoroastrian religion required nomadic life to be abandoned. When the religion of Zoroaster spread in Kurdistan a large part of the Kurds abandoned the nomadic life and dedicated their lives to agricultural activities. Hence, two ways of life emerged in Kurdistan; first the “Kurd”, i.e. someone who tries to live by hunting and cattle-breeding, as a semi-nomad, and then the “Goran”, i.e. someone who settles and engages in agricultural activities, who is civilised and interested in cultural and intellectual endeavours.The word “Goran” is probably derived from “Gawr-an”, the name that was given to the followers of Zoroaster. 

We see that the Goran in Kurdistan were always people interested in philosophy, literature and with the enhancement of the Kurdish culture. This tradition exists to this day. Even now we find in East- Kurdistan, which in part has been annexed to Iran, Goran-Kurds (who no longer profess to Zoroastrism but to the syncretistic religion of “Ahl i-Haqq” which means “people of God”). Followers of this Ahl i-Haqq religion already tried in the 12th century to write in Kurdish, in a special form of Kurdish called “Gorani”. Following the
Ahl i-Haqq other Kurdish religions, even those Kurds who had become Muslims, actively engaged in religious interpretation. One can say that the Kurds have definitely contributed to world culture through their own religions as well as through their contribution to the Islamic religion.

The famous Muslim scholar, rhetorician and theologian Imam Mohamad Al-Gazzali (1058 – 1111 A. D.) wrote that the Islamic Culture rests on four columns. He names the four scholars who represent these columns. Three of them are Kurds: Sharazuri, Amedi and Dinawari. In view of the outstanding importance of Al- Gazzali for Islam in general, his judgement is like a Magna Charta praising the contribution of the Kurds to the high Islamic culture.

In addition, the Kurds contributed to Islamic culture the distinctively new Kurdish Islam. There are several Dervish-cults, such as Naqishbandi-Khalidi, Qadiri, Nursi, Nimatoallahi, which were not oriented according to the external meaning of the Schariat (Islamic law) as it was determined in scholastic theology in the early time of Islam about 1400 years ago. By way of interpretations, or Ijtihad, with the help of Gnosis, philosophy and rhetoric these Dervish cults always tried to find something new in the chapters and paragraphs of the Koran and Sunneh or “sayings and deeds” of the Prophet. They tried to find these new interpretations to make human relations and social life easier for the population. 

Until today, Dervish cults exist in Kurdistan and recognisably determine certain directions in the Islamic religion. Renunciation of the world and ascetic abandon in these Dervish cults most probably draws on Buddhism. The most well known Kurdish Dervish cults are those of Sheikh Abdul Qadiri Geylani with the name Ghaws (1077/8 – 1166), of Mawlana Khalid (1776/7 – 1827), and of Sheikh Marifi Node(h)yi (1753 – 1838). What makes the Kurds special is that they have been able to maintain the religious concepts they held before the Islamic invasion. The cultural achievement of the Kurds lies in having repeatedly been able to create syncretistic religions which, in each case, arrive at new meanings beyond the sub-meanings of their parts.

Honoured guests, dear participants,
It is difficult to talk about something and to order material when that material is not equally well known to everyone. Therefore I’ll try another comparison. We have already likened the bouquet to the principle of a syncretistic religion. We can also liken a group of musicians to this principle. Everyone plays his instrument, but together they create something new.

Or let’s take a collection of stones. Depending on how the stones are placed, the transitions between them must be arranged differently and it will take a lot of effort till everything fits perfectly. The harmony of the entirety and its message will be determined by the recognisable, larger stones in relation to the interim spaces. The existing and preserved differences are as much a prerequisite for determining the harmony of the entirety as are the fitting and the arranging of the parts, and that is the worthy achievement of the Kurdish culture and its main characteristic.

I maintain that the inclination to syncretism is a distinctive feature of the Kurdish culture. Translated into political language, one could say that Kurdish culture is pluralistic.

A society is called pluralistic if it allows several recognisably different directions. For example, if in Germany different political directions join to form a
coalition or even a government, they are recognisable as e.g. the SPD, the FDP, etc. Each of them has its own characteristics, but if they all agree on a program, they create something new, e. g. a law, which is not identical with any singular idea.

The question remains, why the syncretistic culture of the Kurds, its pluralism and its tolerance, doesn’t come to the fore in Kurdish politics. We cannot go into detail
now about this question, because we would have to deal with it in a different frame of reference, namely the reference of “Realpolitik”. Nevertheless I maintain – even in the face of the feuding Kurdish parties in the present and also looking back at the 20th century which has been a century of separation and tears for the

Kurds – that all those who maintain that disunity is characteristic of the Kurds understand too little about them.

At the end of this century I’d rather have us positively and constructively ask which characteristics still enabled the Kurds to have room for the old religions which
elsewhere had already disappeared; and what prerequisite the Kurds must have had that they were partially able to keep them and to develop their syncretistic religions?

Why were so many old religions and Kurdish syncretistic religions able to remain in Kurdistan despite the Islamic invasion? And why were they not maintained by neighbouring peoples who almost completely adopted Islam? We only have one answer to this question. It is because the Kurds have an inclination to equivalency. That presupposes the ability to bear several equally valid ideas and to bear the tension resulting from that, in short the gift of tolerance. The diversity of the Kurds must be recognised, nurtured and protected. This diversity is, so to say, the key for a life of dignity and equality for the Kurds.

In the heart of Kurdistan, in Kangawar, there is the temple of Anahita (Goddess of purity, rain and water); there are numerous Christian churches, there is the large sanctuary of the Ezidi (in Lalish), there are Jewish temples, and the numerous sanctuaries of the Alevis,
Kakayis, Shabak and Sarayis. All of this has existed for thousands of years, although in some cases “only” for several hundred years. Why did the political and
religious opponents and dissidents among the Arabs and Persians (and also Bahaollah, the prophet of the Bahais) flee to Kurdistan? 

Bahaollah lived in Kurdistan for two years, from 1854 to 1855, while he was pursued everywhere else, and he could have lived in Kurdistan for the rest of his life in peace and quiet, had he not chosen to leave and spread his religion. Why can a close colleague of Saddam Hussein, who had murdered Kurds under Saddam for years leave Saddam
and find asylum in Kurdistan? Even enemies of the Kurds come to Kurdistan because they have reason to hope that they can find shelter. They know it is a custom of the Kurds to forgive their enemies when they are guests in their homes. The Kurds are the only people in
the Near East who have been able to maintain their traditional dance, the Rashbalak, in spite of all the criticism of fanatics among the neighbouring people who maintain that the Kurds are immoral because in the Rashbalak men and women dance together. 

How is it possible that Kurdish women did not have to wear the veil, that is, in those regions where the usurpers had no immediate influence? Kurdish women could even work with men together in the fields, and they still do today. And how is it possible that some women were even able to carry weapons and play leading roles although women in their neighbouring countries were not allowed to? How could a woman like Kara Fatma lead an army of men so that the European, that is the German and oriental press, reported on it with admiration? But women like that existed not only in the last century.

Fifteen years ago, in the 1980’s, a Kurdish woman called Khaje (Xeco) Yesar led a group of Peshmarga (Kurdish freedom fighters), and lived with them in the mountains in Kurdistan. Later she went to Paris and wrote a doctoral dissertation at the Sorbonne. How was it possible that the Mojahedin (a Persian opposition group) made a Kurd and a female at that, the commander of their armed forces?

It is worth mentioning that a Kurd called Qassim Amin (1865 – 1908) who fought for women’s rights in conservative Egypt around 1900, was given the name
Moharrir al-Mar’ah (women’s liberator). Qassim Amin was not the only Kurdish man, who fought for women’s rights. By the way, while Qassim Amin was writing about “The liberation of Women (1899) and “The New Woman” (1906), the Arabic-Muslim scholar Mahmoud Shukri al-Alusi (1857 – 1924) wrote a book about how to 
keep women out of schools in Baghdad, so that they had to stay at home and “could not write letters to strange men”. 
He called his book “Al-Issabah fi Man’ Al-Nisa an Al-Kitabah” (a shot aimed at making it impossible for women to write letters).

It is also worth mentioning that there are indications that in early times Kurdish society was ruled by maternal law, for it is a fact that even nowadays, not only in Kurdish folklore and mythology, women often have the more dominant part and the more prestigious status, also in everyday life. In Kurdistan today, chosen sons and daughters carry their mother’s name, and not their father’s name. 
This can be seen as an indicator that the position of women in pre-Islamic times carried a completely different weight among Kurds than previously thought. 
I refer to the Goddess Anahita and her large temple in Kangawar in East Kurdistan, the remnants of which are still recognisable to this day.

When the Iranians revolted against the Shah and voted for the Shiite fanatic Khomeini and his “Islamic (GodJemal led) Republic”, the Kurds, rallying around their intellectual Muslim leader Izzaddin-i Hossaini, were the only ones who refused and insisted – in vain – on the foundation of the Democratic Republic Iran. 
Whereupon, until today, they have had to bear the ensuing state terror, both in Iran and abroad. All that clearly shows that the Kurds do not only speak a different language, but also differ from the neighbouring peoples regarding their culture in general. 
The life which was forced upon them by their oppressors and occupants has for centuries demanded many sacrifices, definitely since the advent of Islam. 

Islam came like a glass dome down upon the region, under which nevertheless the Kurds insisted on their own traditions, as has been said here before.

It is a historic fact, that the Kurdish rulers or Kurdish sheiks, who were both religious and political leaders, were traditionally more tolerant with regard to the religious affiliations of their tribes and the lands they ruled; more tolerant, in fact, than the rulers who ruled the neighbouring Arabs, Persians or Turks. One example is the Kurdish Government which was established in South Kurdistan after the First World War under the mandate
of Britain. The well-known religious leader of the Kurds Sheikh Mahmoud (1882-1956) was officially appointed to Governor of Kurdistan. He was later crowned King of Kurdistan. 

This Kurdish state existed for about five years (1919-1924). During those years no one was executed, no one was tortured, no woman was stoned to death because of adultery, as it is common in Iran and Saudi Arabia today, no thief lost his hand, and no religious minority was discriminated. The same quality of public life existed at the time of the Republic of Kurdistan (1946) under its President Qazi Mohamad (1893-1947) who was a well known Muslim judge. Sheikh Mahmoud and Qazi Mohamad were two traditional Kurdish leaders with Kurdish upbringing and culture.

The current disarray and infighting among Kurdish parties/politicians are to a large extent the result of the Turkish-Turanistic, Arabic-Baathist, Persian- Shahinshahistic-Khomeinistic influences on the Kurds’ educational system through the respective stateadministered institutions throughout most of the 20th century.

Let us go back to the 7th Century, to the time of the Islamic invasion. After Islam had slowly spread in Kurdistan, albeit not quite thoroughly, something extraordinary happened. Quite a number of Kurds, all intellectuals, began catering to the new Islamic culture, even more than that, they committed themselves to the enrichment of the Arabic-Islamic and Persian-Islamic cultures. This interest came somewhat belatedly but was genuine. Later, after the Turks had come into the region and – in stark contrast to the Kurds – had taken on Islam almost instantly, the Kurds similarly served the Ottoman- Islamic culture.

Important Kurdish literates and thinkers even served the Arabic, Persian and Turkish language, and wrote important works in these languages. They neglected their own Kurdish language, all of which is documented, e.g. in the Lexicon of the Ottoman Empire “Qamüs ül-Aalam” written by Shemsettin Sami in the 19th century and published in 1314h. /1896-7, in
which he says: “Is it not strange that the Kurds have so many scholars, however, they don’t write in their own language. They apply themselves in Arabic and Persian. Why is that so?”

Let me now go back to the beginning of the presentation when I said, that Kurdistan is a region that was influenced by many civilisations. For example, the Greeks were often involved in wars with the Achaeminid and the Sassanid Empire. They positioned themselves in no few numbers in Kurdistan and stayed for a few centuries. The population must have mixed with the Greeks, and took over elements of the Greek language. One of the most interesting ancient Greek words is the word “mitra” (forehead bandage, bishop’s cap) which survived as “mezer” in Kurdish, with the meaning “Muslim clerical head bandage”. In the past the Kurdish scholars wore another special head gear called “mezer”. Even nowadays we have mountains and villages in Kurdistan that carry Greek names.

The Kurds used to have a notable university in a town called Harran, whose ruins remain until today near Urfa in North Kurdistan. In the early Islamic time Harran- University was a science centre in the Orient. Our Arab friends who are here today have certainly heard of Harran because important Arabic philosophers such as Farabi studied there as well as the well-known

Muslim lawyer and scholastic Ibn-Taimia. He was in fact a Kurd who came from Harran. Today Harran is a ruin, two kilometers from Urfa in North Kurdistan. Numerous important scholars of the Orient were students in Harran. Thanks to the Kurds of the time the Greek culture began to be translated into Arabic and Persian. It was in Kurdistan that the Occident, i.e. Europe, and the Islamic culture were first mediated. We shouldn’t forget that Urfa (Ruha) was also a cradle for the Christian culture.

The Kurds did not only serve their neighbours, especially the Arabs and Persians and Turks in cultural respects, but also as soldiers. When the crusaders attacked the “holy country” Palestine, the Kurdish sovereign ruler Saladin (1137-1193) marched with his Kurdish army to Palestine and was able to defeat the crusaders. With large losses of life he was able to gain victory. Saladin treated neither the Arabs nor the Europeans badly and
because of this Saladin, together with the Kurds, deserves to be mentioned positively in world history.

Edited by Azadi - 09-Oct-2009 at 14:26