(T. H. H.*)
KUNBIS,the great agricultural caste of Western India, corresponding to the Kurmis in the north and the Kapus in the Telugu country. Ethnically they cannot be distinguished from the Mahrattas, though the latter name is sometimes confined to the class who claim higher rank as representing the descendants of Sivaji’s soldiers. In some districts of the Deccan they form an actual majority of the population, which is not the case with any other Indian caste. In 1901 the total number of both Kunbis and Mahrattas in all India was returned at nearly 8¾ millions.
KUNDT, AUGUST ADOLPH EDUARD EBERHARD(1839-1894), German physicist, was born at Schwerin in Mecklenburg on the 18th of November 1839. He began his scientific studies at Leipzig, but afterwards went to Berlin. At first he devoted himself to astronomy, but coming under the influence of H. G. Magnus, he turned his attention to physics, and graduated in 1864 with a thesis on the depolarization of light. In 1867 he becameprivatdozentin Berlin University, and in the following year was chosen professor of physics at the Zürich Polytechnic; then, after a year or two at Würzburg, he was called in 1872 to Strassburg, where he took a great part in the organization of the new university, and was largely concerned in the erection of the Physical Institute. Finally in 1888 he went to Berlin as successor to H. von Helmholtz in the chair of experimental physics and directorship of the Berlin Physical Institute. He died after a protracted illness at Israelsdorf, near Lübeck, on the 21st of May 1894. As an original worker Kundt was especially successful in the domains of sound and light. In the former he developed a valuable method for the investigation of aerial waves within pipes, based on the fact that a finely divided powder—lycopodium, for example—when dusted over the interior of a tube in which is established a vibrating column of air, tends to collect in heaps at the nodes, the distance between which can thus be ascertained. An extension of the method renders possible the determination of the velocity of sound in different gases. In light Kundt’s name is widely known for his inquiries in anomalous dispersion, not only in liquids and vapours, but even in metals, which he obtained in very thin films by means of a laborious process of electrolytic deposition upon platinized glass. He also carried out many experiments in magneto-optics, and succeeded in showing, what Faraday had failed to detect, the rotation under the influence of magnetic force of the plane of polarization in certain gases and vapours.
KUNDUZ,a khanate and town of Afghan Turkestan. The khanate is bounded on the E. by Badakshan, on the W. by Tashkurghan, on the N. by the Oxus and on the S. by the Hindu Kush. It is inhabited mainly by Uzbegs. Very little is known about the town, which is the trade centre of a considerable district, including Kataghan, where the best horses in Afghanistan are bred.
KUNENE,formerly known also as Nourse, a river of South-West Africa, with a length of over 700 m., mainly within Portuguese territory, but in its lower course forming the boundary between Angola and German South-West Africa. The upper basin of the river lies on the inner versant of the high plateau region which runs southwards from Bihe parallel to the coast, forming in places ranges of mountains which give rise to many streams running south to swell the Kunene. The main stream rises in 12° 30´ S. and about 160 m. in a direct line from the seaat Benguella, runs generally from north to south through four degrees of latitude, but finally flows west to the sea through a break in the outer highlands. A little south of 16° S. it receives the Kulonga from the east, and in about 16° 50´ the Kakulovar from the west. The Kakulovar has its sources in the Serra da Chella and other ranges of the Humpata district behind Mossamedes, but, though the longest tributary of the Kunene, is but a small river in its lower course, which traverses the arid region comprised within the lower basin of the Kunene. Between the mouths of the Kulonga and Kakulovar the Kunene traverses a swampy plain, inundated during high water, and containing several small lakes at other parts of the year. From this swampy region divergent branches run S.E. They are mainly intermittent, but the Kwamatuo, which leaves the main stream in about 15° 8´ E., 17° 15´ S., flows into a large marsh or lake called Etosha, which occupies a depression in the inner table-land about 3400 ft. above sea-level. From the S.E. end of the Etosha lake streams issue in the direction of the Okavango, to which in times of great flood they contribute some water. From the existence of this divergent system it is conjectured that at one time the Kunene formed part of the Okavango, and thus of the Zambezi basin. (SeeNgami.)
On leaving the swampy region the Kunene turns decidedly to the west, and descends to the coast plain by a number of cataracts, of which the chief (in 17° 25´ S., 14° 20´ E.) has a fall of 330 ft. The river becomes smaller in volume as it passes through an almost desert region with little or no vegetation. The stream is sometimes shallow and fordable, at others confined to a narrow rocky channel. Near the sea the Kunene traverses a region of sand-hills, its mouth being completely blocked at low water. The river enters the Atlantic in 17° 18´ S., 11° 40´ E. There are indications that a former branch of the river once entered a bay to the south.
KUNERSDORF,a village of Prussia, 4 m. E. of Frankfurt-on-Oder, the scene of a great battle, fought on the 12th of August 1759, between the Prussian army commanded by Frederick the Great and the allied Russians under Soltykov and Austrians under Loudon, in which Frederick was defeated with enormous losses and his army temporarily ruined. (SeeSeven Years’ War.)
KUNGRAD,a trading town of Asiatic Russia, in the province of Syr-darya, in the delta of the Amu-darya, 50 m. S. of Lake Aral; altitude 260 ft. It is the centre of caravan routes leading to the Caspian Sea and the Uralsk province.
KUNGUR,a town of eastern Russia, in the government of Perm, on the highway to Siberia, 58 m. S.S.E. of the city of Perm. Pop. (1892), 12,400; (1897), 14,324. Tanneries and the manufacture of boots, gloves, leather, overcoats, iron castings and machinery are the chief industries. It has trade in boots, iron wares, cereals, tallow and linseed exported, and in tea imported direct from China.
KUNKEL(orKunckel)VON LOWENSTJERN, JOHANN(1630-1703), German chemist, was born in 1630 (or 1638), near Rendsburg, his father being alchemist to the court of Holstein. He became chemist and apothecary to the dukes of Lauenburg, and then to the elector of Saxony, Johann Georg II., who put him in charge of the royal laboratory at Dresden. Intrigues engineered against him caused him to resign this position in 1677, and for a time he lectured on chemistry at Annaberg and Wittenberg. Invited to Berlin by Frederick William, in 1679 he became director of the laboratory and glass works of Brandenburg, and in 1688 Charles XI. brought him to Stockholm, giving him the title of Baron von Lowenstjern in 1693 and making him a member of the council of mines. He died on the 20th of March 1703 (others say 1702) at Dreissighufen, his country house near Pernau. Kunkel shares with Boyle the honour of having discovered the secret of the process by which Brand of Hamburg had prepared phosphorus in 1669, and he found how to make artificial ruby (red glass) by the incorporation of purple of Cassius. His work also included observations on putrefaction and fermentation, which he spoke of as sisters, on the nature of salts, and on the preparation of pure metals. Though he lived in an atmosphere of alchemy, he derided the notion of the alkahest or universal solvent, and denounced the deceptions of the adepts who pretended to effect the transmutation of metals; but he believed mercury to be a constituent of all metals and heavy minerals, though he held there was no proof of the presence of “sulphur comburens.”
His chief works wereOeffentliche Zuschrift von dem Phosphor Mirabil(1678);Ars vitriaria experimentalis(1689) andLaboratorium chymicum(1716).
His chief works wereOeffentliche Zuschrift von dem Phosphor Mirabil(1678);Ars vitriaria experimentalis(1689) andLaboratorium chymicum(1716).
KUNLONG,the name of a district and ferry on the Salween, in the northern Shan States of Burma. Both are insignificant, but the place has gained notoriety from being the nominal terminus in British territory of the railway across the northern Shan States to the borders of Yunnan, with its present terminus at Lashio. In point of fact, however, this terminus will be 7 m. below the ferry and outside of Kunlong circle. At present Kunlong ferry is little used, and the village was burnt by Kachins in 1893. It is served by dug-outs, three in number in 1899, and capable of carrying about fifteen men on a trip. Formerly the trade was very considerable, and the Burmese had a customs station on the island, from which the place takes its name; but the rebellion in the great state of Theinni, and the southward movement of the Kachins, as well as the Mahommedan rebellion in Yunnan, diverted the caravans to the northern route to Bhamo, which is still chiefly followed. The Wa, who inhabit the hills immediately overlooking the Nam Ting valley, now make the route dangerous for traders. The great majority of these Wa live in unadministered British territory.
KUNZITE,a transparent lilac-coloured variety of spodumene, used as a gem-stone. It was discovered in 1902 near Pala, in San Diego county, California, not far from the locality which yields the fine specimens of rubellite and lepidolite, well known to mineralogists. The mineral was named by Dr C. Baskerville after Dr George F. Kunz, the gem expert of New York, who first described it. Analysis by R. O. E. Davis showed it to be a spodumene. Kunzite occurs in large crystals, some weighing as much as 1000 grams each, and presents delicate hues from rosy lilac to deep pink. It is strongly dichroic. Near the surface it may lose colour by exposure. Kunzite becomes strongly phosphorescent under the Röntgen rays, or by the action of radium or on exposure to ultra-violet rays. (SeeSpodumene.)
KUOPIO,a province of Finland, which includes northern Karelia, bounded on the N.W. and N. by Uleåborg, on the E. by Olonets, on the S.E. by Viborg, on the S. by St Michel and on the W. by Vasa. Its area covers 16,500 sq. m., and the population (1900) was 313,951, of whom 312,875 were Finnish-speaking. The surface is hilly, reaching from 600 to 800 ft. of altitude in the north (Suomenselkä hills), and from 300 to 400 ft. in the south. It is built up of gneisso-granites, which are covered, especially in the middle and east, with younger granites, and partly of gneisses, quartzite, and talc schists and augitic rocks. The whole is covered with glacial and later lacustrine deposits. The soil is of moderate fertility, but often full of boulders. Large lakes cover 16% of surface, marshes and peat bogs over 29% of the area, and forests occupy 2,672,240 hectares. Steamers ply along the lakes as far as Joensuu. The climate is severe, the average temperature being for the year 36° F., for January 13° and for July 63°. Only 2.3% of the whole surface is under cultivation. Rye, barley, oats and potatoes are the chief crops, and in good years these meet the needs of the population. Dairy farming and cattle breeding are of rapidly increasing importance. Nearly 38,800 tons of iron ore are extracted every year, and nearly 12,000 tons of pig iron and 6420 tons of iron and steel are obtained in ten iron-works. Engineering and chemical works, tanneries, saw-mills, paper-mills and distilleries are the chief industrial establishments. The preparation of carts, sledges and other wooden goods is an important domestic industry. Timber, iron, butter, furs and game are exported. The chief towns of the government are Kuopio (13,519), Joensuu (3954) and Iisalmi (1871).
KUOPIO,capital of the Finnish province of that name, situated on Lake Kalla-vesi, 180 m. by rail from the Kuivola junction of the St Petersburg-Helsingfors main line. Pop. (1904), 13,519. It is picturesquely situated, is the seat of a bishop, and has a cathedral, two lyceums and two gymnasia (both for boys and girls), a commercial and several professional schools. There is an agricultural school at Leväis, close by. Kuopio, in consequence of its steamer communication with middle Finland and the sea (via Saima Canal), is a trading centre of considerable importance.
KUPRILI,spelt alsoKöprili,Koeprulu,Keuprulu, &c., the name of a family of Turkish statesmen.
1.Mahommed Kuprili(c.1586-1661) was the grandson of an Albanian who had settled at Kupri in Asia Minor. He began life as a scullion in the imperial kitchen, became cook, then purse-bearer to Khosrev Pasha, and so, by wit and favour, rose to be master of the horse, “pasha of two tails,” and governor of a series of important cities and sanjaks. In 1656 he was appointed governor of Tripoli; but before he had set out to his new post he was nominated to the grand vizierate at the instance of powerful friends. He accepted office only on condition of being allowed a free hand. He signalized his accession to power by suppressing anémeuteof orthodox Mussulman fanatics in Constantinople (Sept. 22), and by putting to death certain favourites of the powerful Valide Sultana, by whose corruption and intrigues the administration had been confused. A little later (January 1657) he suppressed with ruthless severity a rising of the spahis; a certain Sheik Salim, leader of the fanatical mob of the capital, was drowned in the Bosporus; and the Greek Patriarch, who had written to the voivode of Wallachia to announce the approaching downfall of Islam, was hanged. This impartial severity was a foretaste of Kuprili’s rule, which was characterized throughout by a vigour which belied the expectations based upon his advanced years, and by a ruthlessness which in time grew to be almost blood-lust. His justification was the new life which he breathed into the decaying bones of the Ottoman empire.
Having cowed the disaffected elements in the state, he turned his attention to foreign enemies. The victory of the Venetians off Chios (May 2, 1657) was a severe blow to the Turkish sea-power, which Kuprili set himself energetically to repair. A second battle, fought in the Dardanelles (July 17-19), ended by a lucky shot blowing up the Venetian flag-ship; the losses of the Ottoman fleet were repaired, and in the middle of August Kuprili appeared off Tenedos, which was captured on the 31st and reincorporated permanently in the Turkish empire. Thus the Ottoman prestige was restored at sea, while Kuprili’s ruthless enforcement of discipline in the army and suppression of revolts, whether in Europe or Asia, restored it also on land. It was, however, due to his haughty and violent temper that the traditional friendly relations between Turkey and France were broken. The French ambassador, de la Haye, had delayed bringing him the customary gifts, with the idea that he would, like his predecessors, speedily give place to a new grand vizier; Kuprili was bitterly offended, and, on pretext of an abuse of the immunities of diplomatic correspondence, bastinadoed the ambassador’s son and cast him and the ambassador himself into prison. A special envoy, sent by Louis XIV., to make inquiries and demand reparation, was treated with studied insult; and the result was that Mazarin abandoned the Turkish alliance and threw the power of France on to the side of Venice, openly assisting the Venetians in the defence of Crete.
Kuprili’s restless energy continued to the last, exhibiting itself on one side in wholesale executions, on the other in vast building operations. By his orders castles were built at the mouth of the Don and on the bank of the Dnieper, outworks against the ever-aggressive Tatars, as well as on either shore of the Dardanelles. His last activity as a statesman was to spur the sultan on to press the war against Hungary. He died on the 31st of October 1661. The advice which, on his death-bed, he is said to have given to the sultan is characteristic of his Machiavellian statecraft. This was: never to pay attention to the advice of women, to allow nobody to grow too rich, to keep his treasury well filled, and himself and his troops constantly occupied. Had he so desired, Kuprili might have taken advantage of the revolts of the Janissaries to place himself on the throne; instead, he recommended the sultan to appoint his son as his successor, and so founded a dynasty of able statesmen who occupied the grand vizierate almost without interruption for half a century.
2.Fazil Ahmed Kuprili(1635-1676), son of the preceding, succeeded his father as grand vizier in 1661 (this being the first instance of a son succeeding his father in that office since the time of the Chenderélis). He began life in the clerical career, which he left, at the age of twenty-three, when he had attained the rank ofmuderris. Usually humane and generous, he sought to relieve the people of the excessive taxation and to secure them against unlawful exactions. Three years after his accession to office Turkey suffered a crushing defeat at the battle of St Gothard and was obliged to make peace with the Empire. But Kuprili’s influence with the sultan remained unshaken, and five years later Crete fell to his arms (1669). The next war in which he was called upon to take part was with Poland, in defence of the Cossacks, who had appealed to Turkey for protection. At first successful, Kuprili was defeated by the Poles under John Sobieski at Khotin and Lemberg; the Turks, however, continued to hold their own, and finally in October 1676 consented to honourable terms of peace by the treaty of Zurawno (October 16, 1676), retaining Kaminiec, Podolia and the greater part of the Ukraine. Three days later Ahmed Kuprili died. His military capacity was far inferior to his administrative qualities. He was a liberal protector of art and literature, and the kindliness of his disposition formed a marked contrast to the cruelty of his father; but he was given to intemperance, and the cause of his death was dropsy brought on by alcoholic abuse.
3.Zade Mustafa Kuprili(1637-1691), surnamed Fazil, son of Mahommed Kuprili, became grand vizier to Suleiman II. in 1689. Called to office after disaster had driven Turkey’s forces from Hungary and Poland and her fleets from the Mediterranean, he began by ordering strict economy and reform in the taxation; himself setting the example, which was widely followed, of voluntary contributions for the army, which with the navy he reorganized as quickly as he could. His wisdom is shown by the prudent measures which he took by enacting theNizam-i-jedid, or new regulations for the improvement of the condition of the Christian rayas, and for affording them security for life and property; a conciliatory attitude which at once bore fruit in Greece, where the people abandoned the Venetian cause and returned to their allegiance to the Porte. He met his death at the battle of Salankamen in 1691, when the total defeat of the Turks by the Austrians under Prince Louis of Baden led to their expulsion from Hungary.
4.Hussein Kuprili(surnamedAmuja-Zade) was the son of Hassan, a younger brother of Mahommed Kuprili. After occupying various important posts he became grand vizier in 1697, and owing to his ability and energy the Turks were able to drive the Austrians back over the Save, and Turkish fleets were sent into the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The efforts of European diplomacy succeeded in inducing Austria and Turkey to come to terms by the treaty of Carlowitz, whereby Turkey was shorn of her chief conquests (1699). After this event Hussein Kuprili, surnamed “the Wise,” devoted himself to the suppression of the revolts which had broken out in Arabia, Egypt and the Crimea, to the reduction of the Janissaries, and to the institution of administrative and financial reform. Unfortunately the intrigues against him drove him from office in 1702, and soon afterwards he died.
5.Numan Kuprili, son of Mustafa Fazil, became grand vizier in 1710. The expectations formed of him were not fulfilled, as although he was tolerant, wise and just like his father, he injudiciously sought to take upon himself all the details of administration, a task which proved to be beyond his powers. He failed to introduce order into the administration and was dismissed from office in less than fourteen months after his appointment.
6.Abdullah Kuprili, a son of Mustafa Fazil Kuprili, was appointed Kaimmakam orlocum tenensof the grand vizier in 1703. He commanded the Persian expedition in 1723 and captured Tabriz in 1725, resigning his office in 1726. In 1735 he again commanded against the Persians, but fell at the disastrous battle of Bagaverd, thus emulating his father’s heroic death at Selankamen.
KURAKIN, BORIS IVANOVICH,Prince(1676-1727), Russian diplomatist, was the brother-in-law of Peter the Great, their wives being sisters. He was one of the earliest of Peter’s pupils. In 1697 he was sent to Italy to learn navigation. His long and honourable diplomatic career began in 1707, when he was sent to Rome to induce the pope not to recognize Charles XII.’s candidate, Stanislaus Leszczynski, as king of Poland. From 1708 to 1712 he represented Russia at London, Hanover, and the Hague successively, and, in 1713, was the principal Russian plenipotentiary at the peace congress of Utrecht. From 1716 to 1722 he held the post of ambassador at Paris, and when, in 1724, Peter set forth on his Persian campaign, Kurakin was appointed the supervisor of all the Russian ambassadors accredited to the various European courts. “The father of Russian diplomacy,” as he has justly been called, was remarkable throughout his career for infinite tact and insight, and a wonderfully correct appreciation of men and events. He was most useful to Russia perhaps when the Great Northern war (seeSweden,History) was drawing to a close. Notably he prevented Great Britain from declaring war against Peter’s close ally, Denmark, at the crisis of the struggle. Kurakin was one of the best-educated Russians of his day, and his autobiography, carried down to 1709, is an historical document of the first importance. He intended to write a history of his own times with Peter the Great as the central figure, but got no further than the summary, entitledHistory of Tsar Peter Aleksievich and the People Nearest to Him(1682-1694) (Rus.).
SeeArchives of Prince A. Th. Kurakin(Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1890); A. Brückner,A Russian Tourist in Western Europe in the beginning of the XVIIIth Century(Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1892).
SeeArchives of Prince A. Th. Kurakin(Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1890); A. Brückner,A Russian Tourist in Western Europe in the beginning of the XVIIIth Century(Rus.) (St Petersburg, 1892).
(R. N. B.)
KURBASH,orKourbash(from the Arabicqurbash, a whip; Turkishqirbach; and Frenchcourbache), a whip or strap about a yard in length, made of the hide of the hippopotamus or rhinoceros. It is an instrument of punishment and torture used in various Mahommedan countries, especially in the Turkish empire. “Government by kurbash” denotes the oppression of a people by the constant abuse of the kurbash to maintain authority, to collect taxes, or to pervert justice. The use of the kurbash for such purposes, once common in Egypt, has been abolished by the British authorities.
KŪRDISTĀN,in its wider sense, the “country of the Kūrds” (Koords), including that part of Mount Taurus which buttresses the Armenian table-land (seeArmenia), and is intersected by the Batman Su, the Bohtan Su, and other tributaries of the Tigris; and the wild mountain district, watered by the Great and Little Zab, which marks the western termination of the great Iranian plateau.
Population.—The total Kūrd population probably exceeds two and a half millions, namely, Turkish Kūrds 1,650,000, Persian 800,000, Russian 50,000, but there are no trustworthy statistics. The great mass of the population has its home in Kūrdistān. But Kūrds are scattered irregularly over the country from the river Sakarīa on the west to Lake Urmia on the east, and from Kars on the north to Jebel Sinjar on the south. There is also an isolated settlement in Khorasan. The tribes,ashiret, into which the Kūrds are divided, resemble in some respects the Highland clans of Scotland. Very few of them number more than 10,000 souls, and the average is about 3000. The sedentary and pastoral Kūrds,Yerli, who live in villages in winter and encamp on their own pasture-grounds in summer, form an increasing majority of the population. The nomad Kūrds,Kocher, who always dwell in tents, are the wealthiest and most independent. They spend the summer on the mountains and high plateaus, which they enter in May and leave in October; and pass the winter on the banks of the Tigris and on the great plain north of Jebel Sinjar, where they purchase right of pasturage from the Shammar Arabs. Each tribe has its own pasture-grounds, and trespass by other tribes is a fertile source of quarrel. During the periodical migrations Moslem and Christian alike suffer from the predatory instincts of the Kūrd, and disturbances are frequent in the districts traversed. In Turkey the sedentary Kūrds pay taxes; but the nomads only pay the sheep tax, which is collected as they cross the Tigris on their way to their summer pastures.
Character.—The Kūrd delights in the bracing air and unrestricted liberty of the mountains. He is rarely a muleteer or camel-man, and does not take kindly to handicrafts. The Kūrds generally bear a very indifferent reputation, a worse reputation perhaps, than they really deserve. Being aliens to the Turks in language and to the Persians in religion, they are everywhere treated with mistrust, and live as it were in a state of chronic warfare with the powers that be. Such a condition is not of course favourable to the development of the better qualities of human nature. The Kūrds are thus wild and lawless; they are much given to brigandage; they oppress and frequently maltreat the Christian populations with whom they are brought in contact,—these populations being the Armenians in Diarbekr, Erzerum and Van, the Jacobites and Syrians in the Jebel-Tūr, and the Nestorians and Chaldaeans in the Hakkāri country.
Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of the Kūrdish chief is pride of ancestry. This feeling is in many cases exaggerated, for in reality the present tribal organization does not date from any great antiquity. In the list indeed of eighteen principal tribes of the nation which was drawn up by the Arabian historian Masudi, in the 10th century, only two or three names are to be recognized at the present day. A 14th-century list, however, translated by Quatremère,1presents a great number of identical names, and there seems no reason to doubt that certain Kūrdish families can trace their descent from the Omayyad caliphs, while only in recent years the Babān chief of Suleimania, representing the old Sohrans, and the Ardelān chief of Sinna,2representing an elder branch of the Gurāns, each claimed an ancestry of at least five hundred years. There was up to a recent period no more picturesque or interesting scene to be witnessed in the east than the court of one of these great Kūrdish chiefs, where, like another Saladin, the bey ruled inpatriarchalstate, surrounded by an hereditary nobility, regarded by his clansmen with reverence and affection, and attended by a bodyguard of young Kūrdish warriors, clad in chain armour, with flaunting silken scarfs, and bearing javelin, lance and sword as in the time of the crusades.
Though ignorant and unsophisticated the Kūrd is not wanting in natural intelligence. In recent years educated Kūrds have held high office under the sultan, including that of grand vizier, have assisted in translating the Bible into Turkish, and in editing a newspaper. The men are lithe, active and strong, but rarely of unusual stature. The women do not veil, and are allowedgreat freedom. The Kūrds as a race are proud, faithful and hospitable, and have rude but strict feelings of honour. They are, however, much under the influence of dervishes, and when their fanaticism is aroused their habitual lawlessness is apt to degenerate into savage barbarity. They are not deficient in martial spirit, but have an innate dislike to the restraints of military service. The country is rich in traditions and legends, and in lyric and in epic poems, which have been handed down from earlier times and are recited in a weird melancholy tone.
Antiquities.—Kūrdistān abounds in antiquities of the most varied and interesting character. But it has been very little opened up to modern research. A series of rock-cut cuneiform inscriptions extend from Malatia on the west to Miandoāb (in Persia) on the east, and from the banks of the Aras on the north to Rowanduz on the south, which record the glories of a Turanian dynasty, who ruled the country of Nairi during the 8th and 7th centuries,B.C., contemporaneously with the lower Assyrian empire. Intermingled with these are a few genuine Assyrian inscriptions of an earlier date; and in one instance, at Van, a later tablet of Xerxes brings the record down to the period of Grecian history. The most ancient monuments of this class, however, are to be found at Holwān and in the neighbourhood, where the sculptures and inscriptions belong probably to the Guti and Luli tribes, and date from the early Babylonian period.
In the northern Kūrdish districts which represent the Arzanene, Intilene, Anzitene, Zabdicene, and Moxuene of the ancients, there are many interesting remains of Roman cities,e.g.at Arzen, Miyafarikin (anc.Martyropolis), Sisauronon, and the ruins of Dunisir near Dara, which Sachau identified with the Armenian capital of Tigranocerta. Of the Macedonian and Parthian periods there are remains both sculptured and inscribed at several points in Kūrdistān; at Bisitun or Behistun (q.v.), in a cave at Amadīa, at the Mithraic temple of Kereftū, on the rocks at Sir Pūl-o-Zohab near the ruins of Holwān, and probably in some other localities, such as the Bālik country between Lahijān and Koi-Sanjāk; but the most interesting site in all Kūrdistān, perhaps in all western Asia, is the ruined fire temple of Pāī Kūlī on the southern frontier of Suleimanīa. Among the débris of this temple, which is scattered over a bare hillside, are to be found above one hundred slabs, inscribed with Parthian and Pahlavi characters, the fragments of a wall which formerly supported the eastern face of the edifice, and bore a bilingual legend of great length, dating from the Sassanian period. There are also remarkable Sassanian remains in other parts of Kūrdistān—at Salmūs to the north, and at Kermānshāh and Kasr-i-Shīrīn on the Turkish frontier to the south.
Language.—The Kūrdish language, Kermānjī, is an old Persian patois, intermixed to the north with Chaldaean words and to the south with a certain Turanian element which may not improbably have come down from Babylonian times. Several peculiar dialects are spoken in secluded districts in the mountains, but the only varieties which, from their extensive use, require to be specified are the Zaza and the Gurān. The Zaza is spoken throughout the western portion of the Dersim country, and is said to be unintelligible to the Kermānjī-speaking Kūrds. It is largely intermingled with Armenian, and may contain some trace of the old Cappadocian, but is no doubt of the same Aryan stock as the standard Kūrdish. The Gurān dialect again, which is spoken throughout Ardelān and Kermānshāh3chiefly differs from the northern Kūrdish in being entirely free from any Semitic intermixture. It is thus somewhat nearer to the Persian than the Kermānjī dialect, but is essentially the same language. It is a mistake to suppose that there is no Kūrdish literature. Many of the popular Persian poets have been translated into Kūrdish, and there are also books relating to the religious mysteries of the Ali-Illāhis in the hands of the Dersimlis to the north and of the Gurāns of Kermānshāh to the south. The New Testament in Kurdish was printed at Constantinople in 1857. The Rev. Samuel Rhea published a grammar and vocabulary of the Hakkāri dialect in 1872. In 1879 there appeared, under the auspices of the imperial academy of St Petersburg a French-Kūrdish dictionary compiled originally by Mons. Jaba, many years Russian consul at Erzerum, but completed by Ferdinand Justi by the help of a rich assortment of Kurdish tales and ballads, collected by Socin and Prym in Assyria.Religion.—The great body of the nation, in Persia as well as in Turkey, are Sunnis of the Shafi’ite sect, but in the recesses of the Dersim to the north and of Zagros to the south there are large half-pagan communities, who are called indifferently Ali-Illahi and Kizjil-bāsh, and who hold tenets of some obscurity, but of considerable interest. Outwardly professing to be Shi’ites or “followers of Ali,” they observe secret ceremonies and hold esoteric doctrines which have probably descended to them from very early ages, and of which the essential condition is that there must always be upon the earth a visible manifestation of the Deity. While paying reverence to the supposed incarnations of ancient days, to Moses, David, Christ, Ali and his tutor Salmān-ul-Farisi, and several of the Shi’ite imams and saints, they have thus usually some recent local celebrity at whose shrine they worship and make vows; and there is, moreover, in every community of Ali-Illahis some living personage, not necessarily ascetic, to whom, as representing the godhead, the superstitious tribesmen pay almost idolatrous honours. Among the Gurāns of the south the shrine of Baba Yadgār, in a gorge of the hills above the old city of Holwān, is thus regarded with a supreme veneration. Similar institutions are also found in other parts of the mountains, which may be compared with the tenets of the Druses and Nosairis in Syria and the Ismailites in Persia.
Language.—The Kūrdish language, Kermānjī, is an old Persian patois, intermixed to the north with Chaldaean words and to the south with a certain Turanian element which may not improbably have come down from Babylonian times. Several peculiar dialects are spoken in secluded districts in the mountains, but the only varieties which, from their extensive use, require to be specified are the Zaza and the Gurān. The Zaza is spoken throughout the western portion of the Dersim country, and is said to be unintelligible to the Kermānjī-speaking Kūrds. It is largely intermingled with Armenian, and may contain some trace of the old Cappadocian, but is no doubt of the same Aryan stock as the standard Kūrdish. The Gurān dialect again, which is spoken throughout Ardelān and Kermānshāh3chiefly differs from the northern Kūrdish in being entirely free from any Semitic intermixture. It is thus somewhat nearer to the Persian than the Kermānjī dialect, but is essentially the same language. It is a mistake to suppose that there is no Kūrdish literature. Many of the popular Persian poets have been translated into Kūrdish, and there are also books relating to the religious mysteries of the Ali-Illāhis in the hands of the Dersimlis to the north and of the Gurāns of Kermānshāh to the south. The New Testament in Kurdish was printed at Constantinople in 1857. The Rev. Samuel Rhea published a grammar and vocabulary of the Hakkāri dialect in 1872. In 1879 there appeared, under the auspices of the imperial academy of St Petersburg a French-Kūrdish dictionary compiled originally by Mons. Jaba, many years Russian consul at Erzerum, but completed by Ferdinand Justi by the help of a rich assortment of Kurdish tales and ballads, collected by Socin and Prym in Assyria.
Religion.—The great body of the nation, in Persia as well as in Turkey, are Sunnis of the Shafi’ite sect, but in the recesses of the Dersim to the north and of Zagros to the south there are large half-pagan communities, who are called indifferently Ali-Illahi and Kizjil-bāsh, and who hold tenets of some obscurity, but of considerable interest. Outwardly professing to be Shi’ites or “followers of Ali,” they observe secret ceremonies and hold esoteric doctrines which have probably descended to them from very early ages, and of which the essential condition is that there must always be upon the earth a visible manifestation of the Deity. While paying reverence to the supposed incarnations of ancient days, to Moses, David, Christ, Ali and his tutor Salmān-ul-Farisi, and several of the Shi’ite imams and saints, they have thus usually some recent local celebrity at whose shrine they worship and make vows; and there is, moreover, in every community of Ali-Illahis some living personage, not necessarily ascetic, to whom, as representing the godhead, the superstitious tribesmen pay almost idolatrous honours. Among the Gurāns of the south the shrine of Baba Yadgār, in a gorge of the hills above the old city of Holwān, is thus regarded with a supreme veneration. Similar institutions are also found in other parts of the mountains, which may be compared with the tenets of the Druses and Nosairis in Syria and the Ismailites in Persia.
History.—With regard to the origin of the Kūrds, it was formerly considered sufficient to describe them as the descendants of the Carduchi, who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains, but modern research traces them far beyond the period of the Greeks. At the dawn of history the mountains overhanging Assyria were held by a people namedGūtū, a title which signified “a warrior,” and which was rendered in Assyrian by the synonym ofGarduorKardu, the precise term quoted by Strabo to explain the name of the Cardaces (Κάρδακες). TheseGūtūwere a Turanian tribe of such power as to be placed in the early cuneiform records on an equality with the other nations of western Asia, that is, with the Syrians and Hittites, the Susians, Elamites, and Akkadians of Babylonia; and during the whole period of the Assyrian empire they seem to have preserved a more or less independent political position. After the fall of Nineveh they coalesced with the Medes, and, in common with all the nations inhabiting the high plateaus of Asia Minor, Armenia and Persia, became gradually Aryanized, owing to the immigration at this period of history of tribes in overwhelming numbers which, from whatever quarter they may have sprung, belonged certainly to the Aryan family.
TheGūtūor Kūrdu were reduced to subjection by Cyrus before he descended upon Babylon, and furnished a contingent of fighting men to his successors, being thus mentioned under the names of Saspirians and Alarodians in the muster roll of the army of Xerxes which was preserved by Herodotus.
In later times they passed successively under the sway of the Macedonians, the Parthians, and Sassanians, being especially befriended, if we may judge from tradition as well as from the remains still existing in the country, by the Arsacian monarchs, who were probably of a cognate race. Gotarzes indeed, whose name may perhaps be translated “chief of theGūtū,” was traditionally believed to be the founder of the Gurāns, the principal tribe of southern Kūrdistān,4and his name and titles are still preserved in a Greek inscription atBehistun near the Kūrdish capital of Kermānshāh. Under the caliphs of Bagdad the Kūrds were always giving trouble in one quarter or another. InA.D.838, and again in 905, there were formidable insurrections in northern Kūrdistān; the amir, Adod-addaula, was obliged to lead the forces of the caliphate against the southern Kūrds, capturing the famous fortress of Sermāj, of which the ruins are to be seen at the present day near Behistun, and reducing the province of Shahrizor with its capital city now marked by the great mound of Yassin Teppeh. The most flourishing period of Kūrdish power was probably during the 12th century of our era, when the great Saladin, who belonged to the Rawendi branch of the Hadabāni tribe, founded the Ayyubite dynasty of Syria, and Kūrdish chiefships were established, not only to the east and west of the Kūrdistān mountains, but as far as Khorāsān upon one side and Egypt and Yemen on the other. During the Mongol and Tatar domination of western Asia the Kūrds in the mountains remained for the most part passive, yielding a reluctant obedience to the provincial governors of the plains.
When Sultan Selim I., after defeating Shah Ismail, 1514, annexed Armenia and Kūrdistān, he entrusted the organization of the conquered territories to Idris, the historian, who was a Kūrd of Bitlis. Idris found Kūrdistān bristling with castles, held by hereditary tribal chiefs of Kūrd, Arab, and Armenian descent, who were practically independent, and passed their time in tribal warfare or in raiding the agricultural population. He divided the territory into sanjaks or districts, and, making no attempt to interfere with the principle of heredity, installed the local chiefs as governors. He also resettled the rich pastoral country between Erzerūm and Erivan, which had lain waste since the passage of Timūr, with Kūrds from the Hakkiari and Bohtan districts. The system of administration introduced by Idris remained unchanged until the close of the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29. But the Kūrds, owing to the remoteness of their country from the capital and the decline of Turkey, had greatly increased in influence and power, and had spread westwards over the country as far as Angora. After the war the Kūrds attempted to free themselves from Turkish control, and in 1834 it became necessary to reduce them to subjection. This was done by Reshid Pasha. The principal towns were strongly garrisoned, and many of the Kūrd beys were replaced by Turkish governors. A rising under Bedr Khān Bey in 1843 was firmly repressed, and after the Crimean War the Turks strengthened their hold on the country. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 was followed by the attempt of Sheikh Obaidullah, 1880-81, to found an independent Kūrd principality under the protection of Turkey. The attempt, at first encouraged by the Porte, as a reply to the projected creation of an Armenian state under the suzerainty of Russia (seeArmenia), collapsed after Obaidullah’s raid into Persia, when various circumstances led the central government to reassert its supreme authority. Until the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29 there had been little hostile feeling between the Kūrds and the Armenians, and as late as 1877-1878 the mountaineers of both races had got on fairly well together. Both suffered from Turkey, both dreaded Russia. But the national movement amongst the Armenians, and its encouragement by Russia after the last war, gradually aroused race hatred and fanaticism. In 1891 the activity of the Armenian Committees induced the Porte to strengthen the position of the Kūrds by raising a body of Kūrdish irregular cavalry, which was well armed and called Hamidieh after the Sultan. The opportunities thus offered for plunder and the gratification of race hatred brought out the worst qualities of the Kūrds. Minor disturbances constantly occurred, and were soon followed by the massacre of Armenians at Sasūn and other places, 1894-96, in which the Kūrds took an active part.
Authorities.—Rich,Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan(1836); Wagner,Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden(Leipzig, 1852); Consul Taylor inR. G. S. Journal(1865); Millingen,Wild Life among the Koords(1870); Von Luschan, “Die Wandervolker Kleinasiens,” inVn. d. G. für Anthropologie(Berlin, 1886); Clayton, “The Mountains of Kūrdistān,” inAlpine Journal(1887); Binder,Au Kūrdistan(Paris, 1887); Naumann,Vom Goldnen Horn zu den Quellen des Euphrat(Munich, 1893); Murray,Handbook to Asia Minor, &c.(1895); Lerch,Forschungen über die Kurden(St Petersburg, 1857-58); Jaba,Dict. Kurde-Français(St Petersburg, 1879); Justi,Kurdische Grammatik(1880); Prym and Socin,Kurdische Sammlungen(1890); Makas,Kurdische Studien(1901); Earl Percy,Highlands of Asiatic Turkey(1901); Lynch,Armenia(1901); A. V. Williams Jackson,Persia, Past and Present(1906).
Authorities.—Rich,Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan(1836); Wagner,Reise nach Persien und dem Lande der Kurden(Leipzig, 1852); Consul Taylor inR. G. S. Journal(1865); Millingen,Wild Life among the Koords(1870); Von Luschan, “Die Wandervolker Kleinasiens,” inVn. d. G. für Anthropologie(Berlin, 1886); Clayton, “The Mountains of Kūrdistān,” inAlpine Journal(1887); Binder,Au Kūrdistan(Paris, 1887); Naumann,Vom Goldnen Horn zu den Quellen des Euphrat(Munich, 1893); Murray,Handbook to Asia Minor, &c.(1895); Lerch,Forschungen über die Kurden(St Petersburg, 1857-58); Jaba,Dict. Kurde-Français(St Petersburg, 1879); Justi,Kurdische Grammatik(1880); Prym and Socin,Kurdische Sammlungen(1890); Makas,Kurdische Studien(1901); Earl Percy,Highlands of Asiatic Turkey(1901); Lynch,Armenia(1901); A. V. Williams Jackson,Persia, Past and Present(1906).
(C. W. W.; H. C. R.)
1SeeNotices et Extraits des MSS., xiii. 305. Of the tribes enumerated in this work of the 14th century who still retain a leading place among the Kūrds, the following names may be quoted:Guraniehof Dartang, modern Gurans;Zengeneh, in Hamadan hills, now in Kermānshāh;Hasnaniof Kerkuk and Arbil, now in the Dersim mountains, having originally come from Khorāsān according to tradition;Sohrīehof Shekelabad and Tel-Haftūn, modern Sohrān, from whom descend the Babān of Suleimanieh;Zerzariof Hinjarīn mountains, modern Zerzas of Ushnu (cuneiform pillars of Kel-i-shīn and Sidek noticed by author);Julamerkīeh, modern Julamerik, said to be descended from the caliph Merwān-ibn-Hakam;Hakkarīeh, Hakkāri inhabitingZuzanof Arab geography;Bokhtieh, modern Bohtān. TheRowadi, to whom Saladin belonged, are probably modern Rawendi, as they held the fortress of Arbil (Arbela). Some twenty other names are mentioned, but the orthography is so doubtful that it is useless to try to identify them.2TheSheref-nama, a history of the Kūrds dating from the 16th century, tells us that “towards the close of the reign of the Jenghizians, a man named Baba Ardilān, a descendant of the governors of Diarbekr, and related to the famous Ahmed-ibn-Merwān, after remaining for some time among the Gurāns, gained possession of the country of Shahrizor” and the Ardelān family history, with the gradual extension of their power over Persian Kūrdistān, is then traced down to the Saffavid period.3The Gurān are mentioned in theMesalik-el-Absāras the dominant tribe in southern Kūrdistān in the 14th century, occupying very much the same seats as at present, from the Hamadan frontier to Shahrizor. Their name probably signifies merely “the mountaineers,” being derived fromgurorgiri, “a mountain,” which is also found in Zagros,i.e.za-giri, “beyond the mountain,” orPusht-i-koh, as the name is translated in Persian. They are a fine, active and hardy race, individually brave, and make excellent soldiers, though in appearance very inferior to the tribal Kūrds of the northern districts. These latter indeed delight in gay colours, while the Gurāns dress in the most homely costume, wearing coarse blue cotton vests, with felt caps and coats. In a great part of Kūrdistān the name Gurān has become synonymous with an agricultural peasantry, as opposed to the migratory shepherds.4“The Kalhūr tribe are traditionally descended from Gudarz-ibn-Gīo, whose son Roham was sent by Bahman Keiāni to destroy Jerusalem and bring the Jews into captivity. This Roham is the individual usually called Bokht-i-nasser (Nebuchadrezzar) and he ultimately succeeded to the throne. The neighbouring country has ever since remained in the hands of his descendants, who are called Gurāns” (Sheref-Nama, Persian MS.). The same popular tradition still exists in the country, andΓΩΤΑΡΖΗΟ ΓΕΟΠΟΘΡΟΣis found on the rock at Behistun, showing that Gudarz-ibn-Gīo was really an historic personage. SeeJourn. Roy. Geog. Soc.ix. 114.
1SeeNotices et Extraits des MSS., xiii. 305. Of the tribes enumerated in this work of the 14th century who still retain a leading place among the Kūrds, the following names may be quoted:Guraniehof Dartang, modern Gurans;Zengeneh, in Hamadan hills, now in Kermānshāh;Hasnaniof Kerkuk and Arbil, now in the Dersim mountains, having originally come from Khorāsān according to tradition;Sohrīehof Shekelabad and Tel-Haftūn, modern Sohrān, from whom descend the Babān of Suleimanieh;Zerzariof Hinjarīn mountains, modern Zerzas of Ushnu (cuneiform pillars of Kel-i-shīn and Sidek noticed by author);Julamerkīeh, modern Julamerik, said to be descended from the caliph Merwān-ibn-Hakam;Hakkarīeh, Hakkāri inhabitingZuzanof Arab geography;Bokhtieh, modern Bohtān. TheRowadi, to whom Saladin belonged, are probably modern Rawendi, as they held the fortress of Arbil (Arbela). Some twenty other names are mentioned, but the orthography is so doubtful that it is useless to try to identify them.
2TheSheref-nama, a history of the Kūrds dating from the 16th century, tells us that “towards the close of the reign of the Jenghizians, a man named Baba Ardilān, a descendant of the governors of Diarbekr, and related to the famous Ahmed-ibn-Merwān, after remaining for some time among the Gurāns, gained possession of the country of Shahrizor” and the Ardelān family history, with the gradual extension of their power over Persian Kūrdistān, is then traced down to the Saffavid period.
3The Gurān are mentioned in theMesalik-el-Absāras the dominant tribe in southern Kūrdistān in the 14th century, occupying very much the same seats as at present, from the Hamadan frontier to Shahrizor. Their name probably signifies merely “the mountaineers,” being derived fromgurorgiri, “a mountain,” which is also found in Zagros,i.e.za-giri, “beyond the mountain,” orPusht-i-koh, as the name is translated in Persian. They are a fine, active and hardy race, individually brave, and make excellent soldiers, though in appearance very inferior to the tribal Kūrds of the northern districts. These latter indeed delight in gay colours, while the Gurāns dress in the most homely costume, wearing coarse blue cotton vests, with felt caps and coats. In a great part of Kūrdistān the name Gurān has become synonymous with an agricultural peasantry, as opposed to the migratory shepherds.
4“The Kalhūr tribe are traditionally descended from Gudarz-ibn-Gīo, whose son Roham was sent by Bahman Keiāni to destroy Jerusalem and bring the Jews into captivity. This Roham is the individual usually called Bokht-i-nasser (Nebuchadrezzar) and he ultimately succeeded to the throne. The neighbouring country has ever since remained in the hands of his descendants, who are called Gurāns” (Sheref-Nama, Persian MS.). The same popular tradition still exists in the country, andΓΩΤΑΡΖΗΟ ΓΕΟΠΟΘΡΟΣis found on the rock at Behistun, showing that Gudarz-ibn-Gīo was really an historic personage. SeeJourn. Roy. Geog. Soc.ix. 114.