The Gūrān
V. Minorsky
University of London
The vague and indiscriminate use of the term Kurd goes back to early times According to Hamza Isfahānī (circa 350/961), ed. Berlin, 151, "The Persians used to call Daylamites 'the Kurds of Tabaristān' as they used to call Arabs 'the Kurds of Sūristān', i.e. of 'Iraq." Other Arab and Persian authors of the tenth century A.D. mean by Kurds any Iranian nomads of Western Persia, such as the tent-dwellers of Fārs.
The famous historian of the Kurdish nation Sharaf ...
THE GŪRĀN
By V. Minorsky
The vague and indiscriminate use of the term Kurd goes back to early times According to Hamza Isfahānī (circa 350/961), ed. Berlin, 151, "The Persians used to call Daylamites 'the Kurds of Tabaristān' as they used to call Arabs 'the Kurds of Sūristān', i.e. of 'Iraq." Other Arab and Persian authors of the tenth century A.D. mean by Kurds any Iranian nomads of Western Persia, such as the tent-dwellers of Fārs.
The famous historian of the Kurdish nation Sharaf Khān states in his Annals, p. 13, that there are four divisions of Kurds: Kuimānj, Lur, Kalhur, and Gūrān. This enumeration gives a clear idea of the main groups o the Iranian mountaineers, but only the Kurmanj, and possibly the Kalhur1, come under the heading Kurd, whereas the Lur and the Gūrān stand apart, both for linguistic and ethnological reasons.2
Our knowledge of the anthropology of Persia is still inadequate, but what we know of the ancient history of the north-western, western, and south western part of Persia suggests great differences in the ethnical background of single regions. Meanwhile, linguistically we know full well that the Lurish dialects, closely connected with those of Pars, are very distinct from the Kurdish group proper, including the Lakkl-Kurdish of the tribes interspersed among the population of. Northern Lunstan.
In the indiscriminate mass of "Kurds" we begin to distinguish further traces of populations which may have lived long under Kurdish leaders and in the closest contact with Kurds, but which belong to some other strata and waves of migration. The process of formation of the Kurdish tribes themelves is very intricate. Already Rich, speaking of Shahrazūr, distinguished between the warriors and the peasants whom he regarded as the race the warriors (vide infra, p. 84). We know now that the leaders of the Kurdish tribes were of varied origin3, and it is quite possible that some subject populations have been Kurdicized at a comparatively recent date.
Outside the circle of a few professional scholars, it is still a very little known fact that on the south-eastern and southern edge of the Kurdish territory there exists a considerable area occupied by a people of a different origin and who e speech is Iranian but non-Kurdish. For simplicity's sake this population can be called Gūrān. Strictly speaking, this name belongs to the principal tribe which occupies the mountains north of the high road Baghdad-Kermanshah-shah, nearly down to the River Sirwan (Diyala) in the north. North of the Sirwan the non-Kurdish area is prolonged by the highlands of Awrāmān: ...
1 Sharaf-khan apparently groups under Kalhur all the south-eastern Kurds of Kermanshah (and Senne?). We have, however, to mind the distinction between the tribes and their rulers.
2 See Minorsky, "Lur", in EI.
3 See Minorsky, "Kurds", in EI.
V. Minorsky
The Gūrān
University of London
University of London
The Gūrān
By V. Minorsky
[Reprinted from the Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies
(University of London), Vol. XI, Part 1, 1943.]
