The Historical Roots of the National Name of the Kurds

The Historical Roots of the National Name of the Kurds

Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed

Kurdistan Academic Press

The ancient Mesopotamia Correspondences which relate to SU.BIR or SUBARTU were recorded, as it is known, since the second half of the 3d millennium B. C. This land was centralized on the basin of Tigris - Habur rivers, the modem Kurdish territories which are known today by the names al - Jazira , Qamishlu, Amuda and Haseke included during that early period the territory of mat KURD A ki = Country KURD A Land ...

PREFACE

It is a well-known and universally accepted fact that the pictographical script evolved from an extension of picture sign and later took the style of deography, then Cuneiform style appeared in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians during the 4th millennium B.C (1) These signs began to represent the meaning of things throughout Sumerian linguistic tradition and phonetic realization, as a primary language which had periodical, strong influence on the ancient Semitic and non-Semitic languages in Western Asia. The words, or the language elements, which are not readily represented pictorially could be assigned picture signs already standing for a word of the same root or nearly of the same pronunciation, perhaps this way evolved with adding some marks to keep the two signs apart.

Beside many difficulties, however, the cuneiform style of writing with its Sumerian and later Akkadian characters began to spread in Northern Mesopotamia, Subartu (i. e. modem Kurdistan) and Elam since the second half of the 3rd millennium B.C., during which the Indo-Arian nomads began to leave their steppe in the southern region of modem Russia, emigrating Towards Zagros mountains, north Mesopotamia and India.(2) Upon these historical facts, the assimilation of these ethnic elements among the local Subarians and Zagrosians created some new cultural and linguistic transformation, which took place among the Kassites and Hurrians in the second millennium B. C. In view of the fact that, the Arianization of these peoples was the first step the Kurdization of the non-Arian communities in Subartu (Northern and Eastern part of Mesopotamia), while, in the meantime, the existing of the Kassite state in Kardunyash (Babylonia) and the rising of the kingdom of Mitanni in North Mesopotamia and Kurdistan which centralizated in Kurda (i.e the land of Kurda) is the political and cultural transition period of Subarian ethnic groups (proto Kurds) towards Arianization.

Accordingly, our subject, as a part of Kurdology, may take cognizance with the history of the areas where this cultural changeability has existed side by side growing out of the national name of modem Kurds and their language. Thus, under these circumstances, man should turn toward a collection of Subarian vocabularies that belong to dead dialects which remained in modem Kurdish dialects as well as in other languages in Western Asia. On the other hand, one may try to study the grammar of the written forms and the style of these languages as their written records alone survive. When we try to talk about the speech sounds (Phonetics), for example, we will see that the ancient speakers of Mesopotamia and Zagros were using a somewhat different range, but mere repertoires of sounds are not all that is involved. Far fewer general classes of the sounds are distinctive (carry meaning deference's) in any language than the number of sounds that are actually phonetically different. The Indo-Arian royal title Uksatara, Ewaksatara (Gr. yspysa), for examples was written on Bêstun rocks in Eastern Kurdistan as Huwaxsetra, while it took the form Unakstar in Akkadian sources. The Median word for the ruler Dahyawus = Lord of the land, later Arabic Dahhaq … can be seen in the Assyrian tablets with the Zagrosian suffx -aka or -ukku such Dahyawka or Dah(a)ukku.

Undoubtedly, the Akk. Humurdatu < Hurdatu (Kurd. Hordat) is the Aryan Huvardata, while the Iranian Ahuradata Changed to Awurdad cjbin Kurdish. By the same way, the Akkadian territorial name mat Kurda kl has been changed to Kordyaei, Korduêne, Kordûêni Cordiaei, Cordaeorum and Qurdaya by the classis Greek, Roman and Syriac writers, and by the same way the Sumerian term UMA-DA Kar-da has been changed in Arabic to Ba-Qarda through the Aramaic form Gazarta d’ Qardu or Gazarta d’ Qardwitha.
The consideration, on the other hand, relates to the method of Speech Sounds used in a particular language fall under general heading of phonology. Phonology is often regarded as one component of the language structure, while the other component is the grammar. There is more to language than sounds and the words are not to be regarded as mere sequences of syllables. The concept of the word is a grammatical concept and traditionally, while the grammar is divided into Syntax and Morphology, Syntax can deal with the word relatins among the structure of the sentences, but morphology can deal with the internal grammatical structure of the word.

The base of Kurmandjî (Kurdish language), as a part of the historical, cultural and social process of Subartu and northern Mesopotamia on one hand, and as a system of the conventional spoken symbols by means of which the inhabitants of these broad areas as sociological members of humanity and participants in its culture which rose, as it seems, since the arrival of the Indo- Arians, on the other hand, has grown as a result of an assimilation of all Subarians in Subartu or Matim Êlitim (i.e. Upper Country). Beside these facts and in the following pages we shall demonstrate the place of the Kurdish national name and language according to ancient occurrences and real historical happenings.

The Historical Meaning of “KURD”

The ancient Mesopotamia Correspondences which relate to SU.BIR or SUBARTU were recorded, as it is known, since the second half of the 3d millennium B. C. This land was centralized on the basin of Tigris - Habur rivers, the modem Kurdish territories which are known today by the names al - Jazira , Qamishlu, Amuda and Haseke included during that early period the territory of mat KURD A ki = Country KURD A Land (1).

…..
(1) see B. Hrozny, Histoire et Progrés de Dechiffrent des Textes : Archive Orientalni, vol. III, No. 1, Pragu 1931, P. 286. This term was recorded in a number of tablet such as:

Ku-ur-da / Ki = Kurda land [cf. Archives Royales de Mari [ARM] 4. 69, 10!]
Kur-da. / Ki = Kurda land [ cf. AbB 6, 30, 5; ARM 1, 122, 6; 2, 15, 44, 48, 25, 19; 69, 6; 82, 5; 4, 36, 5; 5, 57, 20; 10, 165, 2, 5; ARMT 14, 53, 15; 97, 8; Rimah 18, 5; Birot RA 66, 133, 5].
uru kur-da-a / ki = the city of Kurda land [cf. rimah 281,10]. Kur-da-a k‘ = Kurda land [cf. Dossin RA 66, 121, 8, 10].
…

Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed

The Historical Roots of the National Name of the Kurds

Kurdistan Academic Press

Kurdistan Academic Press
The Historical Roots of the National Name of the Kurds
Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed

Erbil 2006

The name of the book:
The Historical Roots of the National name of the Kurds
By: Dr. Jamal Rashid

Script: Minwas Jamal Rashid
Cover: Mehemed Zada
Published by: Kurdistan Academy No:28

Printed no: 1000
Ministry of Education Press Hawler - 2006
In Hawler General Library has authority number 735 in 2006.