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The sheep and the Chevrolet, a journey through Kurdistan


Auteur :
Éditeur : Paul Elek Date & Lieu : 1947, London
Préface : Pages : 176
Traduction : ISBN :
Langue : AnglaisFormat : 140x215 mm
Code FIKP : Liv. Ang. 3649Thème : Général

Présentation
Table des Matières Introduction Identité PDF
The sheep and the Chevrolet, a journey through Kurdistan

The sheep and the Chevrolet, a journey through Kurdistan

Francois Balsan

Paul Elek publishers, ltd.

The Kurds are a very ancient people. Deeply rooted to their ancestral soil, which lies astride three countries - Turkey, Irak and Iran - they have been there, so history tells us, for more than three thousand years, close to what is probably the cradle of their race, the Zagros Mountains. Small wonder that they have always intrigued me.

The famous Hittites, in whom the modern ethnologists of Ankara have discovered a kinship with the Turks, cannot boast of much greater antiquity, for their occupation of Asia Minor hardly goes back beyond 1900 B.C. Moreover, about a thousand years before our times, such semblance of unity and civilisation as they had evolved began to disintegrate; their dominion was therefore limited, whereas the vigour and stability of the Kurd are almost unique.

Their neighbours and masters, the Turks (for long masters in name only), consented to marriages with immigrant peoples, perhaps losing thereby a little of the race's individuality; but in the sixteenth century they attained the zenith of their power under the Khalifs with Soliman the Magnificent and then, after a long decline, their present-day political zenith under the Republic. During all this time the Kurds remained barbarians; clinging to their mountains, their sole interests were for their flocks of sheep or buffalo.
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THE LURE OF THE KURDISTAN

The Kurds are a very ancient people. Deeply rooted to their ancestral soil, which lies astride three countries - Turkey, Irak and Iran - they have been there, so history tells us, for more than three thousand years, close to what is probably the cradle of their race, the Zagros Mountains. Small wonder that they have always intrigued me.

The famous Hittites, in whom the modern ethnologists of Ankara have discovered a kinship with the Turks, cannot boast of much greater antiquity, for their occupation of Asia Minor hardly goes back beyond 1900 B.C. Moreover, about a thousand years before our times, such semblance of unity and civilisation as they had evolved began to disintegrate; their dominion was therefore limited, whereas the vigour and stability of the Kurd are almost unique.

Their neighbours and masters, the Turks (for long masters in name only), consented to marriages with immigrant peoples, perhaps losing thereby a little of the race's individuality; but in the sixteenth century they attained the zenith of their power under the Khalifs with Soliman the Magnificent and then, after a long decline, their present-day political zenith under the Republic. During all this time the Kurds remained barbarians; clinging to their mountains, their sole interests were for their flocks of sheep or buffalo.

For an amateur student of ethnology they and their geographical setting provide an intriguing subject of investigation. I had met two travellers who had lately tried to get into Kurdistan, and had been promptly turned out by the Turkish authorities. This was hardly encouraging. But, taking all in all, it was hardly astonishing that the Turkish military powers-that-be should prove somewhat intransigent. The Kurds are a wild people and none too easy to manage.

The Sultans, though they reigned in principle over the eastern mountains and embodied them in those quaint prettily - coloured maps with amusing annotations, visited them as little as possible, and refrained from taking any action there.

This situation lasted from the sixteenth century until about 1840 when Constantinople decided to make sure of its hold on Van, an important productive centre. This necessitated a regular campaign…




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