Kurds

Middle Eastpastoralists
Map
expand_more Description

The Kurds speak the Kurdish language, an Indo-European language most closely related to Persian. They inhabit the mountainous crescent that extends from the Euphrates River in northern Syria and Turkey to the Kermanshah in Iran. Having no state of their own, they live in today's Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria, and the former USSR. Historically, this area has been a buffer between empires. The Kurds have long fought for autonomy, either as self-governing provinces or as an independent nation-state. Most Kurds live in agricultural villages. Some Kurds live as nomadic pastoralists. Kurds converted to Islam in the seventh century AD.

Identifier
Region
  • Middle East
Subregion
  • Middle East
Subsistence Type
  • pastoralists
Samples
Countries
  • Azerbaijan
  • Armenia
  • Georgia
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Kazakhstan
  • Syria
  • Turkey
External Links