: a member of a pastoral and agricultural people who inhabit a plateau region in adjoining parts of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
countable noun. A Kurd is a member of a race of people who live mainly in parts of Turkey, Iran, and Iraq.
According to one theory, it originates in Middle Persian as ???? kwrt-, a term for "nomad; tent-dweller". After the Muslim conquest of Persia, this term is adopted into Arabic as kurd, and was used specifically of nomadic tribes.
Eastern Turk was another euphemism for Kurds from 1980 onwards. Nowadays the Kurds, in Turkey, are still known under the name Easterner (Doğulu).
The anthropologist Van Bruinessen says “Medieval arab geographers used the term 'Kurd' (in its arabic plural form 'Akrad') to denote all nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes that were neither Arab nor Turkish”5.
The Kurdish people are known for their practice of mysticism and participation in Sufi orders, a practice that is considered heretical by traditional Islam.
No, Kurds are Arab. They are a separate linguistic and ethnic group. Arabic is a Semitic language, while Kurdish is an Indo-European language. However, like Arabs, most Kurds are Sunni Muslims.
Before Islam, the majority of Kurds followed a western Iranic pre-Zoroastrian faith which derived directly from Indo-Iranian tradition, some elements of this faith survived in Yezidism, Yarsanism and Kurdish Alevism. Kurds were a nation divided between the Byzantine and Persian Empires when Islam first appeared.
Kurdish is an Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo- European languages with multiple dialects spoken by Kurdish peoples in the mountainous regions of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Turkey.
Zoroastrianism was one of the dominant religions in Kurdistan before the Islamic era. Currently, Zoroastrianism is an officially recognized religion in Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran and three Zoroastrian temples have opened in Iraqi Kurdistan after the official recognition of Zoroastrianism in the region in 2015.
No, the Kurds are not Persian. They are a separate ethnic group. However, their language is an Indo-European language that is related to the Farsi language spoken by Persians. This makes them more closely related to each other than either group is to Arabs.
Folklore. The Kurds have a rich folkloric tradition which is increasingly endangered as a result of modernization, urbanization, and cultural repression. Kurds celebrate the new year on Newroz, and its celebration was often banned by authorities in Turkey and Syria. A well known Kurdish tale is Mem û Zîn.
Kurdish has in turn emerged as a group within Northwest Iranian during the Medieval Period (roughly 10th to 16th centuries). The Kurdish people are believed to be of heterogeneous origins, both from Iranian-speaking and non-Iranian peoples.
The most successful Kurdish leader in this era is Saladin (r. 1174 to 1193), also known as Saladin Ayyubi, who was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty.
Kurd Sentence Examples
By race Saladin was a Kurd of Armenia. Little is known of the part of Syria which lies within the folded belt, and includes the Amanus and Kurd mountains. Marash is prosperous, and has a large trade in Kurd carpets and embroideries.
kurd is a valid English word.
The Kurds are one of the world's largest peoples without a state, making up sizable minorities in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Their century-old fight for rights, autonomy, and even an independent Kurdistan has been marked by marginalization and persecution.
Most of the Kurds live in contiguous areas of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey—a somewhat loosely defined geographic region generally referred to as Kurdistan (“Land of the Kurds”).
Our HLA study conclusions are that Kurds most probably belong to an ancient Mediterranean / Middle East / Caucasian genetic substratum and that present results and those previously obtained by us in Kurds may be useful for Medicine in future Kurd transplantation programs, HLA Epidemiology (HLA linked diseases) and ...
The majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslim, with Alevi Shi'a Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Yezidi communities. Religious divergences as well as varying political viewpoints account for a wide variety of Kurdish perspectives vis-à-vis the state, though political discourse is dominated by the Kurdish nationalist PKK.
Mass conversion of Kurds to Islam didn't happen until the reign of Umar ibn Al-Khattab, second caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate between 634 and 644. The Kurds first came into contact with the Muslim armies during the Muslim conquest of Persia in 637.
The words "Kurds", "Kurdistan", or "Kurdish" were officially banned by the Turkish government. Following the military coup of 1980, the Kurdish language was officially prohibited in public and private life until 1991. Many who spoke, published, or sang in Kurdish were arrested and imprisoned.
Kurds in Lebanon are people born in or residing in Lebanon who are of full or partial Kurdish origin. Estimates on the number of Kurds in Lebanon prior to 1985 were around 60,000. Today, there are tens of thousands of Kurds in Lebanon, mainly in Beirut.
Kurds in Syria (Rojava)
Many Kurds consider the Kurdish-majority regions of northern and northeastern Syria to be Western Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojavaye Kurdistane) and seek political autonomy within Syria (akin to Iraqi Kurdistan in Iraq) or outright independence as part of an independent Kurdistan.
The Iraqi–Kurdish conflict consists of a series of wars and rebellions by the Kurds against the central authority of Iraq during the 20th century, which began shortly after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I and lasting until the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.