In this take I will be explaining every little thing about us Kurdish people and the things your media doesn't tell you. I am in no way a nationalist, but I also don't' believe you should feel ashamed of what your race, ethnicity, and nationality is. There is a lot of ignorance about the middle east in general by people from America, European countries, and even people from African descent. I am not sure what Asians think as I don't have any Asian friends in real life that's not to say I wouldn't be friends with any in real life, it just hasn't happened. These are thoughts that I've heard acquaintances say as well.
Origin of the Kurds
I purposely put up this picture above to show that there are blondes among Kurds and Persians. Everyone has somewhere they originated from right? While it's heavily argued and not fully certain where the Kurds originated from, the name comes from a Persian word kwrt meaning nomads or tent dwellers. The Kurdish people's ancestry can be traced back all the way from around 300 AD. Even back then most Kurds lived in mountainous areas. During the Medieval times the Kurds separated from the Arabs seeking refuge and fighting alongside the Byzantine Empire. Finally in the high middle ages the Kurds were recognized and given their identity as Kurds in the 12th and 13th century. In 838 a Kurdish leader turned against the Caliph who sent the commander Itakh to battle him. Itakh won that war and executed many of the Kurds. Eventually the Arabs conquered the Kurdish regions and converted the majority of the Kurds to Islam, making them fight in the military as well.
History of the Kurds
The Safavids which was a Persian ruling dynasty took over Kurdish inhabited territories in 1501. The Chaldiran war in 1514 began the Ottoman and Persian wars. So during the next 300 years the Kurds were caught in the middle and would travel back and forth to which is now present day Turkey and Iran. The Safavid king Ismail put down a Yezedi rebellion which went on for four years. One hundred years later the battle of Dimdim took place where the king Abbas took succeeded in putting down the rebellion lead by the Kurdish leader Amir Khan. A huge number of Kurds were deported to Khorasan to weaken them and to prevent them from invading Turkey and Afghanistan. During World War I Kurdistan was supposed to have it's own country, but wasn't given one during the British Colonialism. Technically speaking the modern day countries you see on the map today like Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Turkey are relatively new countries.
Kurds enemies
Well to be fair it's difficult to say who the Kurds enemies are as they have many unfortunately. Then again it's the middle east and there has been lots of bloodshed there not just over the years, but still to this day sadly. Mainly the enemy of the Kurds would be the Turks. Back when The Ottoman Empire was at its strongest they made a lot of promises to other middle eastern groups and countries, not just the Kurds. For instance a pact that they made with the Armenians. After the Armenians decided they no longer wanted to be under their rule they killed 1.5 million of them during World War I. To be fair the Kurds have done some dirty things as well. Like for instance about 100 Kurds joined alongside Turkey during the Armenian genocide. They were promised their own country and for that they helped join along side the Turks. Basically over the past hundreds and hundreds of years us Kurds migrated from Turkey to Iran and Syria bla bla bla. During Saddam's reign there was also a lot of oppression towards the Kurds. A huge genocide as well called Bloody Friday in a city called Halabja. These group of Kurds from Iraq tried crossing the border in Turkey to try and move to Iran as seen in the video. Many failed and as a result ended up dying in the Turkish mountains by starving to death, hypothermia, or getting sick and no treatment. Warning video is a bit explicit.
Kurdish attire
As you can see the men's traditional clothes are very unappealing and the women's are actually quite attractive, at least in my opinion. Obviously not all people over there dress like this. The men's clothes are baggy like in the above picture also with some type of fabric shaped like a belt around their waist. The Kurdish women usually wear a mesh fabric or a sheer fabric which is ornamented skillfully with many beads or sequins or both. The clothes are usually brightly colored as well. The clothes are about the same in other Kurdish indigenous regions. They are all pretty much the same looking though and the styles change only by a smidget. Not all people dress like that. However the women tend to dress more modest while a few tend to dress more western depending on the country. A strangely seemingly slowly building popular trend that has grown in the Northern part of Iraq for men is the emo look. Yes no joking there are emo Kurds. Mostly the clothes that are worn are cheap knock off brands that are shipped from European countries.
Kurdish foods
Kurdish music/dance
The Kurdish dance is usually done in a group with men with men all holding each other's hand in a circle formation sometimes holding a piece of cloth spinning it around in circular motion. Sometimes men holding hands with women. The music surprisingly is still folk music. Folk genre music with the Kurds has withstood the test of time. The folk music of today however has more of a Pop genre to it. I'll just be sharing a few Kurdish songs I like in particular. "Hay Banm by Natalia", "Bo Kurdistan", "Halparke by Zakaria Abdullah."
Kurdish language
And finally the Kurdish language. I think this will be enough for this mytake. So what is the Kurdish language? And what is it like? For those of you who are already middle eastern of some sort you know or should know by now how close all the middle eastern languages actually are from each other. This is due to the constant back and forth struggle in this part of the globe since mankind. Arabic, Turkish, Farsi, Kurdish, even Azerbaijani all have similar and exact words to some degree. I'll be teaching you a couple of words in Kurdish using my actual voice. We have mainly 3 different dialects. Sorani, Kurmanji, Palwani. You cannot learn the language through google translate as there is no audio for it. The dialect I am speaking is Sorani.
1. I have respect from people of all societies. (amin ehtaram haya labo alim e hamoo koomaliaty.) https://soundcloud.com/user-801580286/kurd1
2. People tend to have different accents so I am just saying the same word but with a different accent. Hello are you doing good? (choni atoo bashi) Hello how are you? (choni atoo keewy.) https://soundcloud.com/user-801580286/kurd2
3. I am very thankful you read my mytake and now I am gonna go to sleep, good night. If you have any questions for me tell me and I will answer your question. Goodbye! (Zor mamnoonim mytake eemin hoondan esta dachim danoom shaw shat agar heetz soo al tan haya pam bera jwaabit da damawa hawa hafice.) https://soundcloud.com/user-801580286/kurd3
Biji Kurdistan
Thank you for reading this mytake. I hope you enjoyed learning about my culture, my people, history,etc. There is much more I could share with you, so if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask. We still do not have our own country we are a group of indigenous people who only have a few regions. Please keep the comments safe and no antagonising. I am in no way using this platform to attack any other group of people from different nationalities, ethnicities, and so on. No racism either please.
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