MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
|
|
Iran
Index
The Kurds speak a variety of closely related dialects, which in
Iran are collectively called Kirmanji. The dialects are divided
into northern and southern groups, and it is not uncommon for the
Kurds living in adjoining mountain valleys to speak different
dialects. There is a small body of Kurdish literature written in a
modified Arabic script. Kurdish is more closely related to Persian
than is Baluchi and also contains numerous Persian loanwords. In
large Kurdish cities, the educated population speaks both Persian
and Kurdish.
There are approximately 4 million Kurds in Iran. They are the
third most important ethnic group in the country after the Persians
and Azarbaijanis and account for about 9 percent of the total
population
(see Turkic-speaking Groups
, this ch.). They are
concentrated in the Zagros Mountain area along the western
frontiers with Turkey and Iraq and adjacent to the Kurdish
populations of both those countries. Kurds also live in the Soviet
Union and Syria. The Kurdish area of Iran includes most of West
Azarbaijan, all of Kordestan, much of Bakhtaran (formerly known as
Kermanshahan) and Ilam, and parts of Lorestan. Historically, the
Kurds of Iran have been both urban and rural, with as much as half
the rural population practicing pastoral nomadism in different
periods of history. By the mid-1970s, fewer than 15 percent of all
Kurds were nomadic. In addition, during the 1970s there was
substantial migration of rural Kurds to such historic Kurdish
cities as Bakhtaran (known as Kermanshah until 1979), Sanandaj, and
Mahabad, as well as to larger towns such as Baneh, Bijar, Ilam,
Islamabad (known as Shahabad until 1979), Saqqez, Sar-e Pol-e
Zahab, and Sonqor. Educated Kurds also migrated to non-Kurdish
cities such as Karaj, Tabriz, and Tehran.
There are also scatterings of Kurds in the provinces of Fars,
Kerman, and Baluchestan va Sistan, and there is a large group of
approximately 350,000 living in a small area of northern Khorasan.
These are all descendants of Kurds whom the government forcibly
removed from western Iran during the seventeenth century.
Most of the rural Kurds retain a tribal form of social
organization, although the position of the chief is less
significant among the majority of Kurds who live in villages than
it is among the unsettled pastoralists. An estimated forty Kurdish
tribes and confederations of tribes were still recognized in the
mid-1980s. Many of these were organized in the traditional manner,
which obligated several subordinate clans to pay dues in cash or
produce and provide allegiance to a chief clan. The land reform
program of the 1960s did not disrupt this essentially feudal system
among most tribally organized Kurds.
The majority of both rural and urban Kurds in West Azarbaijan
and Kordestan practice Sunni Islam. There is more diversity of
religious practice in southern Kurdish areas, especially in the
Bakhtaran area, where many villagers and townspeople follow Shia
beliefs. Schismatic Islamic groups, such as the Ahl-e Haqq and the
Yazdis, both of which are considered heretical by orthodox Shias,
traditionally have had numerous adherents among the Kurds of the
Bakhtaran region. A tiny minority of Kurds are adherents of
Judaism.
The Kurds have manifested an independent spirit throughout
modern Iranian history, rebelling against central government
efforts to restrict their autonomy during the Safavid, Qajar, and
Pahlavi periods. The most recent Kurdish uprising took place in
1979 following the Revolution. Mahabad, which has been a center of
Kurdish resistance against Persian authority since the time of the
Safavid monarch Shah Abbas (1587-1629), was again at the forefront
of the Kurdish autonomy struggle. Intense fighting between
government forces and Kurdish guerrillas occurred from 1979 to
1982, but since 1983 the government has asserted its control over
most of the Kurdish area.
Data as of December 1987
|
|