"دليل كرمانشاه." [ظ‎‎١‎٦‎٨] (٥٠٤/٣٤١)

248
KUREH-KHOSROY—Mahidasht.
A village of the Mahidasht district. Malyat Krs. 152,262 dinars cash
and Kh. 2-50-0 grain. It is inhabited by Zengenehs.
KUREH SAID—Zobab.
Malyat Krs. 500.
KUREH SALEH—Zohab.
Mazraeh g“iven on the Revenue Department list of villages, etc,, of the
District of Zohab. It is probably the same as Kurrefi-Said.
KURDS—
The following notes from Curzon s Persia and the Persians apply to the
Kurds of Kerrnanshah:
“By far the greater part of the Persian Kurds are sedentary and pastoral.
A great many of them farm and till the ground on the plains and hill
slopes; an even larger number keep herds of sheep, goats and cattle, from
which they make excellent cheese and butter; and the extent of their
nomadic habits is, in most casos, that in the summer months they move into
camps on the higher acclivities, above the settled villages which they inhabit
in the winter. Nomad Kurds are to be found paituularly in Turkish terri
tory, and on the border; and perhaps the wealthiest and mist independent
of the tribes belong to this class, the cultivators of the soil and shepherds
being, as a rule, deplorably ignorant and poor, As regards their character,
every variety may be found in their midst, from the typical robber chieftain
to the harmless peasant, and from the dashing warrior to the miserable
thrall. Those who know them best deny that they are naturally either cruel
or fanatical, and credit them with a rude hospitality and high courage.
When excited, however, they are as ugly customers as can be encountered.
Their position amid hostile and craven communities, whose religion they
abhor, tempts them to anarchy and turbulence. Ruled by a strong but
just hand, there is no . reason why they should not become an orderly
community, very useful for purposes of warfare.”
They are an extraordinarily ignorant and extraordinarily stupid people
with neither education, schools, nor books, and it has been said of the
whole race that not one in 10,000 can read. They have the black hair
and eyes, the dark complexion and the sullen swagger (so characteristic
too of the Afghans) that are usually associated with picturesque ruffianism;
and the sympathies and fears of travellers have variously represented their
features as strikingly handsome, or repulsively ugly.
There can be no doubt that by far the most lawless and rascally of the
Kurds are the frontier tribes, who migrate forwards and backwards across
the border line, according to the season of the year or the hope of plunder,
.seeking refuge from an atrocity in the one country by retreat to the other.
Twenty-five years ago Mr. J. Gf. 'l aylor, British Consul at Diarbekr, penned
the following paragraph which is as true now as when composed :—
“This mixed nationality of one family and the still unsettled state of the
frontier cause interminable disputes between the Governments of Persia and
Turkey. The Kurds being equally at home in one country as in the other
cross the border whenever they feel inclined or it suits their purpose, either