Kurdistan' ('the Country of the Kurds'), an extensive geographical, though not political, region of Asia, for the most part included within a line drawn from Sivas in Asia Minor by way of Diarbekr, Sulimanieh, Kermanshah and Urmia (in Persia), Mount Ararat, and Erzerüm, back to Sivas. Kurdistan thus belongs to both the Turkish and Persian monarchies, chiefly to the former, and contains about 50,000 sq. m., with a population estimated at more than 2½ millions, thus distributed—nearly 1½ millions in Turkey, 700,000 in Persia, 45,000 in Russian Transcaucasia, and about 5000 on the Afghano-Persian frontier (transplanted thither by Nadir Shah). The country embraces the mountain-chains that abut upon the Armenian plateau on the south, and upon the Iranian plateau on the east. Thus its surface ranges from 5000 up to 15,000 feet in altitude. Between the mountain-chains, the summits of which are generally densely wooded, lie grassy plateaus. Numerous rivers force their way through the mountains at right angles to the directions of their main axes, and go to feed the Tigris and the Euphrates; chief of these tributaries are the two Zabs, the Batman-su, and the two branches of the Euphrates. The principal products of the soil and of native industry are wool, butter, sheep, gum, gall-nuts, hides, raisins, and tobacco, which are sold out of Kurdish districts to the annual value of £110,000. The bulk of the inhabitants are Kurds (the ancient Carduchi), a race partly nomad and pastoral, and partly settled and agricultural. The Kurds, who speak a language called Kermanji, derived from an old Persian dialect, have from time immemorial stood on the same level of civilisation. They are predatory and impatient of political subjection, but recognise a code of rude chivalrous honour, and are hospitable and brave. They live under chiefs of their own, but are nominally subject to the Porte and the Shah of Persia respectively. Their origin is traced back to the Turanian Gutu or Kurdu, who were a powerful people in Assyrian times. After the fall of Nineveh they gradually became merged in the Medes and were Aryanised. Kurdistan, having been ruled successively by the Persians, Macedonians, Parthians, Sassanians, and Romans, is exceedingly rich in antiquarian remains, most of which are still unexamined. The great Saladin was of Kurdish descent. In 1880 an extensive Kurdish rising against Persia took place, apparently in the hope of securing independence. The inhabitants, with the exception of certain peculiar and esoteric sects, and the Nestorians (q.v.), profess Mohammedanism. They have cruelly plundered and slaughtered their Armenian neighbours. The chief towns are Bitlis, Van, Urunia, Diarbekr, and Kermanshah.
See Millingen, Wild Life among the Koords (1870); Lerch, Forschungen über die Kurden (St Petersburg, 1857-58); Jaba, Recueil de Notices et Récits Kourdes (1860); and Jaba's Dictionnaire Kurde-Française, with Justi's valuable preface (1879).