THE KURDISH TRIBES OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

THE KURDISH TRIBES OF THE OTTOMANEMPIRE
BY MARK SYKES
PREFACE

THE materials collected in the ensuing pages are the results of about 7,500 miles of riding and innumerable conversations with policemen, nluleteers, mullahs, chieftains,sheep drovers,horse dealers,carriersand other people capable of giving one first hand information. The results I fear are extreinelymeagre,but I hope they may prove of use to future travellers.

As hardly anything has been written on the subject in the English language heretofore,I have not been able to make a study of the Kurds from a biblio-graphical point of view. However, I trust that this will not detract from the interest of the work. I may add that I had amongmy servantson my last journey representatives from the three most importantsections of the Kurds,so that I was able to obtain interpreters without any great difficulty,a matter of someimportance amidst the conflictingdialects of the nomadsand sedentarymountaineers.

In preparing the following list of the varioustribes of the Kurdish race I have endeavoured to simplify the work of future students by marking down and cataloguingas many of the tribes as have come either directly or indirectlyunder my notice.

After variousabortiveattempts at setting them down in a manner comprehensible to any one but myself, I have decided for the purposesof this work to break up the regionsinhabitedby Kurds into six zones; to each of these zones a section of the catalogueis devoted, each section containinga separate enumeration.

The Kurdish Tribes of the Ottoman Empire by Mark Sykes [1]
Source: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol.38 (Jul. – Dec., 1908), pp. 451-486 PDF Download