Editing Kurds (section)

===Antiquity===
{{main|Origin of the Kurds}}

The country ''Kar-da-ka'' is mentioned on a [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] clay tablet dated to the 3rd millennium BC.{{Sfn|Bois|Minorsky|MacKenzie|2012|p=447, Column 2}} This land was located next to "the people of Su", which [[G. R. Driver]] placed to the south of [[Lake Van]].<ref name=":5">{{cite journal|title=The Name Kurd and its Philological Connexions|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=55|issue=3|pages=393–403|doi=10.1017/S0035869X00067605|year=1923|last1=Driver|first1=G. R.|s2cid=162528712}}</ref> A thousand years later, a people who may have been called ''Qur-ṭi-e'' (the reading is uncertain),{{Sfn|Bois|Minorsky|MacKenzie|2012|p=447, Column 2}} thought by Driver to be related to ''Kar-da-ka'' and located west of Lake Van, are mentioned in the inscriptions of the [[Assyria|Assyrian]] king [[Tiglath-Pileser I]].<ref name=":5" /> In the late 5th century BC, [[Xenophon]] mentioned the [[Carduchii|Karduchoi]], a people living to the east of the Bohtan River; this name survived in later times as ''Qardu'' or ''[[Corduene]]'' and other similar toponyms near [[Mount Judi]], on the left bank of the Tigris. The connection between ''Kurd'' and ''Qardu'' and the identification of the Kurds with the Karduchoi, based on the similarity of the names and the correspondence of the inhabited territory, was widely accepted at the beginning of the 20th century, but it was deemed philologically impossible by [[Martin Hartmann]], [[Theodor Nöldeke]] and F. H. Weissbach, who instead identified the [[Cyrtians]], a tribe living in [[Media (region)|Media]] and [[Persis|Persia]], as the ancestors of the Kurds.{{Sfn|Bois|Minorsky|MacKenzie|2012|pp=447-448}}{{Efn|This identification was earlier proposed by [[Friedrich Carl Andreas|F. C. Andreas]]. [[Garnik Asatrian]] considers the identification of the ethnonyms to be likely but not the actual descent of the Kurds from the Cyrtians.{{Sfn|Asatrian|2009|pp=26-27}}}} Since then, the connection between ''Kurd'' and ''Qardu'' / ''Karduchoi'' has been rejected by many scholars.{{Sfn|Asatrian|2009|p=25: "Its [the ethnonym Kurd's] possible connection to Xenephon's καρδόυχοι must be considered now as obsolete [...]. This view was thoroughly discussed and rejected by Th. Nöldeke just on the threshold of the 20th century [...]. And though some two decades later G. R. Driver [...] had attempted to revive the ''Kurd''/καρδόυχοι (Arm. ''Kordu-kʻ'') correlation, nonetheless, it was not accepted within iranological academic circles for phonetic and historical reasons"}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Marciak |first=Michał |authorlink=Michał Marciak |title=Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West |date= |publisher=Brill |year=2017 |isbn=978-90-04-35072-4 |location=Leiden |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=hwEtDwAAQBAJ&dq=karduchoi&pg=PA220 220]–221|quote=It is frequently stated that Gordyene was 'an apparently Kurdish or proto-Kurdish state,' and that its population were ancestors of the modern Kurds. However, this identification, which is apparently based on the similarity of the names of the two peoples, the Καρδοῦχοι and the Kurds (as well as on a very partial overlap of the inhabited territories), is rejected by many scholars on linguistic grounds.}}</ref>

Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the [[Medes]], an ancient Iranian people, and even use a calendar dating from 612 BC, when the [[Assyria]]n capital of [[Nineveh]] was conquered by the Medes.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Iran v. Peoples of Iran (1) A General Survey |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/iran-v1-peoples-survey |access-date=4 March 2016 |last=Frye |first=Richard Nelson |author-link=Richard N. Frye}}</ref> The claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the [[Ey Reqîb|Kurdish national anthem]]: "We are the children of the Medes and [[Kai Khosrow]]."<ref>{{cite book|author=Ofra Bengio|title=Kurdish Awakening: Nation Building in a Fragmented Homeland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=caCDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA87|date=15 November 2014|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-75813-1|page=87}}</ref> Both Kurdish and the [[Median language]] (about which very little is known) are categorized as [[Northwestern Iranian languages]], but the current scholarly consensus is that there is no attested pre-modern ancestor of the Kurdish languages. The existing evidence suggests that Kurdish is not a descendant of the Median language. [[D. N. Mackenzie]] theorized that Kurdish and split off from the linguistic sub-group of Median at an early point and evolved in parallel with Persian. Certain essential similarities exist between Kurdish and Persian, more than other Northwestern Iranian languages, which has led some scholars to conclude that Kurdish developed from early on in close proximity to Persian, with Kurdish speakers later migrating into the Median territory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Öpengin |first=Ergin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108623711%23CN-bp-24/type/book_part |title=The Cambridge History of the Kurds |date=2021-04-22 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-62371-1 |editor-last=Bozarslan |editor-first=Hamit |pages=607–610 |chapter=The History of Kurdish and the Development of Literary Kurmanji |doi=10.1017/9781108623711.025 |access-date=2025-03-25 |editor2-last=Gunes |editor2-first=Cengiz |editor3-last=Yadirgi |editor3-first=Veli}}</ref>

The term ''Kurd'' is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century.<ref name="MartinIdentity">Martin van Bruinessen, "The ethnic identity of the Kurds," in: ''Ethnic groups in the Republic of Turkey'', compiled and edited by Peter Alford Andrews with Rüdiger Benninghaus [=Beihefte zum Tübinger Atlas des Vorderen Orients, Reihe B, Nr.60]. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwich Reichert, 1989, pp. 613–21.  excerpt: "The ethnic label "Kurd" is first encountered in Arabic sources from the first centuries of the Islamic era; it seemed to refer to a specific variety of pastoral nomadism, and possibly to a set of political units, rather than to a linguistic group: once or twice, "Arabic Kurds" are mentioned. By the 10th century, the term appears to denote nomadic and/or transhumant groups speaking an Iranian language and mainly inhabiting the mountainous areas to the South of Lake Van and Lake Urmia, with some offshoots in the Caucasus. ... If there was a Kurdish-speaking subjected peasantry at that time, the term was not yet used to include them."{{cite web|url=http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Bruinessen_Ethnic_identity_Kurds.pdf|title=The Ethnic Identity of the Kurds in Turkey|access-date=23 June 2015|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015152331/http://www.let.uu.nl/~Martin.vanBruinessen/personal/publications/Bruinessen_Ethnic_identity_Kurds.pdf|archive-date=15 October 2015}}</ref> Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends such as the ''[[Shahnameh]]'' and the [[Middle Persian]] [[Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan|''Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan'']], and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name ''Kurd''.<ref>A. Safrastian, ''Kurds and Kurdistan'', The Harvill Press, 1948, p. 16 and p. 31</ref> The Kurds have ethnically diverse origins.<ref name="Shoup">{{cite book|author=John A. Shoup III|title=Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GN5yv3-U6goC&pg=PA159|date=17 October 2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-59884-363-7|page=159}}</ref><ref name="McDowall 2004">{{cite book|title=A Modern History of the Kurds|edition=Third|first=David|last=McDowall|date=14 May 2004|publisher=I.B. Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-416-0|pages=8–9, 373, 375|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dgDi9qFT41oC&pg=PA9}}</ref>

During the [[Sassanid era]], in ''[[Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan]]'', a short prose work written in Middle Persian, [[Ardashir I]] is depicted as having battled the Kurds and their leader, [[Madig]]. After initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds.<ref>''Kârnâmag î Ardashîr î Babagân.'' Trans. D. D. P. Sanjana. 1896</ref> In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, [[Artabanus V of Parthia|Ardavan V]], which is also featured in the same work, he is referred to as being a Kurd himself.{{blockquote|
<poem>
You've bitten off more than you can chew
and you have brought death to yourself.
O son of a Kurd, raised in the tents of the Kurds,
who gave you permission to put a crown on your head?<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal|last1=Limbert|first1=J.|year=1968|title=The Origins and Appearance of the Kurds in Pre-Islamic Iran|journal=Iranian Studies|volume=1|issue=2|pages=41–51|doi=10.1080/00210866808701350}}</ref>
</poem>}} The usage of the term ''Kurd'' during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Sfn|Asatrian|2009|p=23}}

Similarly, in AD 360, the Sassanid king [[Shapur II]] marched into the [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] province [[Zabdicene]], to conquer its chief city, Bezabde, present-day [[Cizre]]. He found it heavily fortified and guarded by three legions and a large body of Kurdish archers.<ref name="gutenberg.org">{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16167/16167-h/raw7a.htm|title=The Seven Great Monarchies, by George Rawlinson, The Seventh Monarchy, Part A|via=Project Gutenberg|access-date=2 March 2014}}</ref> After a long and hard-fought siege, Shapur II breached the walls, conquered the city and massacred all its defenders. Thereafter he had the strategically located city repaired, provisioned and garrisoned with his best troops.<ref name="gutenberg.org"/>

Qadishaye, settled by [[Kavad I|Kavad]] in [[Singara]], were probably Kurds<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 3, Issue 2|last=Fisher|first=W. B.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1968|isbn=9780521246934|pages=761}}</ref> and worshiped the martyr [[Abd-al-Masih (martyr)|Abd al-Masih.]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Origins of Cities in Dry-Farming Syria and Mesopotamia in the 3rd Millennium B.C.|last=Weiss|first=Harvey|publisher=Four Quarters Publishing|year=1986|isbn=9780931500084 |location=Guilford, Connecticut|pages=76}}</ref> They revolted against the Sassanids and were raiding the whole Persian territory. Later they, along with Arabs and Armenians, joined the Sassanids in their war against the Byzantines.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fisher|first=G.|year=2016|title=Writing the History of the 'Persian Arabs': The Pre-Islamic Perspective on the "Nasrids" of al-Hirah|journal=Iranian Studies|volume=49|pages=247–290|doi=10.1080/00210862.2015.1129763|s2cid=163337124}}</ref>

There is also a 7th-century text by an unidentified author, written about the legendary [[Christian martyr]] [[Mar Qardagh]]. He lived in the 4th century, during the reign of Shapur II, and during his travels is said to have encountered [[Abdisho (died 345)|Mar Abdisho]], a deacon and martyr, who, after having been questioned of his origins by Mar Qardagh and his [[Marzoban]]s, stated that his parents were originally from an Assyrian village called Hazza, but were driven out and subsequently settled in Tamanon, a village in "the land of the Kurds", identified as being in the region of [[Mount Judi]].<ref>Walker, J. T. (2006). ''The Legend of Mar Qardagh: Narrative and Christian Heroism in Late Antique Iraq''. Berkeley: [[University of California Press]], pp. 26, 52.</ref>