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Iran
Kurds
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
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