Etymology
The term "Kurd" is first encountered in Arabic sources of the 1st century of the Islamic era. The term seems to refer to variety of pastoral nomadism and possibly a set of political units, rather than a linguistic group. Books from the early Islamic era, including those containing legends like the Shahnameh and the Pahlavi Karnamak Ardashir-e-Papkan and other early Islamic sources provide early attestation of the name Kurd. The term Kurd in the Middle Persian documents simply means nomad and tent-dweller and could be attributed to any Iranian ethnic group having similar characteristics. In the early Islamic Persian and Arabic sources, the term Kurd became synonymous with an amalgamation of Iranian and Iranicized nomadic tribes and groups without reference to any specific Iranian language.
By the 16th century, Sherefxan Bidlisi states that there are four division of Kurds: Kurmanj, Lur, Kalhur and Guran. However, according to Vladimir Minorsky, only Kurmanj and possibly Kalhur come under the heading of Kurds, whereas Lur and Guran stand apart for both linguistic and ethnological reasons. Despite the opinion of Minorsky and other linguists, the Kalhur and Guran speakers do not use linguistic differentiators. Rather they use cultural differentiators and consider themselves as Kurds, along with all Kurmanji, Sorani speakers.
The ultimate etymology of the name is unknown. It has been connected to various toponyms and ethnonyms of antiquity. Thus, one suggestion connects a tribal name known from Assyrian documents of ca. 1000 BC, which mention a people living in Mt. Azu or Hizan (near Lake Van) by the name Kurti or Kurkhi. The country of the Kurkhi included regions of Mount Judi and districts that were later called by the names Sophene, Anzanene and Gordyene.
According to the British scholar G. R. Driver, the ethnonym originates even earlier, in 3rd millennium BC Sumerian records, as the name of a land called Karda or Qarda. This land south of Lake Van, was inhabited by the people of Su or Subaru who were connected with the Qurtie, a group of mountain dwellers.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Kurdish People
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