156 KURDISTAN as the frontier of Luristan, south of KirmAnshAhAn, in about 34 N. lat. and 47 E. long. The whole of this space, which is roughly calculated to embrace an area of at least 60,000 square miles, is mountainous, being in fact a section of the great chain which, known in antiquity at one ex tremity as Taurus and at the other as Zagrus, bisects Asia Minor from west to east, and then turning to the south east buttresses the great Persian plateau in a series of ranges rising step over step above the valley of the Tigris. Kurdistan thus defined may be divided, according to its physical features, into three separate sections. The first section, stretching from Kharpiit to the Persian frontier, has been thus described by Consul Taylor, who resided for many years in the country. "The general features," he says, "of this tract are high moun tains, enclosing fertile valleys and an undulating upland, bounded on the south-west by the Tigris, and intersected at several points by numerous streams having their rise in the northern districts of the Diarbekir pashalic, and emptying themselves into that river. The scenery in the highlands yields to no other portion of Turkey for variety and romantic beauty, while the numerous rivers and streams How through charming landscapes and thickly wooded valleys, bathing in their course the bases of castles and towns famous in profane and ecclesiastical history." To supplement Mr Taylor s general description, it may be enough to say that there are three principal ranges running from west to east through this portion of Kurdistan: (1) The Dujik and Mezoor Dagh (Paryadres and Abus of antiquity, and Mount Simus of Armenian history), a lofty, rugged, and inaccessible range which fills up the entire space between the two arms of the Euphrates, being connected with Anti-Taurus to the westward, and culminating far to the east in the isolated peaks of the greater and lesser Ararat ; (2) The MudikAn range, south of the Murad-su, which is a continuation of the true Taurus, and which is prolonged under the names of Nimrud Dagh, SipAn Dagh, and Aid Dagh, till it reaches the Persian frontier to the north-east of Lake Van (in this range all the headwaters of the Tigris rise, flowing south under the names of Debeneh-sii, AmbAr-su, BatmAn-sii, and the rivers of Arzen and Boh tan, and joining the main stream between Diarbekir and Jezireh) ; and (3) Mount Masius, or Jebel-Tur, an inferior range, south of the Tigris, which divides Kurdistan from the great Mesopotamia!! desert. The second or central division of Kurdistan, which may be regarded as extending north and south from Lake Van to Sulimanieh, is of a more exclusively mountainous character. With the exception indeed of the districts of Amadieh, ShekelabAd, and Koi-Sanjak on the immediate skirts of the Tigris basin, and the open country of Azerbijan beyond the great range to the south-west of Lake Urumieh, where the Kurds of the mountains have overflowed into Persia, there is hardly a square mile of level land anywhere to be found. The ranges of this division, which preserve a general direction of north-north-west and south-south east, are throughout much broken up by transverse ridges, arid seem to be tossed about in inextricable disorder, a few peaks, such as the Jebel-Judi above Amadieh (which almost certainly represents the Ararat of the Bible) and the GawAr (or Jaw;lr) Dagh near Julamerik in the Hakkari country, rising to a stupendous height, and thus dominating the surrounding mountains, while several large rivers, and especially the Khabur and the Upper and Lower Zab, run ning in narrow and precipitous beds, burst at ri-ht angles through the gorges of the chain, and descend upon the Tigris valley in a series of cataracts amid scenery of the wildest and most impressive grandeur. The usual elevation of the lulls in this part of Kurdistan is not less than 10,000 feet above the level of the sea, while some of the highest peaks reach probably to an altitude of 14,000 or even 15,000 feet. In the third or southern division of Kurdistan, which includes the Turkish pashalic of Sulimanieh and the Persian provinces of Ardelan and KirmAnshAhAn, the mountain chain diminishes both in height and breadth. The average height of the hills is here only about 5000 or 6000 feet, and the loftiest range, that of the Bend-i-Nuh, or Noah s Hill, which forms the southern barrier of the gates of Zagrus, 1 and upon which, according to the tradition of Babylonia, as opposed to the tradition of Assyria, the ark is supposed to have rested, does not exceed an elevation of 8000 feet. The pass also which traverses the range at this point, and conducts from the lowlands of Holwan to the upper plain of Kirrend, is only 10 miles in length. At the foot of the great range on the western side are the fertile plains of Shahrizor, ZohAb, and GhilAn, where rice is extensively cultivated, while on the Persian side, though rocky ridges run out to the eastward both in Ardelan and KirmAnshAhAn, the general character of the country is open, and cereals are everywhere produced in extraordinary abundance. Population. There are no means of calculating the total Kurd population with even approximate accuracy, for neither in Turkey nor in Persia has a Government census ever been attempted, and the revenue tables which regulate taxation and conscription, and ought therefore to guide inquiry, are wilfully distorted for political purposes (o such an extent as to be quite unreliable. From the materials, however, which have been recently collected by the British consular officers employed in Asia Minor, with a view of testing the relative strength of the Mohammedan and Christian populations, it seems pretty clear that the Turkish Kurds exceed one million and a half in number, while the estimates of travellers who have resided i;i Persian Kurdistan give about 750,000 souls for the aggregate of the tribesmen and sedentary Kurds dwelling along the mountains from Ararat to KirmAnshAhAn, to gether with the scattered colonies of the interior. The following rough table, then, lias been compiled from the above sources. Turkey. Pashalic of Erzeroum, including sanjaks of Erzingan, Baiburt, and Bayazid, with Deyrsim mountains 350,000 Pashalic of Diarbekir, with sanjaks of Malatic-h and Mardin and dependent tribes 320, 000 Pashalic of Betlis, with sanjaks of Mr.sh and Sa ert, and districts of Mudikan, Sasiin, Shinvan, and Northern Bohtan 130,000 Pashalic of Van, with sanjak of Hakkari and nomad tribes of the Arab and Persian frontier 1 70,000 Pashalic of Kharput, with part of Deyrsim 130,000 Pashalic of Mosul, including sanjaks of Southern Bohtan, Amadieh, l.owandiz, and Koi-Sanjak, with tribes of Bilbass, Balik, &c 250,000 Pashalic of Sulimanieh, with dependencies to Baghdad frontier 150,000 Total of Turkish Kurds 1,500,000 Persia. Kurds of Azerbijan, including Mikris of Sauj-Bolak, Bilbass of Lahijan, Zerzas of Ushnei, Shekaks, Hyder- anli, Jelali, and frontier tribes from Ararat to Sardasht 250,000 Kurdistan Proper or Sinna-Ardehin 120, 000 Province of Kirmanshahan, including tribes of Guran, Kalhur, Zengeneh, &c 230,000 Kurds of Khorasan, at Bujnurd and Kiichan, and scat tered communities in Irak 150,000 Total of Persian Kurds 750,000 1 It is this range, and not the Jebel-Judi, as is generally supposed, that represents the Nisir of the cuneiform inscriptions, where the ark is said to have rested in the Chaldasan account of the flood ; and the same tradition is to be traced in the belief which universally prevailed in Babylonia almost to modern times, that the waters of the great deluge penetrated no farther to the eastward than the "peak of Holwan." See Sachau s Birunl, p. 28.
Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/168
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