Khorasani Kurds (; ; ) are

Kurds Kurds (), or the Kurdish people, are an Iranian peoples, Iranic ethnic group from West Asia. They are indigenous to Kurdistan, which is a geographic region spanning southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Iraq, and northeastern Syri ...

who live in the provinces of North Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan in northeastern

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

, along the Iran-

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

border. Khorasani Kurds speak the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish and are

Shia Muslim Shia Islam is the second-largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad in Islam, Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political Succession to Muhammad, successor (caliph) and as the spiritual le ...

s. Many Khorasani Kurds are bilingual in Khorasani Turkic, mainly due to intermarriages with Khorasani Turks. However, Persian is the lingua franca. There are about 696 Kurdish villages in the two Khorasan provinces. Many tribes are closely connected to the Khorasani Turks.

History

Deportations of Kurds from present-day

Turkish Kurdistan Turkish Kurdistan or Northern Kurdistan () is the southeastern part of Turkey where Kurds form the predominant ethnic group. The Kurdish Institute of Paris estimates that there are 20 million Kurds living in Turkey, the majority of them in the ...

and

South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...

to Khorasan were initiated by

Ismail I Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...

and continued under

Tahmasp I Tahmasp I ( or ; 22 February 1514 – 14 May 1576) was the second shah of Safavid Iran from 1524 until his death in 1576. He was the eldest son of Shah Ismail I and his principal consort, Tajlu Khanum. Tahmasp ascended the throne after the ...

in the early 16th century. A further 45,000 Kurdish families were deported from 1598 to 1601. In the following decades, five Kurdish domains were established in Khorasan by

Abbas the Great Abbas I (; 27 January 1571 – 19 January 1629), commonly known as Abbas the Great (), was the fifth Safavid Iran, Safavid shah of Iran from 1588 to 1629. The third son of Mohammad Khodabanda, Shah Mohammad Khodabanda, he is generally considered ...

stretching from Astarabad to Chenaran. During the reign of

Nader Shah Nader Shah Afshar (; 6 August 1698 or 22 October 1688 – 20 June 1747) was the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran and one of the most powerful rulers in Iranian history, ruling as shah of Iran (Persia) from 1736 to 1747, when he was a ...

, Kurds from

Ardalan Ardalan also known as Ardalanids, house of Ardalan, Ardalind dynasty, () was a Hereditary monarchy, hereditary Kurds, Kurdish Emirate in western Iran from around the 14th century until 1865 or 1868 with Sanandaj as capital. The Ardalan state wa ...

and those already deported to Khorasan were settled in

Gilan Province Gilan Province () is one of the 31 provinces of Iran, in the northwest of the country and southwest of the Caspian Sea. Its capital is the city of Rasht. The province lies along the Caspian Sea, in Iran's Regions of Iran, Region 3, west of ...

. The main reason behind the deportations was the desire to create a defense-line against Turkmen and Uzbek nomads from

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

Culture

Khorasani Kurds have interacted with nearby Khorasani Turkic and Turkmen tribes. Some works of the most famous Khorasani Kurdish poet, Ja'far Qoli, of late 19th century, were modelled on the 18th-century Turkmen ashik Magtymguly's verses and also Khorasani Turkic verses.

Language

Khorasani Kurdish is a dialect of

Kurmanji Kurmanji (, ), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the ...

and lacks distinct sub-dialects. It is influenced by Persian, Khorasani Turkic, and Turkmen languages. Two of the four major Khorasani Kurdish tribes, Zafaranlu and Shadlu, mainly speak Khorasani Turkic.

Tribes

Major Kurdish tribes of Khorasan are Za'faranlu, Shadlu, Keyvanlu, and Sheikh Amarlu. According to Abbasali Madih, Kurdish tribes in Khorasan include the Amar, Baçvan, Badlan, Berivan, Bicervan, Çapeş, Davan, Hamazkan, Izan, Keyvan, Mamyan, Mastyan, Mozdegan, Palokan, Qaçkan (or Qoch-quyunlu), Qarabash, Qaraçur, Qaraman, Reşwan, Rudkan, Sevkan, Silsepuran, Şad, Şeyhkan, Şirvan, Torosan, Tukan, Topkan, Zafaran, Zangalan, Zaraqkan, Zardkan and Zeydan. However, several tribes such as Qaramanlu and Silsepuranlu or ''Silsüpür'' ('sweep-clean' in Turkic) are of Turkoman origins. Some tribes are mixed with the nearby Khorasani Turks and experience confusion of identity. Other tribes include the Lak in Kalat and Darragaz who still speak

Laki Laki () or Lakagígar (, ''Craters of Laki'') is a volcanic fissure in the western part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, not far from the volcanic fissure of Eldgjá and the small village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The fissure is proper ...

Villages

Bojnord

References

Bibliography

* {{citation , last1=Madih , first1=‘Abbas-‘ Ali , title=The Kurds of Khorasan , journal=Iran and the Caucasus , date=2007 , volume=11 , issue=1 , pages=11–31 , doi=10.1163/157338407X224879 Kurdish diaspora North Khorasan province Razavi Khorasan province Khorasan Kurds in Iran