Can anyone recommend a good book that covers the history of the Kurds, how they ended up where they are, what it is about their culture and ideas that makes them so repugnant to the local competing cultures, and how they keep it together?
Here is a good site:
The Encyclopaedia of Kurdistan, KURDISTANICA
And here's a book
Amazon.com: A Modern History of the Kurds: Books: David McDowall
I have many memories of the year I spent with the Kurds in Turkey. They are a distinct peoples, after being there a while I could spot a Turkish person walking down the street from a Kurd by their slightly different physical appearance and just the way they carried themselves.
I remember a Kurdish friend I made, he was pretty young (early 30s?) and ran a chai (tea) shop with tables on the sidewalk. It was quite an experience to sit sipping Kurdish tea on the sidewalk of a city that no one knows how old it is, but at least 3,000 years. We could see an ancient mound from where we sat that is not yet excavated, but is thought to contain Sumerian relics.
Anyway, after going to his shop long enough for him to trust me, one day he took me to a separate room inside the store and began telling me about his people (he spoke pretty good English). When I expressed an interest in Kurdish history, he asked me wait a bit while he went to gather some things. He came back in a colorful Fez hat, carrying a special kind of meersham water pipe, and put on some Kurdish music. He then began to show me some of the Kurdish customs that were banned in Turkey, and told me that if a Turkish soldier came in he would be arrested (that part of Kurdistan was under martial law at the time).
I looked at him incredulously, with my typical American dismay at infringement of civil liberties, and he told me that they are not permitted to speak Kurdish, nor are they allowed to write in their native arabic alphabet, sing Kurdish hymns, wear the fez, or listen to certain music. I was shocked, and asked him if he had an extra fez, which he did. I put it on, shared the pipe with him, and did my best to imitate the Kurdish songs I was hearing. I felt like a dime store revolutionary, and I suppose I would have been arrested along with him if the cops had come in. So we finished our little revolutionary triste, gave each other a hug, and I went back out into the politically correct society. I returned to his shop many times after that, and gave him a knowing wink whenever he served me tea. Keep in mind this was many years ago (at least 30), and hopefully things have changed for the better now.
Another thing I remember is the beauty of the young Kurdish children, they look like those drawings you see of children with the big eyes and wistful expressions. We used to sponsor an orphenage, and I fell in love with a young three year old that I wanted to adopt and bring home to raise along with our kids, but alas I was not allowed to adopt. Many of the Kurds in Turkish Kurdistan, particularly the kids have red hair, a heritage to their origins in ancient Persia and Mesopotamia, along with their countless battles against the Greeks and Romans.
Thanks for that link about Kennewick man, interesting.
Edit: I just remembered that I scanned some of my 30+ year old 35mm slides, so here are a couple. The first is of a poor Kurdish village on the banks of the Tigris river. This was the middle of summer, so the river was pretty dry. The second is of one of the major cities in Kurdistan. Note the city walls, the older sections of which are thousands of years old. Also note the smoke from all the wood fires used for warmth and cooking (cough cough).
![:-\](https://www.early-retirement.org/sk/forums/images/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
