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The Gūrān

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

V. Minorsky
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Extract

The vague and indiscriminate use of the term Kurd goes back to early times. According to Ḥamza Iṣfahānī (circa 350/961), ed. Berlin, 151, “The Persians used to call Daylamites ‘the Kurds of Ṭabaristān’, as they used to call Arabs ‘the Kurds of Sūristān’, i.e. of 'Irāq”. Other Arab and Persian authors of the tenth century A.D. mean by Kurds any Iranian nomads of Western Persia, suth as the tent-dwellers of Fārs.

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Articles
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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , February 1943 , pp. 75 - 103
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 1943

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References

page 75 note 1 Sharaf-khen apparently groups under Kalhur all the south-eastern Kurds of Kermanshah (and Senne ?). We have, however, to mind the distinction, between the tribes and their rulers

page 75 note 2 See Minorsky, “Lur”, in EI.

page 75 note 3 See Minorsky, “Kurds”, in EI.

page 76 note 1 Locally known as Bājōrān. They are apparently Ahl-i Haqq. Father, Anastase, al-Mashriq, 1902, pp. 577–582Google Scholar, calls them “Allahi” and describes some of their customs. The valley of Khosar is a centre of heterodoxy: see Minorsky, “Shabak”, in EI.

page 76 note 2 See now Mann-Hadank, , Mundarten der Gûrân, 1930, pp. 17–43Google Scholar, and Mundarten der Zâzâ, 1932, pp. 6–7, and the accompanying maps of Hadank.

page 76 note 3 Summed up in the Supplement to EI.

page 77 note 1 In the texts dictated to me by the Sālār of the Guran I find kū < kōh; rūz < rōz; dūsxāhī < dōst-xwāhī. The diphthong au sounds ou, and the number of such cases is increased by the frequent spirantization of b: souz < sabz; ayou < adab, but this diphthong sounds differently from the long ō. On the other hand, in the elegy of Aḥmad Khan Kōmāsī, aa dictated by Dr. Sa'id Khan, the majhūls ē and ō are preserved.

page 77 note 2 According to Jaba, , Récits kurdes, 1860, p. 3Google Scholar, 100 families of “Guran” were living in Bayāzīd and its neighbourhood. See also the maps of Haussknecht: Kala-i gūrān in Awrāmān-i luhūn; Gūrān-kala, north of Jawānrūd. A Gūrān-gā(h) exists on the territory of the Mamash branch of Bilbās; a Gūrān-āwā in Brādōst, west of Urmiya. Chirikov, lxix, mentions a Gūrāndasht in Bohtān.

page 77 note 3 The typical Mukri Kurdish correspondence of ō is üe: kōh > ḱüē; gōz > ǵüēz.

page 77 note 5 Die Mundart der Mukri-Kurden, text, p. 253, translation, p. 396. In 1934 I met in Sulēmānī a teacher called “Gōrān”. He was from the neighbouring district of Qaradagh and spoke the Mukri dialect of Kurdish. He said that some Gūrānī was spoken only near Alabche (in Shahrazūr, west of Awrāmān).

page 77 note 5 However, in this sense, too, Rich, i, 152, as informed by a Kurd of Sulēmānī, gives Gūrān; cf. also Jaba-Justi, , Dict. kurde, p. 368Google Scholar: gūrān “peuple à demeure fixe, les Kurdes agricoles”.

page 77 note 6 Socin, , Kurd. Samndungen, text, p. 174Google Scholar; transl., p. 197: the story of Jesus and a skull is of literary origin (Farīd al-Dīn 'Aṭṭār gave a version of it: see Zhukovsky, , Jumjuma-nāma, in Zap., VII, 1892, 63–72Google Scholar.

page 78 note 1 On the other hand, Niebuhr, , Voyage en Arabie, 1780, II, 315Google Scholar, quotes among the tribes of Sinjar al-Kābāriya, strangely reminding one of the older form of the name Gūrān (< *gābāra-kān).

page 78 note 2 Cf. Quṭb-nāme, V. 43: Bābā Khošīn fārsī dedi, Sultān Sohāk ǵōranīnī. A group of places near Ganja is called after the Göoran. Cf. also the title of an article by H. Adjarian, “Gyorans sic) and Tumaris”: see Rev. Hist. Rel., January, 1928.

page 78 note 3 Kōr > mod. Pers. Kūr, but in Turkish kōr “blind”.

page 78 note 4 A residence in Koordistan, i, 152, cf. i, 88–9.

page 78 note 5 E.g. Kurd “a nomad”, and in Georgian “a robber”. Vice versa the Armenians are called n Kurdish feľe, Jaba- Justi, 294 (< fallāḥ, Prym-Socin, p. 64).

page 78 note 6 The etymology of gabr is still doubtful.

page 79 note 1 xi, 14, 14: Φασί δέ καί Θρακων τινάς τούς προσαγορευομένους Σαραπάρας, οίον κεφαλοτόμους, οίκησαι ύπέρ της Άρμενίαο πληοίον Γουρανίων καί Μήδων.

page 79 note 2 See on them a short notice by Weissbach in Pauli-Wissowa, vii, col. 1945.

page 79 note 3 See Marquart, , “Woher stammt der Name Kaukasus”, in Caucasica, Fasc. I, 1 Theil, 1930, 62Google Scholar, quoting many passages: Diod., XX, 22, 4; Strabo, xi 2, 1; 5,7–8; 14, 14; Pliny, iv, 83, etc., in which the name Seraci, Siraci is attested, or should be restored. I failed to find the correction in Müller's edition, Marquart's quotation (p. 917a) being wrong.

page 79 note 4 Müller's correction is the more convincing because Strabo describes the Saraparæ as περισκυθιιστάς “scalpers”, and this was a Seythian custom.

page 79 note 5 See Kretschmer in Pauly-Wissowa, ii, 5, 1927. The Siraci should be distinguished from the Silices (Sidices) connected with Sidakān (between Ushnū and Rawānduz): see Marquart Südarmenien, Index.

page 79 note 6 Hübschmann, , Die altarm. Ortsnamen, p. 352Google Scholar

page 79 note 7 Rawlinson identified Ptolemy's Σιραγανων κωμη with Sīrgān, west Ushnū, but this place, even if it owed its name to the *Shirak, did not necessarily depend on Nor-Shirakan.

page 80 note 1 Justi, Iran. Namenbuch, p. 121, after Ḥamza, 61 (Berlin ed., 42); repeated in Mujmal al-tawārīkh, ed. Tehran, 1939, p. 37.

page 80 note 2 Justi, op. cit., 121, arbitrarily explains it as Bahrām-dukht

page 80 note 3 Pω03B6;ά030B8;η < Raox؛na (ctesias); ϊ03B5;ρώζης < Pērōz; Τωσίθρης < Gaočiθra. The Greeks rather abuse the timbre o: Σаβώρ < Šāpuhr, Šāp؛r

page 80 note 4 There is no doubt that Alvand is but a Persian popular etymology of the ancient Ḥulwān. The Kurds call the river Haḷawān.

page 80 note 5 even Shahraz؛r is referred to separately from Ḥulwān; ibid., 94, alṠīrhān and Daqīqā are under the dependencies of Mauṣil, which is described outside the Sawād.

page 80 note 6 Also vide infra the quotation from the Nuzhat al-qul؛b.

page 81 note 1 Tajārib al-uman: ]Ab؛-Shuja'[, 287–299, 327, ]Ibn-Muḥassin[, 429, 449–454, 'Utbi de. Lahore, 285 (Pers. trans., 384).

page 82 note 1 The Mujmal has been careful edited by Bahār, Tehram, 621/1939.

page 82 note 2 Kitāb-i Tājī pf Ṣībī.

page 82 note 3 Plurals n akān still Prevail in G؛rāī dialects: Mann-Hadank, Mundarten der G؛rān, 105, 378.

page 83 note 1 There is a famous sanctuary in:the village. In Awrāmān I was told that K؛saj does not stand for Persian “beardless” (kōsaj, kōsa). I think the name is connected with the tribe Kōsa which was formerly in occupation of Shahraz؛r. Its remnants live now among the Zāzā.

page 83 note 2 Evliyā-chelebi, iv, 377; A. Piçncon in Sir D. Ross, Sir Anthony Sherley, p. 148; Sir H. Rawlinson, JBGS., 1839, p. 33; Chirikov, Putevot/zhurnal, 1849–1852, St. Petersburg, 1875, 301–5: Kerend-Bīvanīj-Rījāb; description of the source of the Alvand which lies in the Rījāb gorge but closely north of Taq-i girrā (in its “region”).

page 83 note 1 Rawlinson identified Ptolemy's Σιραγανων κωμη with Sīrgān, west Ushnū, but this place, even if it owed its name to the *Shirak, did not necessarily depend on Nor-Shirakan.

page 84 note 1 Translated by Quatremére. Notices et Extraits, 1838, xiii/, pp. 506–7. Towards A.D. 1258 Dartang was ruled on behalf of the caliph by a Ḥisām al-Dīn 'Akka, to whom HUlagu restored Qal'a Mwḥ (?) and Rwda (*Daudān ?). See Rashīd al-Dīn, ed. Quatrémere, p. 255.

page 84 note 2 Its centre Rījāb > Rīzjāw is situated at the western end of the defile through which the Alvand debouches iṇto the Zohab plain.

page 84 note 3 See out interpretation of I. Khurdādhbih, 14, v.s. p. 80.

page 84 note 4 Possibly Ṣamghān of Balādhurī.

page 84 note 5 Perhaps: *Daudān, a village behind Dālah؛.

page 84 note 6 It is quite possible that Ḥasanōya's tribe Barzīkān were of an origin similar to that of the G؛rān.

page 85 note 1 Nothing definite is known about the origin of the Kalhur and their name. Their chiefs wanted their genealogy to go back to the Arsacid satrap G؛darz b. Gīv, Sharaf-nāma, 317. I wonder whether Kalhur is not derived from *kal-xwar “buffalo-eaters”. An important village Kalxorān lies north of Ardaīll: cf. Silsilat al-nasab-i Ṣqfawiya, p. 12.

page 85 note 2 It is astonishing how well the Ahl-i Ḥaqq writings are acquainted with the geography of Northern Luristan; see my Notes sur les Ahl-i Haqq, pp. 22, 42. A number of fervent adherents of-their religion are found in that region (especially the Dilfān). It is quite possible that a number of originally “Guran” tribes have changed their speech to the local Luri dialect.

page 85 note 3 Sir H. Rawlinson had exceptional opportunities for observing the G؛rān in 1836 when he was in command of a G؛rān regiment: see “Notes on a march from Zohab”, in JRGS., 1839, ix, 26–116Google Scholar. I have also used an official memorandum of the same author on the Turco-Peisianfontier (1844).

page 85 note 4 Na'īmā, i, 474, says that in A.D. 1630 the chief of the Bājilān arrived in Mosul with 40,000 kards to pay homage to Khusrev Pasha. The tribe lived in the desert in the direction of Baghdad and was a cross (mutajānis) between Kurds and Arabs (?).

page 86 note 1 See Tarīlch-i Nadiri, ed. 1286, H. Nādir by-passed Tāq-i girrā. by a more southerly road of Gav-ravān which Khurshid Efendi, Russ, transl., 135, identified with Qal'a-Shahīn.

page 86 note 2 Rawlinson's 1844 memorandum.

page 86 note 3 This is said to have happened towards A.D. 645–660: see Ẓahīr al-Dīn, ed. Dorn, pp. 39–40; Justi, Iranisches Namenbuch, 117, 430, 433; Rabino, “Les dynasties du Mazandaran,” in J.As., juillet 1936, p. 438.

page 86 note 4 This is a further evolution of the story, Shaāh-nāma, ed. Vullers, i, 41, according to whihc Farīdīn was brought up on the milk of the cow Barmāya. In point of fact, Firdausi gives a twist to the original version, in which Barmāyōn is a male animal under whose feet AŠi-vanuthi seeks refuge, Avests, Yašt 17, 15, and Farīd؛n (Frětōn) collects dust to smite his enemics, Dékart, 814, 10–17 (I owe the two references to H.W. Bailey).

page 86 note 5 Also see below point (5) on the geographical proxinmity of some place connected with *Gāubāra to those called after Gīlān. For the location of the Gāubāra near the Caspian one might qoute another passage form the Nuzhat al-qul؛b: “Maḥm؛d-āzān-khan south of the Kur estuary) lies in the plain Gāvbārī on the coast of the Caspian sea.” Still more interesting is the mention of a Kīrān (*G؛rān)-dasht in the report of Uljāytu's campaign against Gilan (in the spring of 707/1308(: the Ilkhan marching from Sultaniya reached Loushān (on the shāh-rīd) via K؛rān-dasht. Loushān is a well-know crossing of the Shāh-r؛d a bover Manjil, and K؛rān-dasht must have lain west or south-west of it. CF. Ta'rīkh-i Uljāytu, Bib. Nat., Supp. pers. 1419, fol. 42.

page 87 note 1 To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise p. 377.

page 87 note 2 In the Ḥud؛d al'Ālam, p. 420, I offered a hypothesis on the origin of the Iranian inhabitants of Shirvān and Daghestān from the Caspian provinces. I am also tempted to attribute soem Caspian origins to the name of the K؛h-Gīl؛ district of Fars (*Gēlōya, Gēl+ōya).

page 87 note 3 See Hüsing, Der Zagros und seine Vōlker. 1908.

page 87 note 4 On p. 77, note 2, we have quoted some isolated place-names which may prove to be connected with the further western expansion of the G؛rān.

page 88 note 1 I wonder whether the River G؛ā؛r flowing into the Saymara is of the same origin. Chirikov, 278–280, transcribes this name Gavara (?).

page 88 note 2 Names of passes are an important feature of toponymy.

page 88 note 3 Before the complicated doctrine of the Ahl-i Ḥaqq was definitely fixed there must have existed a suitable background for its development, going back into the remote past.

page 88 note 4 Their homes are in the plain of Khāve, lying west of Alīshtar. Their clans are Kakavand, Itivand, M؛mīvand, etc.

page 88 note 5 O. Mann, Die Mundarten der LUr-Stämme, p. xxiii, without any illustrative texts.

page 88 note 6 The rather unusual name Dilf-ān might be connected with that of the most conspicuous peak of Gilan, Dulfalc (Dalfalc, Durfak). As pointed out by Tomaschek, the latter may reflect the name of the Δριβυκεѕ, who, according to Ptol., vi, 25, lived in the neighbourhood of the Kadusioi and Gelai, apparently to the east of the estuary of the Amardos = Sefid-rud. On the other hand, the principal tribe of Kalār-dasht is Khojāvand, a clan of the Kurds of Garr؛s transplanted to Gilan by Āghā Muḥammad Shah. There is a suspicion that the Ahl-i Ḥaqqreligion is spread among' the Garr؛sī, and Āghā Sām may have availed himself of this circumstance.

page 88 note 7 Mann, Mundarten d. Gīrān, 52, Mundarten der Zāzā, 24.

page 88 note 8 Die Tâjîk-Mundarten der Provinz Fārs, 1909, p. xxiii: “Diese beiden, fälschlich für Kurdisch gehaltene Dialekte gehören durchaus zu denjenigem Mundarten, die Geiger als‘zentrale’ bezeichnete.”

page 89 note 1 Cf. the latest survey by H. W. Bailey in E.I., under “Persia”.

page 89 note 2 Only a number of typical personal names and a couple of words: lauk “good” ushtulum “a war cry”. See Minorsky, La domination des Daïlamites, p. 22.

page 89 note 3 Benedictsen-Christensen, p. 122.

page 89 note 4 Minorsky, Mateériaux, 12, 51. Only later I went through the Gīrānī verses with a Gīrān.

page 89 note 5 p. 23. On this MS. in my possession see Minorsky, “Toumari” in Rev. de l'histoire des Religions, January, 1928, pp. 90–105.

page 89 note 6 During my visit to Sulēmānī in 1934 I received as a gift a Persian MS. containing the genealogies of the Shaykhs of Barzenje, who are connected with Sultan Sohāk. I was told that a Kurdish (sic) translation had been made of the MS.

page 90 note 1 Ban؛ Shaybān.

page 91 note 1 wālā “stuff”, b؛-amar, “amber scented.”

page 92 note 1 Vide infra, p. 94.

page 92 note 2 To the same class belongs the fable of the wolf and the fox, taken down by Benedictsen in Pāwa.

page 92 note 3 See J. Deny, “La légende de l'eau des sauterelles,” in JA., April, 1933, 323–340.

page 92 note 4 The same MS. contains a “Kurdish” (i.e. G؛rānī) alphabet in 20 verses.

page 93 note 1 This celebrated vali of Ardālan is often mentioned at the time of Shah 'Abbās and Shah Ṣafī: see 'Ālam-ārā, 762, Dhayl-i 'Āārā, Tehran, 1317, pp. 195, 288. He took an active part in the operations in Mesopotamia, but finally went over to the Ottomans and died in Mosul in 1046/1636. The Ibrāhīlmī branch of the Ahl-i Ḥaqq consider him as one of their incarnations.

page 93 note 2 The historian fo the vālīs of Aradlān calls her Zarrīn-kolāh, sister of Shah 'Abbās: my Ms., p. 111.

page 94 note 1 Friedlănder, , “The heterodoxies of the Shi'ites,” in JAOS., 1909, vol.29, pp. 133–8.Google Scholar

page 94 note 2 Wellhausen, Die… Oppositionsparteien im alten Islam, 1901, pp. 74–87.

page 95 note 1 I possess his kalāms beginning as follows: (1) yārān kī vänän, (2) yārān čan čanān, (3) gird (?) gawīz-nān, (4) yārān č bīi-ān, (5) yārān yādgār, (6) yārān āsmān, (7) yārān če kārän, (8) yārān bän-ām dā.

page 95 note 2 Minorsky, Notes, p. 155. Also Firqān, ii, 157.

page 95 note 3 A letter of Sayyid Nīrullāh to Dr. Sa'īd-khān, 6 Dhuqa'da 1342. One of his poems is found in the O. Mann MS. which I analysed in my Notes, 171–3.

page 95 note 4 The Kalām in my Saranjam beginning Taym؛r-dhāt hastam, ”I possess the person of Taym؛r,” is apparently by Ṣayfīr. See my Notes, p. 157.

page 95 note 5 Vide infra, p. 96 below.

page 95 note 6 See Minorsky, “B. Ṡāhir,” in EI.

page 95 note 7 Minorsky, Matériaux, pp. 99–103.

page 95 note 8 Kitā-i nizānī (mizgānī) “Book of good tidings” 515 pages, mostly 15 lines to pate, copied in 1342/1924, introduction dated Murdād 1309/1930, with a preface by S. H. Taqizadeli.

page 95 note 9 The Moslem World, January, 1927, p. 40.

page 96 note 1 See Minns, E. H., “Parchments of the Parthian period from Avroman in Kurdistan”, in JHS., vol. XXXV, 1915, pp. 22–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 96 note 2 See my articles “Senne” and “Sīsar” in El.

page 96 note 3 'Alī Akbar Viqāyi'-nigār, Ḥadīqa-yi Nāṣirī—a history of Ardalān in my possession.

page 96 note 4 It was only accidentally traversed by Lycklama a Nijeholt who praises its wooded landscape, Voyage en Sussie, etc., 1875, IV, 60Google Scholar.

page 96 note 5 In spite of its lying so near to Awrāmān! The language of Marīwān which is situated immediately north of Awraman i3 Kurmānji.

page 96 note 6 Apart from the Avestan and Middle Persian verses built on the syllabic pattern, we have now examples of the Tājīk poetry with verses of ten syllables, but based on a tonic pattern: see Boldirev, A. N., in Trudï Tajik, bazï, III, 1936, 59–73Google Scholar. [I understand that Dr. Henning hasnow come to the conclusion that older Iranian poetry is tonic and not merely syllabic. After all, I should also admit that in Gūrānī poetry tonic stress appears as important as the number of syllables.]

page 97 note 1 I wonder whether the mysterious is not a mere misspelling of *fniqs? Thus the name of Alexander's father in Arabic is Faylaqūs for *Fīlifūs, Philippos.

page 97 note 2 Khurshīd-efendi, Russ. transl. p. 148, writes in his chapter on Zohab: “Among the desert Arabs very few can read, whereas among the Kurds many are acquainted with letters and know the stories of Farhād and Shīrīn, Rustam and Bahrām Gūr”. On Leyla and Majnūn, see above, epics No. 2.

page 97 note 3 Khanikof, N., “Mèmoire sur Khâcânî”, in Jour. As., August, 1864, pp. 185–190Google Scholar; cf. Khāqānī, Kulliyāt, ed. Tehran, 1316/1937, pp. 808 and 311–12. Cf. also Salemann, Chetveroaishiya Khāqānī, 1875, pp. 18–19.

page 97 note 4 Khāqānī, Kulliyāt, ed. Tehran, 1316/1937, p. 163.

page 98 note 1 Browne, E. G., LHP., III, 109Google Scholar.

page 98 note 2 Its genuineness is still suspect.

page 99 note 3 Published by Christensen, A., Les dialectes d'Awromān et de Pāwā, Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Hist.-filol. Medd., VI/2, 1921, p. 112Google Scholar.

page 99 note 4 Anjuman-i adabiyāt-i kurd, edited by Colonel Amīn-Fayḍi of Sulēmāni, Stambul, 1339/1920, pp. 105–9: twenty-six verses of the elegy. The editor explains that the language is “the Kurdish of Iran. The reading is difficult (nākhwandvār), but the author had much power in representing life”.

page 99 note 5 But see verses 16, 36, 43.

page 101 note 1 I.e. Majnūn.

page 101 note 2 Zalān (?).

page 102 note 1 Āhū-bēz from bēxtan “debilem facere”.

page 102 note 2 Here the symbol of Majnūn stand for “darkness”.

page 102 note 3 Xalāt stands for xal'at.

page 103 note 1 Meaning: frail.