The Kurdish People
Through the Ages

The Zagros Mountain Peoples

The origins of the Kurdish people are rooted in the Zagros Mountain range — that vast arc of rugged highlands stretching from southeastern Turkey through northwestern Iran and into northern Iraq. Archaeological evidence places the ancestors of the Kurds here as far back as 3000 BCE, living in fortified hilltop settlements, herding goats and sheep across high pastures, and cultivating barley on the mountain terraces.

These highland communities developed a fierce independence born of necessity. The mountains offered natural defense against the great empires of the plains below — Akkadian, Sumerian, Babylonian — and allowed a distinctive culture to take root. The proto-Kurdish peoples spoke languages ancestral to modern Kurdish, belonging to the northwestern Iranian branch of the Indo-European family.

Early trade routes through the Zagros passes brought contact with Mesopotamian civilizations, creating a dynamic relationship between the mountain peoples and the plains. Kurdish ancestors traded highland resources — metals, timber, cattle — for lowland grain and manufactured goods, even as they maintained cultural and political independence.

The Gutian Kingdom & Mesopotamian Dominance

Around 2150 BCE, the Gutians — proto-Kurdish mountain warriors from the Zagros — swept down from the highlands and overthrew the Akkadian Empire, then the dominant power of Mesopotamia. Akkadian royal inscriptions describe them as "serpents of the mountains," a vivid testament to the fear they inspired in the plains civilizations.

The Gutians ruled a large part of Mesopotamia for nearly a century before the Sumerians pushed them back to the mountains. This episode stands as one of the earliest recorded instances of Kurdish ancestors directly shaping the history of the ancient world's most civilized region.

Later, the Kassites — another related highland people — conquered Babylon around 1595 BCE and maintained the longest dynasty in Babylonian history, ruling for over 400 years. Under Kassite rule, Babylonian culture was preserved and developed, demonstrating that these "mountain peoples" were sophisticated administrators, not merely warriors.

The Rise of the Median Empire

Under the leadership of Deioces, the scattered Median tribes of the northern Zagros united for the first time into a single political entity around 678 BCE. Deioces is credited with founding the great city of Ecbatana — modern Hamadan in Iran — which became the capital of the Median Empire and one of the great cities of the ancient world.

The Greek historian Herodotus describes Ecbatana as a city of seven concentric circular walls, each painted a different color, with the innermost walls covered in silver and gold. Whether exaggerated or not, this description reflects the genuine wealth and sophistication of Median civilization at its height.

Subsequent Median kings — Phraortes and Cyaxares — expanded the empire dramatically. Cyaxares modernized the army, organizing it into distinct units of spearmen, archers, and cavalry, creating one of the ancient world's most effective fighting forces.

The Destruction of Nineveh & Imperial Peak

In 612 BCE, Cyaxares the Mede and Nabopolassar of Babylon formed an alliance and laid siege to Nineveh — the magnificent capital of the Assyrian Empire, then the most powerful state on earth. The city fell after a fierce battle, and its destruction sent shockwaves across the ancient world.

The Median Empire now stretched from Anatolia to eastern Iran — one of the largest empires the ancient world had seen. At its peak, it encompassed territories covering parts of modern Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

Median rule lasted until 550 BCE when Cyrus the Great of Persia defeated the last Median king, Astyages. However, the Medes were not simply conquered — they were integrated into the Persian Empire as equals, retaining their nobility, culture, and influence. Many historians describe the Achaemenid Persian Empire as essentially a "Medo-Persian" entity in its early decades.

Under the Persian Empires

For over a thousand years following the fall of the Median Empire, the Kurdish highlands were incorporated into a succession of Iranian empires: Achaemenid (550–330 BCE), Seleucid (312–63 BCE), Parthian (247 BCE–224 CE), and Sasanian (224–651 CE). Throughout all of these, Kurdish communities maintained their language, tribal structures, and cultural distinctiveness.

Zoroastrianism — the ancient Iranian religion centered on the eternal struggle between light and darkness — deeply penetrated Kurdish folk religion and practice. The celebration of Newroz (the spring new year, lit. "new day"), tied to the Zoroastrian spring equinox festival, became the central holiday of Kurdish identity and remains so to this day, celebrated with bonfires that echo ancient fire worship.

The Sasanian period saw the flourishing of a rich Iranian cultural renaissance. Kurdish communities in the Zagros were part of this world, producing warriors, priests, merchants, and nobles who participated in the great civilization of late antiquity.

The Legend of Kawa the Blacksmith

Embedded within the Newroz tradition is one of the most powerful myths of Kurdish identity — the story of Kawa the Blacksmith. According to the legend, the tyrant king Zahhak demanded the brains of two young men each day to feed the serpents growing from his shoulders. Kawa, whose sons were taken, led a rebellion against the tyrant, slew him, and lit a great bonfire on the mountain to signal freedom to the people below.

This myth — blending real historical memory of ancient oppression with the imagery of fire, liberation, and the mountain — became the foundational narrative of Kurdish Newroz. Every year on March 21st, Kurds light bonfires on the highest available points, reenacting Kawa's signal fire. In this single act, pre-Islamic Zoroastrian practice, Kurdish mythology, and the longing for freedom converge across 3,000 years of continuous tradition.

Islamization & Kurdish Principalities

The Arab Muslim conquests of the 7th century brought a new religion and language to the Kurdish lands. Conversion to Islam was gradual — spreading over generations through trade, intermarriage, and the prestige of the new civilization. Kurds brought their own character to Islam, blending it with pre-Islamic folk traditions, Zoroastrian memory, and mountain spirituality that persists to the present.

As the Abbasid Caliphate weakened in the 10th and 11th centuries, Kurdish tribal leaders seized the opportunity to establish independent principalities. The Marwanids ruled from the great black-walled city of Amida (modern Diyarbakır), the Shaddadids controlled parts of the Caucasus, the Hasanwayhids held western Iran, and the Rawwadids dominated Azerbaijan. For the first time since the Medes, Kurdish rulers governed large territories with full sovereignty.

Saladin & the Ayyubid Empire

Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub was born around 1137 CE in Tikrit, present-day Iraq, to a Kurdish family from the Rawadiya tribe. His rise was meteoric: from a young officer in the service of the Syrian ruler Nur ad-Din, he became vizier of Egypt, then Sultan, and finally the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty that ruled Egypt, Syria, parts of Arabia, and North Africa.

His decisive victory over the Crusaders at the Battle of Hattin on July 4, 1187 ended the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Three months later, on October 2, 1187, Jerusalem fell to Saladin's forces. Unlike the Crusaders who had massacred the city's Muslim and Jewish inhabitants when they took Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin allowed the Christian population to ransom their freedom and leave safely — an act that earned him admiration even from his enemies.

Saladin remains the most celebrated Kurdish historical figure, admired across the Muslim world as a symbol of justice, chivalry, and strategic genius. His Kurdish identity is a source of immense pride and is commemorated throughout Kurdistan today.

Kurdistan Divided Between Empires

The Battle of Chaldiran in 1514 between the Ottoman Sultan Selim I and the Safavid Shah Ismail I was fought on Kurdish soil. Kurdish tribal leader Idris Bitlisi negotiated the alignment of most Kurdish chieftains with the Ottomans, in exchange for autonomous rule within the empire. This established the Ottoman-Safavid frontier running directly through Kurdish lands — a division that would have profound consequences for Kurdish unity.

For the next four centuries, the majority of Kurdish territory fell under loose Ottoman suzerainty. Kurdish emirs — local rulers of hereditary principalities — maintained considerable autonomy in exchange for military service and taxes. Places like Botan, Hakkari, Baban, and Ardalan were governed by Kurdish dynastic families under the broader Ottoman framework.

This period also saw the beginning of systematic Kurdish cultural identity formation. The 1597 Sharafnama of Sharaf Khan Bitlisi – the first comprehensive history of the Kurdish people – and the 1692 epic Mem û Zîn of Ahmad Khani represent the high-water mark of classical Kurdish literary production.

Dengbêj — The Living Archive

The Dengbêj tradition — wandering Kurdish poet-singers who perform epic oral histories called kilam and lawj — reached its greatest flowering during the Ottoman centuries. Dengbêjs traveled between villages, tribal encampments, and noble courts, composing and performing works that preserved collective memory across generations.

Their repertoire included battle epics, love songs, laments for the dead, genealogical recitations, and historical chronicles. In a world where Kurdish had no official status and literacy was rare, the Dengbêjs functioned as the living library of the Kurdish nation.

The greatest classical Dengbêjs – like the legendary 19th-century Evdalê Zeynikê – set a standard that modern icons like Aram Tigran and Karapetê Xaço would carry into the 20th century, each remembered with the reverence given to Homer in Western culture. Today, the last Dengbêjs are recognized as UNESCO-listed intangible cultural heritage, and efforts are underway to record and preserve the tradition before it disappears entirely.

WWI & the Promise of Sèvres

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire in World War I opened a brief window of possibility for Kurdish self-determination. The Treaty of Sèvres (1920), signed between the Allied powers and the defeated Ottoman government, included Articles 62–64 which provided for Kurdish autonomy and opened the pathway to full independence — the first international recognition of Kurdish political rights.

However, the Turkish nationalist movement under Mustafa Kemal Atatürk rejected the treaty and waged a successful military campaign against the Allied-backed governments. The Treaty of Lausanne (1923) replaced Sèvres, recognized the new Republic of Turkey, and made no mention of Kurdish autonomy. Kurdistan was permanently divided between Turkey, the British Mandate of Iraq, Pahlavi Iran, and the French Mandate of Syria.

This division — the consequences of which Kurds live with today — shattered any prospect for Kurdish statehood and subjected Kurdish populations to the varying policies of four different nation-states, some of which were actively hostile to Kurdish identity and language.

The Kurdistan Region — A Democracy in the Middle East

The 1991 Gulf War and subsequent no-fly zone created the conditions for Kurdish self-governance in northern Iraq for the first time. In 1992, the Kurdistan Region held its first elections, establishing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). Despite a devastating inter-Kurdish civil war in the 1990s, the Washington Agreement of 1998 reunified the administration.

Post-2003, with Saddam's regime toppled, the KRG entered a period of dramatic economic and social development. Oil revenues funded massive construction in Erbil, Sulaymaniyah, and Duhok. Universities, hospitals, roads, and cultural institutions multiplied. Erbil's ancient citadel — one of the oldest continuously inhabited sites on earth — was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.

The Kurdish Peshmerga's role in defeating ISIS between 2014 and 2019 brought the Kurdistan Region unprecedented international attention and respect. The courage of Kurdish fighters — including the celebrated women of the YPJ in Syrian Kurdistan — became symbols of resistance recognized worldwide.

A Culture That Could Not Be Suppressed

Perhaps the most remarkable story of contemporary Kurdish history is cultural. Despite a century of suppression across four countries — bans on the Kurdish language in Turkey, mass displacement in Iraq, cultural erasure in Syria and Iran — Kurdish identity not only survived but is now flourishing in ways that would have seemed impossible fifty years ago.

Kurdish cinema has won international awards. Kurdish novelists write in Kurdish and are translated worldwide. Kurdish music — from the ancient Dengbêj tradition to contemporary pop — reaches global audiences through digital platforms. Kurdish diaspora communities in Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and across the Americas maintain vibrant cultural life while connecting with the homeland.

Universities in Iraqi Kurdistan teach entirely in Kurdish. Kurdish-language media includes dozens of television channels, newspapers, and digital platforms. For the first time in modern history, Kurdish children in the Kurdistan Region grow up with full access to education, culture, and civic life in their own language.

The story of the Kurdish people is ultimately one of extraordinary resilience — a civilization that survived the fall of every empire that ruled over it, that kept its language and traditions alive through millennia of statelessness, and that is now reclaiming its place in the world.