Kurds

Kurds, the Karduchi of Xenophon, a branch of the Iranian Aryans, who form the bulk of the population in Turkish and Persian Kurdistan (" Land of the Kurds"), but who are also found in scattered groups in Khorassan, Asia Minor, and Syria; social organisation still essentially tribal, hence divided everywhere into countless clans and septs. The four great divisions of Kurdistan are the Bolitdn. Bahdimin, Ilakavi, and Roirandiz, mostly lawless nomads and Mohammedans, but some settled agriculturists and Christians; type, oval face, deep-set dark or blue eyes, broad retreating brow, well-formed nose and mouth, small hands and feet, fair or very light-brown complexion; speech allied to West Persian, but rude and little cultivated, written both with the Arabic and Armenian characters.