Khorasani Kurds

Khorasani Kurds
Total population
500,000[1] to 1,000,000[2]
Regions with significant populations
mainly North Khorasan, but also Razavi Khorasan, and Golestan province
Languages
Kurdish, Persian, Khorasani Turkic
Religion
Islam

Khorasani Kurds (Kurdish: کوردانی خۆراسان; Persian: کردهای خراسان) are Kurds who live in the provinces of North Khorasan and Razavi Khorasan in northeastern Iran, along the Iran-Turkmenistan border. Khorasani Kurds speak the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish and are Shia Muslims.[3] Many Khorasani Kurds are bilingual in Khorasani Turkic, mainly due to intermarriages with Khorasani Turks. However, Persian is the lingua franca.[4] There are about 696 Kurdish villages in the two Khorasan provinces.[5] Many tribes are closely connected to the Khorasani Turks.[6]

  1. ^ "IRAN v. PEOPLES OF IRAN (1) A General Survey". Encyclopædia Iranica. March 29, 2012. Retrieved 18 October 2013.
  2. ^ The Kurds of Khorasan
  3. ^ Madih (2007), p. 11.
  4. ^ Madih, Abbasali (2014). "Kurds, Turkish language in Nishabur" (PDF). Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences. 5 (1): 164–165. Retrieved 14 January 2023.
  5. ^ Madih (2007), p. 12.
  6. ^ Ivanov, Vladimir (February 1926). "Notes on the Ethnology of Khurasan". The Geographical Journal. 67 (2): 143–158. Bibcode:1926GeogJ..67..143I. doi:10.2307/1783140. JSTOR 1783140. In Khurasan the difficulty is still greater because there are no distinct sub-dialects, and the idiom of the Kurds appears practically uniform. Many sub-sections are closely connected with the Turks, and experience real difficulty whether they are of Kurdish or Turkish nationality(...) Of the four tribes which are traditionally regarded as the original, namely 'Amarlu, Za'faranlu, Shadillu and Kaiwanlu, the first and last appear to-day as small tribes, while the other two are mostly Turkish-speaking and have ceased to be regarded as Kurds.