Troubled Times - A Brief History Of Kurdistan

By Lee Ridley - Photography by Charlotte Mann

Courtesy of the University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin. The unofficial country of Kurdistan occupies a region steeped in history; a history, that is, of bloody turmoil, occupation and assimilation. When the Medes (descended from the Aryans) first arrived in the region around 1000 B.C. the stage was set for a protracted and arduous battle for supremacy against the neighbouring Assyrians and Persians. For centuries, the Medes fought against their would-be occupiers until, around 600 B.C., having already defeated the Persians, they overcame the Assyrians and formed the Median Empire. That

Empire covered all of what we today call Kurdistan.

Various tribes living in the region were not forced to renounce their cultures and conform to their new hosts’. Rather their cultures were adopted and national values were formed. In 550 B.C however, the Persians re-emerged as the dominant force and from that time forward the region was rarely without conflict. Persians, Greeks, Arabs, Armenians, Romans and Byzantines have all waged battles in the region, and the local people found themselves driven into the mountains just to afford themselves a better chance of survival. Tribalism became very strong under these conditions and this, in turn, weakened their ability to form any meaningful, army of resistance against determined assailants. When the Arabs took control in the 7th century, Islam was introduced, and national identity irrevocably eroded, making it almost impossible for the people to resist future attempts at occupation. full text