Kurdish culture

Kurdish culture is a group of distinctive cultural traits practiced by Kurdish people. The Kurdish culture is a legacy from ancient peoples who shaped modern Kurds and their society.

Kurds are an ethnic group who live in the northern Middle East, in a region that the Kurds call Greater Kurdistan. Greater Kurdistan lies along the Zagros Mountains and the Taurus Mountains, and today comprises northeastern Iraq, northwestern Iran, northeastern Syria, and southeastern Turkey.

There is a lot of controversy about the Kurdish people from their origins, their history, and even their political future. Kurds are one of the largest ethnic groups that do not have an independent state recognized universally.^[1]

Kurdish (Kurdî) is part of the North-Western division of the Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.

The Kurds have a rich folkloric tradition which is increasingly endangered as a result of modernization, urbanization, and cultural repression. Kurds celebrate the new year on Newroz, and its celebration was often banned by authorities in Turkey and Syria.^[2][3] A well known Kurdish tale is Mem û Zîn.^[4]

Zembilfrosh (Kurdish: زەمبیلفرۆش) (Kurdish for "basket seller") is a folktale popular in Turkish Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan. Zembilfrosh was the son of a powerful Kurdish ruler who left his home and life behind to seek a spiritual life as a dervish. He wanders the countryside with his faithful wife, surviving by making and selling baskets. One day they arrive in the capital of a Kurdish emirate, where the prince's wife sees Zembilfrosh and falls in love with him. She summons him to the castle, where she declares her love for him and tries to seduce him. Zembilfrosh declines, but she presses, promising him many riches. Zembilfrosh is not persuaded and she locks him in a castle tower, from which he eventually escapes. The prince's wife then disguises herself and starts searching for Zembilfrosh, and eventually finds him. She then deceives Zembilfrosh's wife, convincing her to lend her her clothes and leave the house. When Zembilfrosh returns that night, it is dark and he does not recognize the prince's wife, who welcomes him into bed. However, a silver anklet gives her away, and he runs off, chased after by his would-be-lover. As Zembilfrosh sees that escape is impossible, he prays to God, supplicating to be released from a world of misery, and God complies. Reaching Zembilfrosh's lifeless body, the prince's wife is so heartbroken that she dies as well. They are then buried side by side. Their resting place is claimed to be located at the contemporary town of Batifa, a subdistrict of the district of Zakho, Duhok governorate, in Iraqi Kurdistan.^[5]

Kurdish folk music is an important part of Kurdish culture and has traditionally been used to transmit stories about Kurdish history by Dengbêj. Dengbêj (bards, literally "voice-sing"^[6]) are well known for songs of mourning, or stran.^[7] Many popular Kurdish musicians of the 20th century like Hassan Zirak and Ahmet Kaya sang in Turkish or Persian as well as in Kurdish.

Kurdish cinema focuses on the Kurdish people and culture. The fate of the Kurds as a people without a state shaped their cinema. Kurdish films often show social grievances, oppression, torture, human rights violations, and life as a stranger. Kurdish cinema has a high significance for the Kurds, as it offers the opportunity to draw attention to their own situation artistically. However, because of state repression, most films are produced in exile. The best example of this is in Turkey, where Kurds were not permitted to speak their native language until 1991, which made the development of their films more difficult.^[8]

Films about Kurds:

• Zare (Hamo Beknazarian, 1926)
• The Herd (Yilmaz Güney, 1978)
• Yol (Yılmaz Güney, 1982)
• A Time for Drunken Horses (Bahman Ghobadi, 2000)
• Turtles Can Fly? (Bahman Ghobadi, 2004)
• 1,001 Apples (Taha Karimi, 2013)
• I Want To Live (Karzan Kardozi, 2015)
• Bakur (Çayan Demirel, 2015)
• Where Is Gilgamesh? (Karzan Kardozi, 2024)

Food is widely recognized to be a fundamental part of what it means to be Kurdish. Foods such as kfta کفتە (spiced minced meat cased in thin layer of mashed pudding rice), Ser u pe (goats head, tongue and feet), shifta (meat patties),^[9] are traditional Kurdish foods. Lamb and chicken have been staple meats in Kurdish cuisine for centuries. Vegetables, pilaf, and dairy products also comprise a large portion of traditional Kurdish food.^[10] Tea is also staple to a Kurdish diet. It is commonly drunk 2-3 times a day as a social activity. Kurds also drink Mastaw/Do'h/Ayran, a yogurt-based drink.^[11]

The Kurdish people have different religions depending on their ethnic connections and the country in which they live. The most common religion among Kurds is Sunni Islam, practiced by 98% of Kurds living in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds of Turkey are 30% Alevi out of a population of approximately 15-22 million Kurds and 68% follow Sunni Islam.^[12]

• Kurdish traditional clothing
• Kurdish cinema
• Kurdish dance
• Kurdish rugs
• Deq (tattoo)

• A Brief Survey of the History of the Kurds, by Kendal Nezan, President of the Kurdish Institute of Paris.
• Gulan – a UK registered charity promoting the culture of Kurdistan.