Kurd, Sorani

Sorani Kurds speak Central Kurdish, a Northwestern Iranian language written in a modified Arabic script, with about 6-8 million speakers. The name comes from the Soran emirate of Rawanduz in today's Iraqi Kurdistan; the literary standard grew from the speech of Sulaymaniyah under the Baban emirs. Central Kurdish dialects include Mukri, Ardalani (Sine'i), Garmiyani, Pizhdari, Hawleri and Sulaymani. Its speakers live across the Iran-Iraq border: in Iraq around Sulaymaniyah, Erbil, Kirkuk and Halabja, and in Iran in Kurdistan province and the Mukriyan region of West Azerbaijan. Historic emirates, the Baban, Soran, Ardalan and Mukri, and tribal confederations such as the Jaff, Pizhdar and Mangur shaped the society. Sorani has been the language of Kurdish administration, schooling and media in Iraqi Kurdistan since the 20th century.

Sorani Kurdish society values hospitality, honour and extended-family loyalty. Men's dress is the wide-trousered suit with a broad cloth cummerbund, and women wear long layered dresses with bright vests and coin-decorated headdresses. The halparke line dance, led by a dancer waving a handkerchief, fills weddings and Newroz celebrations, and the daf frame drum, tembur and dozale accompany songs. Poetry holds a central place, from Nali, Mahwi and Haji Qadir Koyi to Hemin and Hejar. Village life combines farming, herding and orchard work; cities such as Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Sanandaj have strong traditions of literature, music and secular politics. Newroz on 21 March is the national festival, marked with fires on the hillsides.

Most Sorani speakers are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi'i school. Sufism runs deep: Qadiri and Naqshbandi orders, led by sheikhly families such as those of Barzinja and Biyara, hold dhikr gatherings with daf drums and ecstatic chanting, and sheikhs once held great political influence. Shrine pilgrimages, vows and Mawlud recitations mark folk practice. Islamist movements gained ground after the 1980s, while a strong secular nationalist and leftist tradition keeps many urban Kurds non-practising. Small Kaka'i (Yarsan) communities and growing evangelical churches add variety.

Central Kurdish has a complete Bible, the Jesus Film, Global Recordings Network audio, and Christian radio, satellite and online media. Evangelical churches have grown in Iraqi Kurdistan since the 1990s, with Sorani-speaking congregations in Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Duhok, which gives Iranian Sorani speakers access to Scripture and fellowship across the border. Persecution in Iran keeps believers there largely hidden.

In January 1946, with Soviet troops occupying northern Iran, Qazi Muhammad, a judge from a leading Mahabad family, proclaimed the Republic of Kurdistan in Mahabad's Chwar Chira square. The Democratic Party of Kurdistan, founded the previous August, ran the small state, which opened Kurdish-language schools, published Kurdish newspapers and fielded a militia joined by Mustafa Barzani's Iraqi Kurdish fighters. When Soviet forces withdrew, the Iranian army re-entered Mahabad in December 1946, and Qazi Muhammad was hanged in the same square in March 1947. The eleven-month republic remains the founding memory of Kurdish nationalism in Iran, and its flag is still the Kurdish national flag.