Kurd, Kurmanji

Kurmanji Kurds speak Northern Kurdish, the largest Kurdish language, a Northwestern Iranian tongue written in Latin script in Türkiye and Syria and in Perso-Arabic or Cyrillic script elsewhere. Their heartland is the mountain country of southeastern Anatolia around Lake Van, Hakkari, Diyarbakır and Mardin, spilling into northern Syria, northern Iraq's Badinan, and northwestern Iran. Kurmanji society was historically organised in tribes (eşîr) led by aghas, with sheikhly Sufi families holding religious authority; many tribes were nomadic or transhumant until the 20th century. Safavid and Ottoman frontier policies scattered Kurmanji communities widely: Safavid shahs deported tens of thousands of Kurdish families to Khorasan around 1600, and Soviet deportations sent Caucasian Kurds to Central Asia. The name Kurmanj (Kurmanc) is the people's own term for Kurds; Kurmanji is the name of their speech. Tribes include the Jalali, Milan, Hasanan, Za'faranlu and Shadlu; the closely related Herki and Shikak tribes have entries of their own (herki, shikaki).

Kurmanji culture centres on extended families, tribal and village solidarity, hospitality and honour. Rural households herd sheep and goats, moving to high summer pastures (zozan) and weaving rugs, saddlebags and black goat-hair tents. Oral tradition is rich: dengbêj singers recite long epics and laments unaccompanied, and Khorasani bakhshis sing to the dotar. Line and circle dances (govend, halay) mark weddings, which traditionally lasted several days. Women's dress is colourful, with long dresses, vests and headscarves; men wear the shal û şapik suit and sash in many areas. Nowruz (Newroz) on 21 March is the great communal festival and a symbol of Kurdish identity. Bride-price, cousin marriage and patrilocal residence remain common in villages, while urban and diaspora families have moved toward nuclear households.

Most Kurmanji Kurds are Sunni Muslims of the Shafi'i school, which sets them apart from Hanafi Turks and Arabs. Sufi orders, especially the Naqshbandi and Qadiri, have long shaped religious life through sheikhs, lodges (tekke) and shrine pilgrimage. Folk practice includes vows at saints' tombs, amulets against the evil eye and spring rites at Newroz. Shia Islam prevails among Khorasani Kurmanji in Iran, and Alevi Kurmanji live in central Anatolia; Yazidi Kurmanji speakers form a separate religious community. Political Kurdish nationalism has made many younger Kurmanji speakers secular, and small evangelical churches have grown in Türkiye and the diaspora.

The complete Bible is available in Kurmanji (Latin script), along with the Jesus Film, Global Recordings Network audio, and Christian radio, television and online content. Most outreach has focused on Türkiye, Syria, northern Iraq and European diaspora communities, where Kurmanji-speaking house churches exist. Few resources target Iran's Kurmanji speakers, who read Persian script and live under laws that criminalise evangelism.

The Herki and the Shikak (Shekak) are Kurmanji-speaking Sunni Kurdish tribes of West Azerbaijan that are related to the surrounding Kurmanji Kurds, sharing their language, faith and culture, and that have entries of their own as separate people groups (herki, shikaki). The Herki straddle the Iran-Iraq-Türkiye border triangle and were among the last great migratory Kurdish tribes: in 1963 the Iranian Herki still summered on the highlands of Targavar and Dashtbil west of Urmia and wintered in the lowlands of Targavar, Dashtbil and Mergavar, and Targavar and villages such as Mavana are Herki today. The tribe traces itself to three legendary ancestors, Mendan, Sidan and Serhati, and was known for herding, fine textile weaving and caravan transport between countries; it numbered about 20,000 people in 1921 and again in 1989. The Shikak hold the Somay-Beradust district and the mountains west of Lake Urmia between Urmia and Salmas. Their 'Awdoi clan claims to have arrived from Diyarbakır in the 17th century, displacing the Donboli. Ismail Agha Shikak, who died in 1816 or 1820, supported Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, and Jafar Agha was executed in Tabriz in 1905. His brother Ismail Agha, known as Simko, led a revolt from 1918 until his death in 1930; his men killed the Assyrian patriarch Mar Shimun in 1918 and attacked Assyrian and Azerbaijani towns, which still shapes Kurdish-Azerbaijani relations around Urmia and Salmas.

From the reign of Ismail I and Tahmasp I, and above all under Abbas I, the Safavid state moved Kurdish tribes from eastern Anatolia and the South Caucasus to northern Khorasan to block Uzbek and Turkmen raids; about 45,000 families were deported in 1598-1601 alone. Abbas I created five Kurdish frontier domains, and the Za'faranlu chiefs of Quchan and the Shadlu of Bojnurd ruled as hereditary ilkhans until the 20th century. Cut off from western Kurdistan for over 400 years, the Khorasani Kurds adopted Shia Islam and absorbed Turkmen and Khorasani Turkic influences, yet kept Kurmanji speech and a distinct musical tradition, including the loy, a romantic maqam that belongs to them alone.