The Population of the Mountains of Northern Iraq and their Spatial Spread: Kurds is a Model Ethnological-Ethnographical – Geographical- Study

Abstract

The population of Iraq has been characterized by multiple strains of its human origins and is an ethnological and ethnographic museum of these groups, especially in its mountainous north, which was a gateway to it. This study focused on the Kurds, as a model for them as the largest number.

        The problem was posed by several questions : What is the characters of the  Kurdish Society? What is the origin of the Kurds? Where did they come from and where did they go? Are they homogenous? What are the areas of distribution in northern  mountain Iraq? The study applied the descriptive-analytical approach by adopting some specialized sources. The research paper dealt with their origins, migrations, ethnographic  characteristics and areas of distribution.

        The origins of the Kurds differ opinions, and emphasizes the theory (Minorski) as the descendants of the Medes. His opinion is closer to what he sees as Basile Nikitin: The Kurds are not indigenous to their current homes and are of European-Honduran origin, and is consistent with the findings of the two worlds (Minorski and Mara) on their origins. And that their language belongs to the group of North-West Iranian languages. After arriving in this area they settled the mountains between the Caspian Sea in Iran and Lake Wan in southeast Turkey. Later, they went to the mountains of northeastern Iraq and replaced the indigenous peoples of the weak Arab Semitic tribes that pushed them to remote areas, as the world sees it.

        The most recent DNA study (November, 2017) showed that there were 15 strains among the Kurds of northern Iraq, meaning that they were linguistic communities rather than ethnic communities. They are genetically closer to the Arabs than to the genes of the rest of the Indo-European peoples who have historically belonged to them. The northern Iraqi Arabs are of the original population and the largest and most geographically widespread component since the third century AD.