Kurdish Bible History (3) 
**List: Kurdish Ministry
the Bible ( the Bible )
Kurdish...
KURDISH. "I.--GEOGRAPHICAL EXTENT AND STATISTICS. KURDISTAN, the land of the Kurds, or Koords, is a mountainous region south-east of Armenia,
extending about 300 miles in length by 150 in breadth, and forming a kind of descent from the hightable land of Persia to the low alluvial plains of Mesopotamia. It is thought by Rennell and others
to be the country mentioned under the name of Kir in 2 Kings 16. 9, Isaiah 22. 6, and in Amos 1. 5
and 9. 7. The Kurds are the descendants of the Carduchi, who are said by Xenophon to have given
him so much trouble during his retreat with the ten thousand Greeks through the mountain passes
of Kurdistan. The Carduchi derived their name probably from the chain of mountains called in the
Targum of Onkelos "the mountains of Qardu," on which the Ark rested. That chain rises to the
north-east of the plain of Sinjar (Shinar?), and commands an extensive view of the land of Assyria.
The tradition of the ark having rested on the mountain now called Ararat, which is almost inaccessible
to the summit, and several days' journey from the plains of Assyria, is entirely of Armenian origin.
Whereas the "mountains of Qardu," are accessible, and have been visited by Jews in all ages as a place
of pilgrimage; and for that reason they have received from the Turks the name of Tchudi-Dagh, or
"Jews' mountain." The Kurds afterwards became again conspicuous in history under the name of
Parthians; and Crassus the Roman general was slain with twenty thousand of his troops in an expe-
dition against them, B.C. 53. Saladin, the opponent of Richard Cœur de Lion in the Crusades, was a
Kurd by birth. Notwithstanding all these historical reminiscences, the Kurds are comparatively little
known in Europe. From the time of Xenophon they have retained their wild and warlike habits; and
though the northern part of their country, as far as lat. 35°, is nominally subject to Turkey, and the
southern portion to Persia, yet they virtually maintain their independence to this day. They are
divided into numerous tribes, supposed to number altogether about 800,000 individuals. Some of these
tribes have settled in the provinces of Luristan in Persia, and other hordes have wandered westward,
as far as the pashaliks of Aleppo and Damascus. The Kurds are also in possession of a portion of the
mountainous region of Khorassan in Persia, whither, according to Morier, 4000 Kurdish families were
transplanted by Shah Ismael, for the protection of Persia against the incursions of the neighbouring
Turkomans. The Yezidees, a singular religious sect, who are commonly supposed to worship the
Devil, are Kurds, and speak a dialect of the Kurdish language: they inhabit different parts of Kurdistan,
the hills of Sinjar near the river Khabour, and the plains round Nisibin and Oorfah to the west of Mosul;
and they are also found in Arabia among the native tribes. With the exception of this remarkable
people, the Kurds in general profess Moh_mm_danism; but considerable numbers of them are Nestorian
and Chaldæan Christians."--1860 S. Bagster [Info only:
Nestorian[?] & Chaldæan[?] Christians.]
"II.--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE. The Kurdish is in all probability a remnant of the old Farsi or Parsi language, and notwithstanding
the harshness of its sounds, it bears much resemblance to modern Persian. The Rev. H. Southgate
relates that this similarity is so great, that he could often understand something of the conversation of
the Kurds by the great number of Persian words he heard in it. Like most dialects used merely for
oral communication through a large extent of territory, the language of the Kurds, having no literature
or written standard of appeal, undergoes very considerable alterations and modifications in different
places by intermixture with the languages of neighbouring nations. Thus the Kurds who dwell in
the Ottoman empire have adopted many Turkish words, while corrupted Syriac words have crept into
the dialects of the tribes who live in the vicinity, or have embraced the religion, of the Nestorian
Christians.III.--VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THIS LANGUAGE. A proposal to obtain a version of Scripture in Kurdish for the benefit of this ignorant and semi-
barbarous people, was brought before the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society in 1822,
by the Rev. Henry Leeves. He experienced some difficulty in meeting with a person competent to
undertake the translation, but at length the preparation of the version was entrusted to Bishop Schevris
at Tabreez. The bishop accomplished a portion of this translation in the midst of discouragement and
even of personal risk; and in 1827, Mr. Leeves announced to the Committee that he had receivedfrom Tabreez the Four Gospels and the Apocalypse in Kurdish, written in Arabic characters. This
MS. was subsequently forwarded by Mr. Leeves to the Committee. In 1829, the mies. at
Shushi offered their services in correcting, revising, printing, and distributing the portion of Scripture
which had been translated into Kurdish at the expense of the Bible Society; and in 1832, the Com-
mittee in consequence forwarded the Four Gospels to Shushi, and authorised the engagement of a
competent Kurdish teacher as an assistant in the work of revisal. In order to ascertain the critical
value of this version of the Gospels, the Shushi mies. prosecuted the most laborious enquiries at
Tabreez; and in furtherance of the same object, the Rev. Messrs. Hörnle and Schneider undertook a
journey into Kurdistan. The result of these investigations has been to prove that the version is not
intelligible to the Kurds. The dialect in which the version is written is called the Hakkari, and is
spoken in a district of the same name near the Turkish government of Wan; but the Kurdish language
branches out into so many dialects, that it is by no means easy to decide which of the almost endless
variety would be most likely to prove an intelligible medium in communicating the divine truths of
Christianity to the whole Kurdish nation.
The difficulty above referred to has happily been since overcome by the preparation of a version
of the Gospels in Armeno-Kurdish, the language familiar to the Kurdish population of Turkish
Armenia. In 1856, the British and Foreign Bible Society printed in Armeno-Kurdish the Gospel of
St. Matthew; and an edition of 3000 copies of the Four Gospels in Armeno- Kurdish has since issued
(on behalf of the same Society) from the American Mission press at Constantinople.
The Armeno-Kurdish version of the Gospel of St. Matthew was the first portion of Holy Scrip-
ture that had ever been made really intelligible to the Kurdish nation, and it is in the highest degree
interesting to note the sensations which its appearance awakened. The following is from the pen of
a my.’s wife, who was an eye-witness of the scene:--"Saturday, I was alone in the sitting-room
of our kiosk, . . . . when I heard the voice of Deacon Shemmas. And soon he entered, looking very
happy, and exclaiming, ‘Thanks be to God--thanks, many thanks--the Kurdish Gospel of Matthew
has arrived!’ at the same time producing from his handkerchief, in which it was carefully wrapped, a
small neatly-bound volume. ‘And now,’ continued he, alluding to a contemplated journey and
absence of several weeks among some distant Kurdish towns, ‘I hope I shall go on Monday. All
I have been waiting for was these books.’ . . . .
"This new Kurdish Gospel is the first book ever published in the Kurdish language. It has
been translated by our native preacher Stepan, who lives at Hineh, and we hope he will soon complete
the translation of the whole New Testament, and that through it many will receive a knowledge of
Jesus Christ.""--The Bible of Every Land. (1860, Second Edition) Samuel Bagster [Info only]ARMENO-KURDISH.--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: Armenian Character n.d. Matthew 6:10-15 unknown.]
HAKARI DIALECT OF THE KURDISH LANGUAGE, from the M S in possession of the B & F Bible Society--1860 S. Bagster [Info only: Arabic Character n.d. John 1:1-9 unknown.]
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