Talk:Kurds

Adding better map

Hello,

A while back, I created and added a map of the distribution of Kurdish people across the world, but I did not use a map that followed Wikipedia's style. For example, you can see the difference between the map here and the map on the article Arabs. If someone knows how to create a map that follows the latter's style, please do so; I'd highly appreciate it. Or, someone who knows how to make such specific maps can tell me how to do so; also I'd highly appreciate that.

Thanks! DanyMations (talk) 04:57, 24 June 2026 (UTC)

"Easterners" are not only Kurds

An uncited statement in the section "Kurdish Communities" claims that Kurds are called "Easterners" in Turkey. The reliablity of this claim should be checked. My Turkish family identifies itself as an Easterner but not as a Kurd. To my knowledge, being an Easterner makes a cultural distinction as the culture of Eastern Türkiye, regardless of the ethnic affiliation, and that of Western Türkiye are slightly different. So, what I know is every Kurd is an Easterner, but not every (albeit the majority of) Easterner is a Kurd. ~2026-41942-74 (talk) 19:49, 28 July 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 29 July 2026

Description of suggested change:

Etymology section is below standards of WP:DUE and WP:NPOV.

Current section opens with and frames discussion around Qardu → Corduene → Kurd speculative toponymic chain. Modern Iranistics treats the documented history of Kurd as an ethnonym as beginning only in the 6th–7th centuries CE. Moderns scholars like Garnik Asatrian explicitly warn that “before that period, there is little reliable evidence of its earlier forms” and that looking for a particular ethnic sense in ancient toponyms is “a futile exercise.”

Leading with Qardu and treating the kwrt- derivation as an afterthought (“Regardless of its possible roots in ancient toponymy…”), the section inverts the scholarly weight.

Re-organizing section by leading documented 6th–7th c. kwrt- derivation supported by modern scholarship. Reframing Qardu/Corduene theory to 'some scholars' and adding disputed status per philological sources

Removing outdated, orientalist 1923 source which deploys classic essentialist rhetoric (“bravery and the love of fighting are the outstanding traits of the Kurdish character”). On Wikipedia, a century-old source making racialized generalizations should never be presented as authoritative.

Diff:

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==Etymology== <div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: [[:History of the Kurds#Etymology|History of the Kurds § Etymology]]</div> The exact origins of the name ''Kurd'' are unclear. The underlying [[toponym]] is recorded in [[Akkadian language|Assyrian]] as <span title="Akkadian-language text"><i lang="akk-Latn">Qardu</i></span> and in [[Middle Bronze Age]] [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]] as <span title="Sumerian-language text"><i lang="sux-Latn">Kar-da</i></span>. Assyrian <span title="Akkadian-language text"><i lang="akk-Latn">Qardu</i></span> refers to an area in the upper [[Tigris]] basin, and it is presumably reflected in corrupted form in [[Classical Arabic]] <span title="Arabic-language text"><i lang="ar-Latn">[[Mount Judi|Ǧūdī]]</i></span> (<span title="Arabic-language text"><span lang="ar" dir="rtl">جودي</span></span>), re-adopted in Kurdish as <span title="Kurdish-language text"><i lang="ku-Latn">Cûdî</i></span>. The name would be continued as the first element in the toponym ''[[Corduene]]'', mentioned by [[Xenophon]] as the tribe who opposed the retreat of the [[Ten Thousand (Greek)|Ten Thousand]] through the mountains north of [[Mesopotamia]] in the 4th century BC. There are, however, dissenting views, which do not derive the name of the Kurds from <span title="Akkadian-language text"><i lang="akk-Latn">Qardu</i></span> and ''Corduene'' but opt for derivation from <span title="Latin-language text"><i lang="la">[[Cyrtians|Cyrtii]]</i></span> (<span title="Latin-language text"><i lang="la">Cyrtaei</i></span>) instead.Regardless of its possible roots in ancient toponymy, the [[ethnonym]] ''Kurd'' might be derived from a term <span title="Middle Persian-language text"><i lang="pal-Latn">kwrt-</i></span> used in [[Middle Persian]] as a common noun to refer to '[[nomad]]s' or 'tent-dwellers', which could be applied as an attribute to any Iranic group with such a lifestyle.The term gained the characteristic of an ethnonym following the [[Muslim conquest of Persia]], as it was adopted into Arabic and gradually became associated with an amalgamation of Iranic and Iranicized tribes and groups in the region.In 1923, ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'' claimed that the same way Kerman in Persian was Qarman in Syriac, Kurd in Persian was Qardu in Syriac, stating that "the Persian gurd or kurd, which seems to have been derived from a common origin with the Babylonian gardu or qardu, signifies 'brave', 'valiant', or 'warlike', and bravery and the love of fighting are the outstanding traits of the Kurdish character. From the Persians it passed into Arabic, whence it became the common European name of the Kurds."

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==Etymology== <div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Further information: [[:History of the Kurds#Etymology|History of the Kurds § Etymology]]</div> The exact origins of the name Kurd are unclear. The term is first documented as an ethnonym in the 6th–7th centuries CE, and most modern scholars derive it from Middle Persian kwrt-, a common noun meaning 'nomad' or 'tent-dweller' that was applied to Iranian-speaking pastoralists and only gradually acquired ethnic specificity following the Muslim conquest of Persia, as it was adopted into Arabic and became associated with an amalgamation of Iranic and Iranicized tribes and groups in the region. Some scholars have proposed older toponymic connections, noting that an underlying form is recorded in Assyrian as Qardu and in Middle Bronze Age Sumerian as Kar-da, referring to an area in the upper Tigris basin, and that this name might be reflected in corrupted form in Classical Arabic Ǧūdī (جودي), re-adopted in Kurdish as Cûdî<span title="Kurdish-language text"><i lang="ku-Latn">Cûdî</i></span>., and continued as the first element in the toponym Corduene, mentioned by Xenophon as the tribe who opposed the retreat of the Ten Thousand through the mountains north of Mesopotamia in the 4th century BC. However, modern scholars dispute a direct linguistic link between these ancient forms and the medieval ethnonym Kurd, citing formal phonological obstacles and the lack of evidence that pre-Islamic attestations referred to the ancestors of the modern Kurds.Modern scholars derive the name from Cyrtii (Cyrtaei) rather than from Qardu and Corduene.

IlberOCelalS (talk) 13:54, 29 July 2026 (UTC)