Many historians agree that the Subarians are among the ancestors of the Kurds, as historians and anthropologists point out that since the earliest historical times, the land of “Subartu” was inhabited by an Asian people who shared a race, religion, language, and culture that distinguished them from other peoples. Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed mentions that most of the northern regions of the Mesopotamian valley were known in Babylonian terminology as “Subartu,” that their inhabitants were non-Semitic and non-Indo-European, and that “Subartu” is a geographical name meaning “the north or the elevated region” (Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed: Kurdish Studies in the Land of Subartu, Baghdad, 1984, page 3).
Scholar Muhammad Amin Zaki mentions that during the Akkadian era, the name “Subari” was a geographical expression denoting a very wide land extending from the northwest in Elam to the Amanus Mountains, and then the name came to be applied to large clans in Kurdistan (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras Until Now, translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, page 67).
Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed mentions that the geographical term “Subartu” entered history since the third millennium BC, as a land located between “Parahshi” in northern Elam and the Amanus Mountains bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the west. During the reign of the Akkadian king Naram-Sin, the regions of the Gutians and Lullubians were part of Subartu (Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed: Kurdish Studies in the Land of Subartu, Baghdad, 1984, page 3). In the late rule of the Assyrians, the name of the Subarians disappeared and was replaced by the name of another people known as “Nairi,” and it is likely that the Nairians were an important section of the Subarian people, and the ruins of the Nairian people still remain in the region of “Nahri” (current Şemdinli) located in present-day northern Kurdistan (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras Until Now, translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, page 67). The Russian orientalist “Vladimir Minorsky” also mentions that the Nairians are the descendants of the Subarians, and the Subarians in turn are the descendants of the Gutians (Vladimir Minorsky: The Kurds and Kurdistan, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Cairo, 1929). Likewise, the orientalist “Thureau-Dangin” mentions that the region of “Nairi” or “Hubushkia” is the Botan Valley, and an independent Nairian government was established in the eastern part of the Nairian lands (Thureau-Dangin: The Eighth Campaign of King Sargon, Paris, 1912). Professor Hazim Hajani mentions that Anwar al-Mai says that the oldest Badinani Kurdish clan is the Zibar clan, and that this clan descends from the Subarians (Hazim Hajani: Matin Magazine, issue 67, page 103).
Orientalists mention that the Mitanni are a branch of the Subarians, and the inhabitants who lived in northern Mesopotamia also belonged to the Subarians (Source No. 1, pages 128–135). Sir Sidney Smith also says that the Subarian inhabitants dwelling in the upper western part of the Tigris were known by the name of the “Hurrians,” who were able to extend their control in the 18th century BC over the greater part of present-day Syria up to the Euphrates River, and that the Egyptians in that period called present-day Syria the land of “Horu” (Source No. 2).
“Herzfeld” mentions that no ethnic change took place among the inhabitants of the land of Subartu, but rather their names were changed, as the name “Hurrians” replaced the name of most of the inhabitants of Subartu after the era of Hammurabi. “Herzfeld” adds that it appears from the texts of “Bogazköy,” which date back to before 1600 BC, that the Hittites called the Akkadian language “Babibili”—which is the time preceding the emergence of the city of Babylon—and called the language of the land of Subartu “Hurili” (Source No. 3).
Sir Sidney Smith says: The information we have obtained about Kurdistan so far indicates to us beyond any doubt that in ancient times there was a region bounded to the north by Lake Van, to the west by the Khabur Valley, to the east by Kirkuk, and to the south by Babylon, and a people called “Subari” lived in this region (Source No. 2).
Some historians believe that the Subarians and Sumerians belong to a single origin and are related to each other by kinship, or at least that they lived together in northern Mesopotamia before the Sumerians moved to southern Mesopotamia and settled there (Dr. Naim Farah: Landmarks of Ancient World Civilizations, Dar al-Fikr, 1973, page 198). Dr. Naim Farah also mentions in his aforementioned book that the Subarians and Sumerians descend from the Gutians (the ancestors of the Kurds) whose homeland was the Zagros mountain range. The names of many Sumerian cities are not Sumerian names, but Subarian, such as the cities of: Ur, Eridu, Uruk, Sippar, Larsa, Lagash. Likewise, the common vocabulary between the Subarian and Sumerian languages may be Subarian vocabulary, such as the word “Batis – Batiz” which means “the king” (Dr. Sami Said al-Ahmed: The Sumerians and Their Cultural Heritage, Publications of the Iraqi Historical Association, Baghdad, 1975). This supports the view that there is a kinship relation between the Subarians and Sumerians, and that these two peoples lived together in present-day Kurdistan.
Professor Iskandar Daoud mentions that the Subarians were among the most important and oldest peoples of the region (Iskandar Daoud: Syrian Al-Jazeera Between Past and Present, Al-Taraqi Press, 1959, page 119). Dr. Naim Farah also says that the Subarians are the oldest tribes that inhabited northern Mesopotamia, and that region was named “the land of Subartu or Subar” (Dr. Naim Farah: Landmarks of Ancient World Civilizations, Dar al-Fikr, 1973, page 198).
Subarian civilization began before the flood, and among the rulers of Subartu at that time was King “Enmen-dur-ana,” who brought the laws of wisdom and knowledge to humanity after receiving them from heaven in the name of (Sr Anu), which included the secrets of heaven and the tablet of omens and divination. Likewise, the cultural material of the kingdom of Babylon and Assyria is taken from the Subarian and Sumerian civilizations.
The name “Subartu” was mentioned in various cuneiform texts in numerous forms: Subartu, Subar, Subir, Zubar, Shubartu, Shubur, etc. The land of Subartu consisted of the high mountainous regions recorded by the Sumerians under the name “Subir.” The name “Subartu” appeared in the oldest Sumerian geographical form as “Subir” on a Sumerian tablet dating back to the time of “Lugal-ane-mundu,” ruler of the city of “Adab” in the first quarter of the third millennium BC, where the name was recorded alongside (Elam, Marahshi, Gutium, Amurru, and Sutiium) (Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed: Kurdish Studies in the Land of Subartu, Baghdad, 1984, page 3; Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras Until Now, translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, page 67). Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed continues his speech on the same aforementioned page saying that the Assyrian designation for “Subartu” is “Shubaru and Shubriya,” and that the concept of this name appeared in the form of (Aliyatum) in Akkadian and Assyrian texts. The term changed to “Kohistan” in the early Islamic era and was translated to “the land of the mountain,” which included vast regions of Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, and from the Alborz mountains south of the Caspian Sea, interspersing the Zagros and Taurus mountains and extending to the Mediterranean Sea as well as Armenia. The Subarians had a distinct god named “Aliyatum,” which later took on the meaning of an administrative district within the Assyrian Empire, while the Hittites used the term “Kur Uga,” which means “the upper lands,” by which they meant the regions located between the Taurus Mountains and the Halys River.
Likewise, the land of Subartu was named “Subartim” in a text dating back to the time of the Akkadian ruler “Naram-Sin,” who ruled in 2291–2255 BC. The use of this name continued in the Akkadian era in its broad sense and included all regions located north of Mesopotamia, which included the regions of Lullu and the Gutians. It has been mentioned in ancient texts that Subartu also included the west of present-day Kurdistan adjacent to Mitanni (Hazim Hajani: Matin Magazine, issue 67, page 103).
The name “Subar” was recorded in cuneiform texts as “Subartu” because the suffix “tu” was added by the Sumerians as an ending for the words of geographical directions. The name “Subartu” was mentioned in very ancient geographical tablets found in the library of the Assyrian king “Ashurbanipal,” which date back to the Babylonian era, where the world in these tablets was divided into four parts: Sumer and Akkad in the southeast, Elam in the northeast, Amurru or the land of the Amorites in the southwest, Subartu or the land of the Subarians in the northwest (Georges Roux: Ancient Iraq, translated and commented by Hussein Alwan Hussein, Baghdad, Ministry of Culture and Information, Second Edition, 1986, page 411; Taha Baqir: An Introduction to the History of Ancient Civilizations, Part One, Summary of the History of the Mesopotamian Civilization, First Edition, Baghdad, 1973, page 511; Amer Suleiman: Iraq in Ancient History, Mosul, Dar Al-Hikma for Printing and Publishing, 1992, pages 132–133).
Historian “Gernot Wilhelm” mentions that the geographical designation “Subartu” did not always refer to specific regions in northern Mesopotamia, but rather at first it denoted a part of the region northeast of the Tigris, then its connotation expanded to include Assyria and northern Mesopotamia, and finally in Neo-Babylonian texts it became a literary description for Assyria (Gernot Wilhelm: The Hurrians, Their History and Civilization, translated by Farooq Ismail, Dar Jadl, Aleppo, First Edition, 2000 AD, page 29). Scholar Muhammad Amin Zaki also mentions that the land of Subartu extended from northwestern Elam to the Amanus Mountains located west of the Euphrates River between the Sanjak of Alexandretta and the Adana Vilayet (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras Until Now, translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, page 67).
In recounting the names of the countries conquered by Sargon the Great of Akkad, a cuneiform text indicates the borders of those countries. Regarding the borders of the land of Subartu, the aforementioned cuneiform text stated that the land of Subartu extended from “Elam” located in the east of present-day Kurdistan to the Cedar Mountains (the Amanus Mountains). Some Akkadian texts also mention that Subartu included the east of present-day Kurdistan, the middle and upper Jazira, and present-day Syria, extending to the borders of present-day Israel, and the land of Subartu also included a part of Armenia and Anatolia.
During Subarian rule, villages were subject to the authority of the neighboring city, which was headed by a ruler called “Batis – Batiz,” which means king in the Subarian and Sumerian languages. When the authority of a city grew stronger, this city would subject some other cities to its rule, and at that time the ruler of that city was given the title of “Lugal” (Dr. Naim Farah: Landmarks of Ancient World Civilizations, Dar al-Fikr, 1973, page 198).
The Subarians were a peaceful people, therefore Subarian civilization was built on peace and tranquility, and the Subarians did not enslave other peoples or occupy the homelands of these peoples; rather, they transmitted their civilization to the peoples of the region.
German archaeologists “Max von Oppenheim,” “Hubert Schmidt,” and “Naumann” mention that the kingdom of Subartu was the cradle of a civilization with a special character, as the Subarians established a prosperous civilization, and the antiquities they discovered in “Tell Halaf” and “Jableh al-Bayda” indicate the prosperity of agriculture, trade, and city-building in the land of Subartu (Source No. 4, 5). The Subarians had trade relations with both Armenia and Asia Minor, as archaeological tablets containing trade correspondence similar to those existing at the present time were found. The Subarians had merchants and resident agents in the kingdom of Assyria and other kingdoms to help the kingdom of Subartu flourish in its trade with the kingdoms of the region. Among the goods that the Subarians exported to southern Mesopotamia were copper, tin, fabrics, clothing, leather, and oils. The exports of the land of Subartu were transported by water via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as well as the Khabur River, where von Oppenheim and his two colleagues discovered a Subarian river port (Source No. 4, 5).
The Subarian language was one of the oldest languages as well as its cuneiform script, as Subarian civilization rivaled Sumerian civilization even in the emergence of writing and even in the inauguration of historical eras, as there is a lot of Sumerian vocabulary taken from the Subarian language (Dr. Sami Said al-Ahmed: The Sumerians and Their Cultural Heritage, Publications of the Iraqi Historical Association, Baghdad, 1975).
There is a similarity in the languages of the ancestors of the Kurds: the Gutians, Kassites, Karduchians, Lullubians, Sumerians, Subarians, Hurrians, and other Zagros peoples. Sir Sidney Smith mentions that there is no relation between the language of these peoples and the languages of the Semitic peoples. This means that the Subarian language is not a Semitic language. German archaeologists “Max von Oppenheim,” “Hubert Schmidt,” and “Naumann” also believe that the language of the Subarians can be classified within the Caucasian language group (Source No. 4, 5). This view is supported by the Georgian orientalist “Marr,” who says that the Kurds are an indigenous people, that they are relatives of the Karduchians, and that their original Caucasian language merged with the Indo-European languages of the Aryan elements who migrated to present-day Kurdistan (N. Ya. Marr: Records of the Eastern Department of the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society, Saint Petersburg, Volume 20, 1912 AD, pages 99–151).
The veneration of nature and the worship of its forces prevailed in the beliefs of the Subarians, as the equilateral Hurrian-Mitannian cross was a symbol of the god “Mithra.” This cross is still drawn on the bodies of sick children and placed around the necks of children and pets, and it is also drawn on household utensils. Therefore, sun worship was among the prevailing worships of the peoples of the Middle East and Egypt (Dr. Jamal Rashid Ahmed: Kurdish Studies in the Land of Subartu, Baghdad, 1984, page 27). The veneration of the sun still remains in some present religions such as the Yazidi religion and the Kakai faith. The sun was the primary god of the Subarians, and then other planets, especially Venus and the moon, came after the sun in sanctity and worship. It is also useful to state that the Subarians respected other religions, alongside maintaining their religious beliefs, and they prevented extremism and violence. The Subarians and other ancient Zagros peoples made the graves of their dead facing the sunrise as a result of their veneration of the sun god, and they buried the personal belongings of the deceased with them in their grave.
Archaeologists discovered in “Zibar” the ruins of a school for teaching children dating back to the Subarian era, where tiles containing lessons for children and youth in arithmetic, multiplication tables, and lexicons were found. Numerous books and letters were also discovered, which consisted of contracts, records, mathematical and astronomical problems, and historical texts.
The city of “Sherish” was one of the famous Subarian cities, which the Subarians defended desperately when it was besieged by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser I. Likewise, the cities of Kirkuk, Kifri, Khanaqin [or Khurmatu], and Amid (Diyarbakir) are among the ancient Subarian cities remaining to this day.
Archaeologists have found some religious prayers indicating that women held a prestigious position in Subarian society, as women enjoyed freedom and independence in many matters. The discovered antiquities also indicate that women performed clerical work in the departments (Jurji Zaydan: Arabs Before Islam, Part One, Second Edition, Dar al-Hilal, 1922, page 67).
Foreign Sources
Speiser, Ephraim A. (1930). Mesopotamian Origins: The Basic Population of the Near East. Philadelphia.
Smith, Sidney (1928). Ancient Kurdistan.
Herzfeld, E. (1968). The Persian Empire. Wiesbaden, page 158.
Oppenheim, Max von, and Schmidt, Hubert (1943). Tell Halaf I.
Oppenheim, Max von, and Naumann, R. (1950). Tell Halaf II.
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