Many historical studies mention that the origin of the Kurds is the ancient Zagros people who lived in their homeland, Kurdistan, tens of thousands of years ago. Throughout the historical eras experienced by the Zagros people, many tribes and branches belonging to the Zagrosian people established kingdoms, empires, and civilizations in the region. Among the Zagrosian tribes that established kingdoms and empires in Kurdistan are the Subarians, Sumerians, Elamites, Lullubis, Kassites, Hurrians-Mitannis, Urartians, Medes, and Carduchis.
The mountainous nature of Kurdistan and its abundance of rivers must have played a major role in the emergence of numerous Kurdish kingdoms established by different Zagrosian tribes independently of one another, as a result of the presence of towering mountains and many rivers in Kurdistan that isolated these tribes from each other, leading them in many cases to establish their own independent kingdoms instead of a unified kingdom. Thus, one can discover that the origin of the Kurds goes back to these Zagrosian tribes that inhabited Kurdistan since ancient times (Arshak Safrastian: Kurds and Kurdistan. Translated by Dr. Ahmed Khalil, Beirut, 2007, page 23; Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras to the Present. Translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, pages 74-80).
Assyrian sources in the second and first millennia BC point to the extent of linguistic, social, and cultural closeness among these Zagrosian tribes and peoples, which are the ancient origins of the Kurdish people (Diakonoff: Media. Translated by Wahiba Shawkat, Damascus, Publisher Mahmoud Ayoub, 1998).
I will focus here on the geography and history of the Zagrosian kingdoms to demonstrate that Assyria was a homeland for the ancestors of the Kurds before the founding of the Kingdom of Assyria, and to shed light on the relationship between the Assyrians and the ancestors of the Kurds, especially the Subarians, as the majority of the population of Assyria consisted of Zagrosian Kurdish peoples.
Lullu People
Also called the Lullubi people, they inhabited the northern section of the Zagros Mountains in the region of Zohab, Sharazor, and Sulaymaniyah during the third millennium BC. During the third millennium BC, the Lullu people established the Kingdom of “Khamazi” in the present-day Sulaymaniyah region in southern Kurdistan. Texts of a cuneiform letter indicate an alliance between the two Kurdish kingdoms of Khamazi and Ebla to cooperate in protecting both kingdoms from external threats (Dr. Fawzi Rashid: Kingdom of Khamazi, Karwan Magazine, Issue 21, Dohuk, 1984, page 144). Later, the Lullu people merged with the Gutian people (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras to the Present. Translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, page 60), while Tawfiq Sulaiman mentions that the land of Lullu extended to Lake Urmia (Tawfiq Sulaiman: Studies in the Civilizations of Ancient Western Asia. First Edition, Dar Damascus for Printing, Press, and Publishing, 1985, page 132), and a section of the Lullubis inhabited present-day western Kurdistan (Source No. 1).
In the year 3700 BC, the earliest mention of the Lullu people in cuneiform writings occurred on a tablet written during the reign of the Akkadian King “Naram-Sin,” which was discovered by Major Edmonds in the Gawer Pass located in the Qaradagh Mountains in present-day southern Kurdistan, where Major Edmonds wrote an article on this subject titled “Two Ancient Monuments in Kurdistan” in the Geographical Journal. Also, in Zohab, located in present-day eastern Kurdistan, an engraved stone dating back to the reign of the Lullu King (Anubanini) was found, and the date of the mentioned stone goes back to the year 2800 BC (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras to the Present. Translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, footnote page 60). The scholar Muhammad Amin Zaki also points out that the Orientalist Husing says that the language of the Lullu people was of the Elamite language type (same previous source, page 61), and as the historian Speiser believes, there is also a phonetic similarity between the language of the Lullu people and the Hurrian people, and that the Lullubis are the ancestors of the Kurdish Luri group (Source No. 1).
Assyrian documents indicate that the land of Lullu was highly advanced in the fields of industry, architecture, and arts, to the extent that the Assyrian King (Ashurnasirpal) relocated many master craftsmen and artisans from the inhabitants of the land of Lullu to Assyria (Source No. 2; Jamal Rashid Ahmad and Fawzi Rashid: Ancient History of the Kurds, Erbil, 1990, pages 27-28).
Professor Kamal Mazhar states that there is a close connection between the Lullubis and the Hurrians, as the Kurdish people are the descendants of these two peoples, and that the Lullubis built the city of Kirkuk, which at that time was known by two names, Arrapha and Elani, meaning the city of the gods, while the Hurrians gave the name “Nuzi” to the city of Kirkuk (Dr. Kamal Mazhar: Kirkuk and Its Dependencies – The Judgment of History and Conscience – A Documentary Study of the Kurdish Issue in Iraq, Ministry of Culture, Kurdistan, 2004, page 5).
Gutians
The Gutians belong to the Zagros people, and their original homeland was the central part of the Zagros Mountains, and they are the primary origin of the Kurdish people (Source No. 1, page 117). The name Guti appeared in the third and second millennia BC. The scholar Muhammad Amin Zaki points out that the borders of the land of the Gutians extended from Armenia to Kimukhi (Tur Abdin) (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras to the Present. Translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, pages 61, 62). The Russian Orientalist Diakonoff also mentions that the Gutian people inhabited the east and northwest of the land of Lullu, in both Kurdistan and Azerbaijan, and Arrapha (Kirkuk) was the capital of the Gutian Kingdom, and later the name “Gutians” was applied to all peoples living in northeastern Babylon (Diakonoff: Media. Translated by Wahiba Shawkat, Damascus, Publisher Mahmoud Ayoub, 1998, pages 109, 110). Dr. Jamal Rashid also says that the Gutians lived in the regions confined between the Lesser Zab River and the Diyala River, where Kirkuk and its dependencies formed the center of their land (Jamal Rashid: Emergence of the Kurds in History, Part One, page 547). Historian Speiser says that the Gutians were present in the land of Sumer long before the establishment of governments there (Source No. 1, page 99). The Gutians ruled for about 200 years and ruled central and southern Iraq for 125 years (Georges Roux: Ancient Iraq, translated by Hussain Alwan Hussain, Baghdad, 1984, page 215). The Sumerian King of Ur (Utu-hengal) seized the land of the Gutians, who were forced to return to their original homeland in the Zagros Mountains (Source No. 3). Later, the Gutians merged with the Lullubis, and their land became part of the land of Lullu (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras to the Present. Translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, page 90).
Kassite People (Kassites, Kassi)
The Kassite people (Kasshu) mentioned during the Akkadian era or (Kush) mentioned in the Bible and Babylonian accounts belong to the Zagros peoples. They initially settled in the Kermanshah region (Kermanshah, Qirmisin) and worked as farmers and agriculturists, raising horses, and were advanced in architecture, arts, industry, and the art of writing and calligraphy (Taha Baqir: Introduction to the History of Ancient Civilizations. Part One, Baghdad, 1973, pages 454-456).
In the year 1746 BC, the Kassites, with the participation of the Gutians and Lullubis, led by the leader (Gandash), seized the lands of Sumer and Akkad, where they established a strong government under the name “Kanduniash,” and their rule there lasted for about six centuries (1746–1171 BC) (Source No. 1). Upon seizing Babylon, the Kassites did not interfere in the affairs of the southern government of Babylon (Sumer) for a period of time, as the Sumerian government maintained its political entity for three centuries (2068-1710 BC) (Muhammad Amin Zaki: Summary of the History of the Kurds and Kurdistan from the Oldest Historical Eras to the Present. Translated by Muhammad Ali Awni, Part One, Second Edition, 1961, pages 93, 94; Source No. 1). After the overthrow of the Kassite government by the Elamites, the Kassites returned to the Zagros Mountains (Luristan).
The Kassites continued to exist under this name until the first century AD in Luristan, located in present-day eastern Kurdistan, and then their name disappeared and was replaced by the name (Lur). It is not unlikely that the name (Lur) was initially applied to a branch of the Kassite people and then became the name for the Kassite people across all its branches (Source No. 1).
The Kassites were polytheists, and their chief deity was called “Suryash,” meaning the sun god, and the language of the Kassites was a family of Aryan languages (Source No. 1). The scholar Muhammad Amin Zaki also mentions that the Orientalist Husing points out that the Kassite dialect is completely similar to the language of northern Elam, and that there are some Kassite names and proper nouns that resemble Hurrian names.
Foreign Sources
Speisere, Ephraim A. (1930). Mesopotamian Origins. The basic population of the Near East. Philadelphia.
Olmstead, A. T. (1923). History of Assyria. Chicago, USA.
Hall, H.R. (1919) The Ancient History near east. London, fourth Edition, page 186.
2013 / 10 / 7
Note: This text is translated from the original Arabic version… Read the Arabic version:Click here
