Turkey 15,000,000 Iran 350,000 (1988) Armenia 45,000 (2002) | Iraq 2,800,000 (2004) Syria 938,000 (1993) Azerbaijan 20,000 (1989) | |
The Kurmanji Kurds (Kurdish: Kurdên Kurmancî, Кöрдэн Кöрманщи, کوردێن کورمانجی) or simple Kurmanj (Kurdish: Kurmanc, Кöрманщ, کورمانج) are a subgroup of Kurdish people, they live primarily in northern parts of Kurdistan (from Sarhad to Hakkari and to Upper Mesopotamia) and in Anatolia (Turkey), north of Mukrian and in Khorasan (Iran), in Bahdinan region of Kurdistan (Iraq) also in northern parts over the Syrian Arab Republic.
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History
The Kurmanjis (or their Ancestors) were from Mannea, Kortsayk and Mardpetakan, they inhabited the regions from lake Urmia to the Tigris river. Since they converted to Islam, many Kurmanji dynasties expand toward north, northwest and to the west, the Marwanids ruled from Sophene (Diarbakr) to lake Van and the Shaddadids ruled the regions between Aras and Kura rivers also over Armenia and Shirvan.
Etymology
According to M. Izady, The name Kurmanc could mean Mannean Kurds, Kurd and Manna, the Manneans lived in the region west of lake Urmia.
The regional pronunciations of "Kurmanj" are; Kurmanc, Qurmanc, Kirmanc and Kurdmanc.
People
More than 20 million people speaks the northern Dialect of Kurdish, and live in the countries of Turkey, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia and other states of central Asia, but the majority is in Kurdistan, Anatolia and Khorasan
Language
Kurmanjis speaking the Kurmanji (Kurmancî) dialect of the Kurdish languages, the dialect is in the West known under the name Northern Kurdish, in Southern parts of Kurdistan it is known as Badînî (a dialect continuum of N.Kurdish) and the Sharima people in Dersim region call the dialect as Kirdaskî.
Religion
All religious Kurmanjis believe in one God, named the Khuade (Xwedê), and are mostly Muslim (Alevi, Sunni) most of the Sunni Kurmanjis belonging to the Shafi school.