Kurdistan and The Kurds A Divided Homeland and a Nation without ...

Chapter I
Kurdistan; Geography and Demography
Kurdistan has been the Kurdish people’s homeland
since the dawn of history. It occupies a vast territory in
the Middle East. According to the Islamic Encyclopaedia:
“All territories where the Kurdish people have resided
and continue to reside until the present time are called
Kurdistan.”
Hence, we can specify the geographic position of
Kurdistan with respect to the following two points:
First: The areas where the Kurdish people live at
present.
Second: The definitions given by Scholars of Eastern
Studies and historians of territories characterised by
Kurdish presence throughout history.
Based on these two points, it can be said that Kurdistan
extends from the East between the Gulf and the Caspian
Sea. The Eastern Studies Historian Norman mentions in
his book The Ancient History of the East: “The dwellings
of the Kurdish people and its residence extended from
the Persian Gulf to the Caspian Sea”, including Lors and
Bakhtiaris in the extreme south to the northern Elam,
Kermanshah and Hamadan “which was the capital of the
Median Kurdish Empire in the 7th century BC.
The border lines of Kurdistan in the North going from
the Caspian Sea to the West towards the Black Sea passing
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