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The great mosque in Mardin. The majority of Kurdish people are Muslim by religion. [1] [2] [3] While the relationship between religion and nationalism has usually been strained and ambivalent with the strong hold of the Islamic leaders in Kurdish society, it has generally been the conservative Muslim Kurds who formed the backbone of the Kurdish movements.
The Kurdish people have different religions depending on their ethnic connections and the country in which they live. The most common religion among Kurds is Sunni Islam, practiced by 98% of Kurds living in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Kurds of Turkey are 30% Alevi out of a population of approximately 15–22 million Kurds and 68% follow Sunni Islam. [12]
Kurdish Muslims (Kurdish: موسڵمانی کورد, romanized: Musilmanên Kurd) are Kurds who follow Islam, which is the largest religion among Kurds and has been for centuries. [1] Kurds largely became Muslims in the 7th century. [2] [3]
Kurds comprise anywhere from 18 to 25% of the population in Turkey, [1] [57] 15 to 20% in Iraq; [1] 10% in Iran; [1] and 9% in Syria. [1] [58] Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, Iranian Kurdistan and Syrian Kurdistan.
Their origin is uncertain and they are considered Kurds by some scholars. [6] [7] [8] They speak Shabaki and live in a religious community (ta'ifa) in the Nineveh Plains. The ancestors of Shabaks were followers of the Safaviyya order, which was founded by the Kurdish mystic Safi-ad-din Ardabili in the early 14th century. [9]
Kurdology or Kurdish studies is an academic discipline centered on the study of Kurds and consists of several disciplines such as culture, history and linguistics. [1] Kurdish studies traces its institutional history to 1916, when in St. Petersburg in the late Russian Empire, during World War I, Kurdish was first taught as a university course by Joseph Orbeli.
Most of the books that were used as textbooks in Kurdish madrasas were in Arabic, and they were translated to Kurdish by educationalists and experts. There was an obligation of at least one child in each household having the necessity of being educated in a madrasa among the Kurds. Around 80% of students in Kurdish madrasas were male. [22] [23]
The two major religions among Kurds in Iran are Islam and Yarsanism, while fewer Kurds adhere to Baháʼí Faith and Judaism. [14] There is disagreement on which is the largest denomination among Kurds; experts such as Richard N. Frye and Martin van Bruinessen argue that Sunni Islam (the Shafi'i branch [3]) is the majority religion, [15] [16] while researcher Anu Leinonen believes it is the ...