Kürtler

The Kurds are a people who historically inhabited the north-eastern provinces of Erzurum, Mamuretulaziz, Bitlis, Diyarbekir, Van and Mosul in and around Upper Mesopotamia (Volume 4, p. 120). Most Kurds converted to Islam with their first Islamic conquests; those who did not accept Islam continued their old religions to Meccanism by paying a jizzah, and very few became Christian (Volume 2, p. 115). ## Political history and relations with neighbors The sultanates of the period had continuous political relations with Kurdish lords and rulers (Volume 2, p. 115). The Kurds sometimes contributed to regional peace through political kinship and agreements with their neighbors, such as the Arabs, Persians, Turks, Armenians and Syrians. Geographer Umerî reports that Kurds migrated to Damascus, Yemen, and Egypt after the Mongol invasion. This record is important for Kurdish history (Volume 2, p. 115). The nature of the depictions in the sources The Islamic geographers of the Age described Kurds in different, even opposite forms: some authors referred to them with negative attributes, while others described them as "generous", "hospitalizing" and "protecting those who took refuge in themselves" (Volume 2, p. 115).