HISTORICAL
And since that time it has been Kurdistan, home of wild races speaking a language the purity of whose ancient forms is one of the best proofs of the occupation by the Kurds of their great mountains ever since the Aryan horde started from its “land of the Dawn” to people Persia, Media, and part of Europe—of which we ourselves are the descendants, through the Saxons, and so kin to the Kurd, who has never mixed his blood with that of the Arab or Turk, but kept it as pure as his unmixed speech.
Assyria, that conquered its world, found in these people of the mountains a more difficult problem than any they had yet encountered. We are told[78] that there is no reason to believe, although the Assyrians passed through the Zagros (the mountains par excellence of the Kurds) that they subdued any but the people immediately upon their route, a characteristic of Kurdistan and the attempts to invade it so like the tales of modern Persia and Turkey, that it might be the story of any of the sultans and shahs of the last two centuries.
Professor Ragozin, in the work referred to below,[79] remarks: “It is impossible not to notice the remarkably mild treatment which Tiglath-Pileser awarded to the kings of Nairi, a treatment so strongly contrasting with his usual summary proceedings as plainly to indicate a conciliatory intention.”
And again, speaking of the mountains above Erbil: “An expedition into the south-east, into the outposts of the Zagros mountains, is mentioned indeed as successful and profitable, but without much emphasis, which, in view of the tremendous stress always laid upon any victory by the inscriptions, points to a somewhat abortive expedition.”[80]
Nor was it always a case for aggression by the Assyrian king, for the great amount of the time spent by some of their monarchs in fighting with the Kurds seems to indicate that the Assyrians may even have been defending themselves rather than adopting an aggressive part.
Shalmaneser II., in the records of whose reign (860 to 824 B.C.) all the lands which he conquered are set out in detail, must have failed to make any impression upon the Zagros hills, for no mention is made of the Nairi whatever.
And when a tribe, important or unimportant, was subdued or vanquished, it was reckoned so great a feat of arms and courage, that it was worthy of particular record in the king’s annals. Thus we find Sennacherib, who performed so many great deeds, marching against a tribe in Zagros called Kasshu, and actually subduing them. Care is taken to mention in the record that this tribe had never before been conquered.
As the Assyrian dynasty grew old and feeble, the Medes were gaining in strength. Their tribes were in unison of purpose, and at last were gathered under the first Median king, who established himself at Hamadan (the Biblical Ecbatana), situate upon the eastern border of his kingdom, and protected from Assyria by great mountain ranges.
This was a member of the “House of Dayaukku,” a family with which the Assyrians had fought before in the neighbourhood of Van.[81]