The original tribe, which, governed by families of “Sultans,” is a very ancient one, and claims direct descent from Bahrum Gur, whose name is familiar to those who have read FitzGerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam.
After 1639, when the least indefinite of all the frontier treaties between Persia and Turkey was concluded and when the Jaf and other tribes joined them, the Gurans ruled with great power from their old capital at Gahwara, and made more famous their ballads and poems—which have given rise to the Kurdish name for certain kinds of poems—“Gurani.”
They have lost their power recently owing to the weakness of their rulers, and have in the last few years quite retired into the background, leaving the field in possession of the Kalhur tribe, now stronger than ever before, a compact amalgamation of the sub-tribes bearing the generic name.
The Guran are the professors of that curious and obscure cult the Ali Illahi, those who have ostensibly accepted Ali, the son-in-law of the Prophet, as the personification of the Deity, and worship him as such.
It is impossible even to mention generally the mass of report and rumour that has grown up around the tenets of this faith. Every traveller, Persian and European, failing to find out what it is, yet desiring to place information on record, has advanced as fact what have sometimes been nothing but his own theories. Among the mass it is difficult to select any one that bears signs of even probable approach to the truth.
THE ALI ILLAHI
It would appear from reading through a collection of theories on the Ali Illahi sect that some have confused them with the Yazidis, of whom a description is given in Chapter IV., for they are accused by some of nocturnal congregation at which orgies occur, the very same accusation as was brought against the Yazidi. Among many of these descriptions the report of the Shi’a Muhammadan is evident, for it is common with him, when endeavouring to describe a sect of which he is ignorant, to attribute to it a leaning towards the things unlawful in the Muhammadan code, as well to make a narrative as to impress his hearers with the extent of the schismatics’ backslidings. Thus—“In their own villages they do not deny themselves the use of wine or spirits, nor do they abstain from the prohibited food of the Quran; on the contrary, they indulge freely in swine’s flesh and intoxicating liquors.”
Be their customs what they may, their tenets at any rate include a great reverence for the Baba Yadgar, who was reckoned by them as one of the incarnations of God, for they apparently held such to be possible, and to have occurred in the case of Benjamin, Moses, Elias, David, Jesus Christ, and Ali; and seven “bodies,” one of whom was the saint, who is buried at Baba Yadgar, the place of pilgrimage.[88]
They frequently invoke David, and the name Daud is a popular one among the Guran and Kalhur tribes; and it is said that before going to war, sacrifices of sheep are made to David.
Once a year a feast is observed, before winter commences, at which Ali is worshipped, and during the summer is the feast of “Birkh,”[89] when sheep and fowls are sacrificed. A reverence is undoubtedly paid by them to fire, as is done to a great extent among many other tribes all over Kurdistan.