Origins of the Kurds

The earliest known evidence of a unified and distinct culture in the mountains that date back to the culture of 8,000-7,400 years ago. This was followed by the period (in Mesopotamia and Zagros-Taurus mountains) which lasted from 6,300 to about 2,600 years ago. The Hurrians spoke a language which was possibly part of the (or the proposed ) family of languages, akin to modern  and. The Hurrians spread out and eventually dominated significant territories outside their - mountainous base. However, like the Kurds, they did not expand very far from the mountains. As they settled, the Hurrians divided into a number of clans and subgroups, founding city-states, kingdoms and empires with eponymous clan names. All these tribes were part of the larger group of (Khurrites), and together helped to shape the Hurrian phase of Kurdish history. These groups, except the Mitanni leadership, are thought to have been non-Indo-Europeans.

As a general and common designation, there are numerous historical records referring to the above mentioned peoples as a whole. The toponym Karda is attested in 3rd millennium BC Sumerian records. in Taurus-Zagros mountains of the northern and northeastern parts of, The area was referred to as the land of the "Karda" or "Qarduchi" and the land of the "Guti" or "Gutium". These are described as being the same people only differing in tribal name. The called these people "Gardu" and "Qarda". In neighbouring area of, they were "Qurti" or "Guti". When the entered the territory, they referred to these people as either "Kardukh", "Carduchi", "Gordukh", Kyrti(oi), Romans as Cyrti. The Armenians called the Kurds "Gortukh" or "Gortai-kh" and the Persians knew them as "Gord" or "Kord". In the, and  languages they were, respectively, "Qardu", "Kurdaye" and "Qurdaye". In and  they were "Qadu".

It is assumed that this people's original language was influenced and/or gradually replaced by the northwest Iranic, with the arrival of the Medes to Kurdistan.

Kurds are considered Indo-European as well as descendants of the groups mentioned above. However, their primary ancestral stock is a matter of debate among scholars; for instance, according to Minorsky, Kurds are direct descendant of Medes and even he suggests that the endonym of 'Kurmanj' is translated to descendants of Medes (Kur+ manda), while Others such as Mehrdad Izady think the Aryan infleunce on Kurds has been superficial.

Genetics
of randomly chosen populations has begun to shed light on the disparate origins of the. The results reveal a variety of connections between the Kurds including regional variations and different links to the past when assessing paternal and maternal lineages. In the overall sense, the Kurds share some genetic ties to other speakers of, as well as with various peoples from the such as the , which suggests that the Kurds have ancient ethnic ties that connect them to both the early inhabitants, including the s, as well as various Aryan tribes, such as the Medes, not unlike the aforementioned Armenians themselves who are also a composite group and the , another Caucasian people which may in part link the Kurds genetically to the Hurrians.

Connection with the Jewish People
There also appear to be some links to northern Semitic peoples such as the Assyrians and possibly ancient, but fewer links to southern Semites in the in spite of the region having been conquered very early by. The recent genetic research suggests a possible ancient bond between and Kurds as well. In 2001, a team of scientists discovered that three Jewish communities of, and  surprisingly shared more haplotypes and chromosomes with Muslim Kurds than with either  or s.

In 2001, Nebel et al compared three Jewish and three non-Jewish groups from the Middle East: Ashkenazim, Sephardim, and Kurdish Jews from Israel; Muslim Arabs from Israel and the Area; Bedouin from the ; and Muslim Kurds. They concluded that Sephardim and Kurdish Jews were genetically indistinguishable, but that both were slightly significantly different from Ashkenazim (who were most closely related to the Muslim Kurds). Nebel et al had earlier (2000) found a large genetic relationship between Jews and Palestinians, but in this study found an even higher relationship of Jews with Iraqi Kurds. They conclude that the common genetic background shared by Jews and other Middle Eastern groups predates the division of Middle Easterners into different ethnic groups.

Interestingly, Nebel et al (2001) also found that the (CMH), considered the most definitive Jewish haplotype, was found among 10.1% of Kurdish Jews, 7.6% of Ashkenazim, 6.4% of Sephardim, 2.1% of Palestianian Arabs, and 1.1% of Muslim Kurds. The CMH and the most frequent Muslim Kurdish haplotype (MKH) were the same on five markers (out of six) and very close on the other marker. The MKH was shared by 9.5% of Muslim Kurds, 2.6% of Sephardim, 2.0% of Kurdish Jews, 1.4% of Palestinian Arabs, and 1.3% of Ashkenazim. The general conclusion is that these similarities result mostly from the sharing of ancient genetic patterns, and not from more recent admixture between the groups (p. 1099). Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman has suggested that the CMH is “likely the marker of the Jews’ and Arabs’ shared Patriarch, Abraham” (2004: 20), but much more analysis is needed on the CMH in populations throughout the world. In this study, Kurdish Jews were found to be close to Muslim Kurds, but so were and, suggesting that much if not most of the genetic similarity between Jewish and Muslim Kurds is from ancient times.

Connection with other Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Groups
According to a recent study, Kurds' ancestors were from an old Mediterranean, i.e. and  groups. Moreover the Aryan ancestry of the Kurds is not supported by genetic analyses.

Genetic distance comparisons have revealed that the and  speaking peoples in the  area cluster with the,  and Iranics. In this study, the speakers are genetically remote from these populations; they are, however, close to the s who migrated from  to  at the end of the 7th Century A.D..

According to a recent genetic study based on genetic distances and, Kurds are classified as part of the eastern Mediterranean stock, close to the Turks of.

Lastly, recent evidence also points to European genetic links as well. Overall the Kurds are a varied population and the genetic inquiries into their background will require larger sampling before being deemed conclusive:

Muslim Kurds
The Kurds are considered an ancient who may even be the descendants of the shepherds who first populated the highlands during the  period. Although came under the successive dominion of various conquerors, including the, , , , , and Iraqis , they may be the only western n group that remained relatively unmixed by the influx of invaders, because of their protected and inhospitable mountainous homeland. The variation of Muslim Kurds falls within the spectrum observed in other populations (Turks and Armenians) living in the same region. The three populations are closer to Jews and Arabs than to Europeans. This is in good agreement with data on classical markers (Cavalli-Sforza et al. 1994). However, on the basis of mtDNA polymorphisms, Kurds were reported to be more closely related to Europeans than to Middle Easterners

Recent tests also do not support the  of the origin of the  being in northern Iran; genetically they are more similar to other Kurdish groups.

Connection with European people
In another study, Kurds showed that clearly belong to the European. On the basis of mtDNA variation, the Kurdish samples appear more closely related to s than to samples.

Validity and reliability of such genetic studies
According to geneticists and anthropologists, genetic diversity appears to fall along a continuum, with no "clear" breaks delineating different groups. Also, gene expression can be affected significantly by environmental factors.

Such genetic analyses suffer from many drawbacks and any conclusion must be drawn cautiously. Moreover, they are very limited to a certain set of genes or a specific chromosome and do not take into account the whole genome sequence. Several scientists also believe that racial typing is subjective into where you can draw a line and say there's a major difference on one side of the line from what's on the other side.

According to Dr. Craig Venter of Celera Genomics, one of the organizations involved in the sequencing, the level of genetic similarity shows that: "Race is a social concept, not a scientific one." There is only one race, Dr. Venter and other scientists at the National Institutes of Health have unanimously declared: the human race.

American Anthropological Association made a statement on genetic studies of races, stating that there is greater variation within "racial" groups than between them. Such groupings may be scientifically baseless according to most American social/cultural anthropologists, though not according to most American geneticists and physical anthropologists.

Some human rights activists also oppose such genetic analysis.