As the Kurds become ever more of a factor in the politics of three major countries (Turkey, Iraq, and Iran), the outside world is slowly learning something about this ancient but obscure people. Five recent books neatly complement each other toward this end. Each of them, incidentally, has an explicit political purpose to bring the twenty or so million Kurds and their culture to attention, hoping - probably with reason - this will help end their political tragedy.
Izady, as his subtitle implies, offers a primer on the Kurds. He covers such diverse subjects as flora and fauna, Kurdish vernaculars, political parties, and rug manufacture. More helpfully yet, he provides copious bibliographic references for further reading. Even Middle East specialists will find almost everything in Izady's handbook unfamiliar; he has done an exemplary job of bringing so much together in a clear and reliable fashion.
Kreyenbroek and Sperl draw their text from a 1989 conference held in London; after a few introductory chapters, their authors outline, in competent but dull fashion, the modern history of Kurds. They (and especially Ismet Chériff Vanly) offer much original research and much that is new. Perforce, the chapters deal with individual countries, though this has the unfortunate effect of leaving the reader without a clear sense of the Kurds as a single people.
McDowall's survey of Kurdish history also considers separately the Turkish, Iranian, and Iraqi cases. But his single-authored account has a more focused quality and a more lively presentation than Kreyenbroek and Sperl's, making it suitable as an introductory text.
Bulloch and Morris apply the journalist's craft of the same story. Alone of the authors considered here, they manage to integrate the Kurdish story into an integral whole, emphasizing recent events and focusing on dramatic highlights (for example, the 1989 assassination in Vienna of a Kurdish leader). Theirs is far and away the most readable book of this roundup, but also the most derivative.
Kurdistan contains 126 color photographs (as well as 25 pages of text). On almost every page, an overwhelming sense of ruggedness comes through, whether of the terrain, the rudimentary structures, or the wizened men. If not beautiful or alluring, the pictures do help give this hitherto nearly faceless people a distinct identity of its own. And that, after all, is the point.
