04/07/2025
**The Connection Between the Kurds, Parthians, and Medes**
Alaa Evdi Pasha
Most scholars, including Gernot Windfuhr, Thomas Jügel, and Agnes Korn, assert a connection between the Kurds and the Parthians. This linkage is partly attributed to the Parthians’ historical association with the Medes. For instance, the Parthian tribe known as *Biblikal Magî* (commonly referred to as the "Three Wise Men") is identified with the *Magî*, a priestly caste among the Medes, as documented by Herodotus. He describes the *Magî* as one of the tribes that recently joined the six original Median tribes.
Another example is the renowned Parthian general Surena, described in Roman sources as wearing delicate clothing, painting his face, and parting his hair in a manner reminiscent of Median customs. This suggests that the Surena or Suran clan likely had Median origins.
Scholars generally agree that the ethnonym "Kurd" derives from terms such as *Karda*, *Kurti*, or *Gutium*, referring to a mountainous people known to inhabit the region corresponding to modern-day Kurdistan. The notion of Kurds as "Persian nomads" is considered outdated and lacks scientific validity. During that historical period, the peoples of the ancient world, including the Median tribes, primarily relied on agriculture and animal husbandry.
Certain ancient and medieval sources explicitly link the Medes and the Kurds. For instance, when the Kurdish Ayyubids, led by Saladin, assumed control of Egypt around 1200 CE, Hayton of Corycus, a Byzantine Armenian historian, described the event with the following words:
*“Postea vero Sarraceni amiserunt Dominium Egipti et Medi, qui Cordins vulgariter dicebantur, Regni Egipti Dominium Occupaverunt.”*
Translation: "Thereafter, the Saracens lost dominion over Egypt, and the Medes, commonly called Kurds, seized control of the kingdom of Egypt."
Hayton’s account details the political fate of Egypt, noting how the Eastern Romans lost control to the Arabs, who, in turn, lost it to the "Medes," whom he identifies as Kurds. This is one of many references directly or indirectly associating the Medes with the Kurds. Such connections appear in historical records from the early medieval period through at least the 18th century. For example, the "Medes-Kurds" are mentioned in a valuable three-volume work on the *History of Armenia*, authored by the Armenian monk and historian Michael Chamich (1736–1823 CE), published in Venice.
The Median Empire was organized as a confederation. The term "Kurd" likely derives from *Gutians* or *Kordyene*, which, in turn, stem from the Sumerian and Akkadian term *Karda*, used to describe a heroic mountainous people. The geography of Kurdistan is described in Sumerian texts as the "Land of Karda." In Assyrian records, the term *Gutium* was used to denote Median tribes. Assyrians frequently employed the terms *Mede* and *Gutian* interchangeably.
By the first millennium BCE, the term *Gutium* was extended by the lowland peoples of Mesopotamia to refer to the Median tribes between the Zagros Mountains and the Tigris River. Various tribes and locations in the east and northeast were often labeled as *Gutians* or *Gutium*. For instance, Assyrian royal records used *Gutians* to describe populations known to be Medes or Mannaeans. In the later period of Cyrus the Great, the renowned general Gubaru (Gobryas) was described as the "governor of Gutium."
These peoples intermingled with waves of Indo-European proto-Iranian tribes, forming the Mitanni, Medes, and western Parthians. These ancient dynasties played a central role in shaping the modern Kurdish ethnicity, encompassing the Hurrians, Iranians, Mitanni, Medes, and western Parthians.
Recent DNA studies conducted on contemporary Kurds in southern, eastern, and northern Kurdistan (to be attached with the article) further support these connections. Additionally, archaeological discoveries of tombs dating to around 700 BCE in northwestern Iran (eastern Kurdistan) are believed to be Median, as their timeline aligns with the establishment of the Median Empire.
**References**
- A Historical Relationship Between the Kurds and the Medes? A Critical Reassessment, c. 800–1500 CE.
The Medes are commonly referred to as *Mar* (singular) or *Marat* (plural) in Armenian, and as *Mark* in Syriac. In both languages, the ethnic terms "Kurd" and "Mede" are closely associated.
https://www.academia.edu/82565877/A_historical_relationship_between_the_Ku
- Kurdushum * Gutium * Corduene History of ...
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/7917516
