Carduchi

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Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R)
Greater Armenia within the borders of King Tigranes II's brief-lived empire (ca. 80 BC)

Carduchi or Corduene was an ancient historical region, located south of Lake Van, present-day eastern Turkey.

Variants

Jat Gotras Namesake

Jat Places Namesake

Mention by Pliny

Pliny[2] mentions Mesopotamia ...Up to the Gordyæi8 join the Aloni, through whose territory runs the river Zerbis, which falls into the Tigris; next are the Azones, the Silici, a mountain tribe, and the Orontes, to the west of whom lies the town of Gaugamela9, as also Suë, situate upon the rocks.

8 The mountains of the Gordyæi are mentioned in c. 12.

9 This, as previously mentioned in a Note to c. 16, was the scene of the last great battle between Alexander and Darius, and known as the battle of Arbela. It has been suggested that it may perhaps be represented by a place now called Karnelis. See p. 27.

History

Many believe that the Kardouchoi—mentioned in Xenophon’s Anabasis as having given his 10,000 troops a mauling as they retreated from Persia in 401 BCE—were the ancestors of the Kurds.[3]

According to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Gordyene is the ancient name of the region of Bohtan (now Şırnak Province).[4] It is mentioned as Beth Qardu in Syriac sources and is described as a small vassal state between Armenia and Parthian Empire in the mountainous area south of Lake Van in modern Turkey[5] Corduene must also be sought on the left bank of the Tigris. Corduene is documented as a fertile mountainous district, rich in pasturage.[6][7]

The Kingdom of Gordyene emerged from the declining Seleucid Empire and for most of its history, it was a province of the Roman Empire[8] and acknowledged the sovereignty of Rome.[9] From 189 to 90 BC, it enjoyed a period of independence. The people of Gordyene were known to have worshiped the Hurrian sky god Teshub.[10]

Origins

According to Arshak Safrastian, the Medes and Scythians mentioned in classical Greek literature existed only as preconceived notions. Equating the Carduchi with the Gutians, he adds that the moment the Ten Thousand began to skirt the lower slopes of the Hamrin Mountains, they were in contact with the tribes of Gutium which are presented here as Medes or Scythians.[11] A direct Gutian connection, however, is unlikely, as the Gutians were not Indo-Iranians and only known to have lived in southern Mesopotamia.[12]

Corduene, Carduchi, and the Kurds

Some identify Corduene and Carduchi with the modern Kurds, considering that Carduchi was the ancient lexical equivalent of "Kurdistan".[13] It has been suggested that Corduene was proto-Kurdish[14]or as equivalent to modern-day Kurdistan.[15]

Other modern scholars reject a Kurdish connection.[16][17]

There were numerous forms of this name, partly due to the difficulty of representing kh in Latin. The spelling Karduchoi is itself probably borrowed from Armenian, since the termination -choi represents the Armenian language plural suffix -k'.[18]

It is speculated that Carduchi spoke an Old Iranian language.[19][20]

References

  1. ↑ Efraim Elimelech Urbach, I. Abrahams, The Sages, 1089 pp., Magnes Press, 1979, ISBN 965-223-319-6, p.552
  2. ↑ Natural History by Pliny Book VI/Chapter 30
  3. ↑ Kurds. Michael M Gunter. p. 5.
  4. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Persia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 211–216.
  5. ↑ Parthian City Index
  6. ↑ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Persia" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 211–216.
  7. ↑ "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), CA´BALEIS, CARAMBIS, CARDU´CHI". www.perseus.tufts.edu.
  8. ↑ Theodor Mommsen History of Rome – The Establishment of the Military Monarchy Page 24
  9. ↑ The History of the Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire – Vol 2 – Chapter XXIV Part IV
  10. ↑ Olaf A. Toffteen, Notes on Assyrian and Babylonian Geography, The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures, pp.323-357, 1907, p.341
  11. ↑ A. Safrastian, Kurds and Kurdistan, The Harvill Press, 1948, p. 29
  12. ↑ Patton, Laurie L., et al. (2004) The Indo-Aryan Controversy
  13. ↑ "Kurds. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07".
  14. ↑ Revue des études arméniennes, vol.21, 1988-1989, p.281, By Société des études armeniennes, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Published by Imprimerie nationale, P. Geuthner, 1989.
  15. ↑ A.D. Lee, The Role of Hostages in Roman Diplomacy with Sasanian Persia, Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte, Vol. 40, No. 3 (1991), pp. 366-374 (see p.371)
  16. ↑ Marciak, Michał (2017). Sophene, Gordyene, and Adiabene: Three Regna Minora of Northern Mesopotamia Between East and West. BRILL. ISBN 978-9004350700. pp. 220–221
  17. ↑ Victoria Arekelova, Garnik S. Asatryan Prolegomena To The Study Of The Kurds, Iran and The Caucasus, 2009 [3] pp. 82
  18. ↑ M.Th. Houtsma, E.J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913-1936, ISBN 90-04-08265-4, see p.1133
  19. ↑ "Introduction to Old Iranian".
  20. ↑ M. Chahin, Before the Greeks, p. 109, James Clarke & Co., 1996, ISBN 0-7188-2950-6

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