Kurd Mountain or Kurd Dagh ( ku, چیای کورمنج, Çiyayê Kurmênc; tr, Kürt Dağı, officially ; ar, جبل الأكراد) is a highland region in northwestern

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

southeastern Turkey The Southeastern Anatolia Region ( tr, Güneydoğu Anadolu Bölgesi) is a Geographical regions of Turkey, geographical region of Turkey. The most populous city in the region is Gaziantep. Other examples of big cities are Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır ...

. It is located in the

Aleppo Governorate Aleppo Governorate ( ar, محافظة حلب / ALA-LC: ''Muḥāfaẓat Ḥalab'' / ) is one of the fourteen governorates of Syria. It is the most populous governorate in Syria with a population of more than 4,867,000 (2011 Est.), almost 23% of the ...

of Syria and

Kilis Province Kilis Province ( tr, Kilis ili) is a province in southern Turkey, on the border with Syria. It used to be the southern part of the province of Gaziantep and was formed in 1994. The town of Kilis is home to around 67% of the inhabitants of the pr ...

of Turkey. The Kurd Mountain should not be confused with the neighboring Jabal al Akrad, which is located further southwest towards the mediterranean coastline.

Location and description

Kurd Mountain is a part of the

Limestone Massif The Limestone Massif (from French ''Le Massif Calcaire'') or Belus Massif is the highlands on the western part of the Aleppo plateau in northwestern Syria. The Massif is famed for having the Dead Cities of Syria. The Massif includes three grou ...

of northwestern Syria. The mountain is a southern continuation into the

Aleppo plateau The Aleppo plateau ( ar, هضبة حلب ) is a low, gently undulating plateau of northern Syria. It lies at the northern end of the junction between the Arabian Plate and the African Plate at the Dead Sea Rift. The plateau lies mostly in the Ale ...

of the highlands on the western part of the

Aintab plateau Aintab plateau or Gaziantep plateau ( ar, هضبة عنتاب Levantine pronunciation: ) is a low, gently undulating plateau that forms the westernmost part of the Southeastern Anatolia Region in Turkey. It forms the northwestern end of the Arab ...

. The valley of River Afrin surrounds Kurd Mountain from east and south and separates it from the plain of Aʻzāz and

Mount Simeon Mount Simeon or Mount Simon ( ar, جبل سمعان Jabal Simʻān ), also called Mount Laylūn ( ar, جبل ليلون, is a highland region in Aleppo Governorate in northern Syria. The mountain is located in the Mount Simeon and Aʻzāz distric ...

to the east, and from Mount Harim to the south. The valley of River Aswad separates Mount Kurd from

Mount Amanus The Nur Mountains ( tr, Nur Dağları, "Mountains of Holy Light"), formerly known as Alma-Dağ, the ancient Amanus ( grc, Ἁμανός), medieval Black Mountain, or Jabal al-Lukkam in Arabic, is a mountain range in the Hatay Province of sout ...

to the west. In Syria, it is among the four "ethnic mountains" of western Syria, along with

al-Ansariyah mountains The Coastal Mountain Range ( ar, سلسلة الجبال الساحلية ''Silsilat al-Jibāl as-Sāḥilīyah'') also called Al-Anṣariyyah is a mountain range in northwestern Syria running north–south, parallel to the coastal plain.Federal ...

("Mountain of the

Alawite The Alawis, Alawites ( ar, علوية ''Alawīyah''), or pejoratively Nusayris ( ar, نصيرية ''Nuṣayrīyah'') are an ethnoreligious group that lives primarily in Levant and follows Alawism, a sect of Islam that originated from Shia Isl ...

s"), Jabal Turkman ("Mountain of the

Turkmens Turkmens ( tk, , , , ; historically "the Turkmen"), sometimes referred to as Turkmen Turks ( tk, , ), are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia, living mainly in Turkmenistan, northern and northeastern regions of Iran and north-weste ...

") and Jabal al-Duruz ("Mountain of the

Druze The Druze (; ar, دَرْزِيٌّ, ' or ', , ') are an Arabic-speaking esoteric ethnoreligious group from Western Asia who adhere to the Druze faith, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, syncretic, and ethnic religion based on the teachings of ...

"). The main town is Afrin (Efrîn in Kurdish), in Syria. The area is known for its

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' ...

growing and

charcoal Charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by strongly heating wood (or other animal and plant materials) in minimal oxygen to remove all water and volatile constituents. In the traditional version of this pyrolysis process, cal ...

production. The majority of the Kurd-Dagh population are

Hanafi The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...

-Muslims, while most Syrian Kurds are Shafiite-Muslims.

Yazidis Yazidis or Yezidis (; ku, ئێزیدی, translit=Êzidî) are a Kurmanji-speaking Endogamy, endogamous minority group who are indigenous to Kurdistan, a geographical region in Western Asia that includes parts of Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran ...

also have a presence in the region.

Demographics

As the Kurd Dagh was governed by the French, several Kurdish tribes were living in the area. From the 1800s onwards, there have settled several Kurds from the Kurd Dagh to Aleppo. In the 1930s, Kurdish Alevis who fled the persecution of the

Turkish Army The Turkish Land Forces ( tr, Türk Kara Kuvvetleri), or Turkish Army (Turkish: ), is the main branch of the Turkish Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. The army was formed on November 8, 1920, after the collapse of the ...

during the Dersim Massacre, settled in Mabeta.

Etymology

In 1977 the Kurd Dagh was renamed into the Arabic Jabal al-`Uruba in accordance with decree 15801, which banned non-Arabic place names. The Turkish part was renamed officially as ''Kurt Dağı'' ("Wolf Mountain"), with a

pun A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...

on the Turkish words ''Kürt'' (Kurd) and ''kurt'' (

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

References

Mountain ranges of Syria Mountain ranges of Turkey Landforms of Kilis Province Aleppo Governorate Geography of Turkish Kurdistan Afrin District {{Kilis-geo-stub

Location and description

Demographics

Etymology

See also

References