The Kūrd are a
Brahui tribe of
Balochistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
in
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...
. They belong to the
Sarawan
Sarawan ( Balochi: سراوان) was a division of the former princely state of Kalat in Baluchistan, Pakistan, with an area . To the north were Quetta, Pishin, Bolan Pass and Sibi District. On the south was the division of Jhalawan. The ...
group and speak the Dravidian
Brahui language
Brahui (; brh, , links=no; also known as Brahvi or Brohi) is a Dravidian language spoken by some of the Brahui people. The language is spoken primarily in the central part of the Balochistan Province of Pakistan, with smaller communities of sp ...
.
[. Not all Brahui tribes speak Brahui.]
Josef Elfenbein contends that they are among the first Brahui-speakers to have come in contact with outsiders in the former
Khanate of Kalat
The Khanate of Kalat ( bal, کلاتءِ ھانات) was a Baloch Khanate that existed from 1512 to 1955 in the centre of the modern-day province of Balochistan, Pakistan. Its rulers were Brahui speakers. Prior to that they were subjects of ...
, as they appear in a certain oral tradition of the
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
-speaking
Dehwars of
Mastung District
Mastung District ( bal, مستونگ; ur, ) is a district located in the northwest of Balochistan province, Pakistan. Prior to its creation as a separate district in 1991, Mastung was part of Kalat District.
Administration
The district cons ...
, where they are known as ''Kūrdgalla'' 'Kurd-people'. This term is likely to have been the source of Kūrdgāl, the name by which the Kūrd are known to the
Baloch and the
Jats, among whom it has been reinterpreted as meaning "speaker of ''Kūrd''.
A proposed connection with the
Kurds ug:كۇردلار
Kurds ( ku, کورد ,Kurd, italic=yes, rtl=yes) or Kurdish people are an Iranian ethnic group native to the mountainous region of Kurdistan in Western Asia, which spans southeastern Turkey, northwestern Iran, northern Ira ...
of Western Asia has been dismissed by Elfenbein as
folk etymology that is implausible on account of the different vowels (long ''ū'' for the Brahui tribe vs. short ''u'' for the other).
References
Bibliography
*
*
{{Brahui tribes
Brahui tribes