The Name Kurd and Its Philological Connexions

Abstract

It is not unlikely that the earliest trace of the Kurds is to be found on a Sumerian clay tablet, of the third-millennium b.c., on which " the land of Kar-da " or " Qar-da " is mentioned. This " land of Karda " adjoined that of the people of Su, who dwelt on the south of Lake Wan, and seems in all probability to have been connected with the Qur-ti-e, who lived in the mountains to the west of the same lake, and with whom Tiglath-Pileser I fought; the philological identity of these two names is, however, uncertain, owing to the doubt about the precise value of the palatals and dentals in Sumerian.