The Cyrtians or Kyrtians (Ancient Greek: Κύρτιοι, romanized: Kýrtioi, Latin: Cyrtii) were an ancient tribe in historic Iran near Zagros Mountains.[1] Based on their name,[1] it has been suggested that they may be ancestors of the Kurds.[2][3]
According to Rüdiger Schmitt,[2] they were a tribe dwelling mainly in the mountains of Atropatenian Media (Northern Zagros Mountains) together with the Cadusii, Amardi (or "Mardi"), Tapyri, and others (Strabo 11.13.3). Strabo characterized the Cyrtians living in Persia as migrants and predatory brigands.
In the Hellenistic period, they seem to have been in demand as slingers, for they fought as such for the Median satrap Molon in his revolt against King Antiochus III in 220 BC.[2]
The Cyrtians were not connected to the Carduchi (Cordyaei, Gordyaei, Karduchoi) and the like, who lived farther west.[2] According to Garnik Asatrian, Cyrtians were a collection of indigenous, non-Iranian tribes who only shared a nomadic lifestyle.[4]
^ abG. Asatrian, Prolegomena to the Study of the Kurds, Iran and the Caucasus, Vol.13, pp. 1–58, 2009: "Evidently, the most reasonable explanation of this ethnonym must be sought for in its possible connections with the Cyrtii (Cyrtaei) of the Classical authors."
The Cyrtians or Kyrtians (Ancient Greek: Κύρτιοι, romanized: Kýrtioi, Latin: Cyrtii) were an ancient tribe in historic Iran near Zagros Mountains. Based...
remnants of earlier non Indo-European peoples such as the Lullubi, Guti, Cyrtians, Carduchi. However the Lullubi and Gutians predate the arrival of Indo-Iranian...
independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds, while others prefer Cyrtians. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the...
combining a number of earlier tribal or ethnic groups including Lullubi, Guti, Cyrtians, Sumerian and Carduchi. The present state of knowledge about Kurdish allows...
from the Carduchii, it is more likely that they were descended from the Cyrtians, who appear in the works of Polybius, Livy, and Strabo. Historian John...
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