Ethnic Groups in Iran - Iranian Kurds

Iranian Kurds

Iranian Kurds make up the majority of the population of Kordestan province and together with the Azarbaijanis, they are one of the two main ethnic groups in West Azarbaijan province, in West Azarbaijan province Kurds are concentrated in parts of the southern and western parts of the province.Kurds also make up the majority of the populations of Kermanshah and Ilam provinces, although Kermanshahi and Ilamian Kurds are Shia Muslims, in contrast to the mainstream Kurds who are adherents of Sunni Islam.Abouth 200.000 to 300.000 Kurds also live in northeastern Iran in parts of North and Razavi Khorasan provinces.

In the seventeenth century, a large number of Kurds were deported by Shah Abbas I to Khorasan in Eastern Iran and forcibly resettled in the cities of Quchan and Birjand. The Kurds of Khorasan still use the Kurmanji Kurdish dialect. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, successive Iranian governments defeated Kurdish revolts led by Kurdish notables such as Shaikh Ubaidullah (against Qajars in 1880) and Simko (against Pahlavis in the 1920s).