Content area
Full text
From the Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies, London Institution, Vol. III, 1923-25. Reprinted with permission.
"The story of Suto and Tato is in no way fiction, it is a lively reality, and anyone even slightly acquainted with these far-distant but beautiful and picturesque countries and their inhabitants, will confirm my statement. The principal actors, Shaikh Muhammad Sadiq, the Shaikh of Barzon, Tabo, Osman-Suto's elder son, are no longer alive. I am not certain about Suto himself. This old man, a perfect type of a Kurdish chief ruling over the most impregnable region of Central Kurdistan, may yet be alive. At any rate, in 1918 he was. Mulla Said, the narrator, was murdered in Vrumia in July, 1918, by his countrymen. Peace be on him_
This man was my teacher of Kurdish. He knew his own fonguage well, and many of its dialects; as well as Arabic, Persian and Turkish. He was a very learned Mullah; and the breadth of his views and understanding were astonishing in one who had spent all his life in a remote corner of an unknown country. . .
Inaccessible peaks, crags, spurs, precipices, a chaos of enormous rocks, high valleys with snow, deep canyons, the greenish blue river of the Rubar I Shin, dangerous passes, practically no roads, a spot completely isolated. After seeing all this, one can better understand the character of the people. Savage and rude, uncouth and brave, they resemble Nature around them. Without these influences, Suto, Tato, and their compeers might seem to us a peculiar kind of being.
I thought that their story, being strictly true, might be of service to those who have to work among the Kurds and to deal with them.
May I acknowledge here my sincere gratitude to the late Major E. B.
Soane, wthout whose kind help I should not have been able to
publish an English translation of this tale."
Basil Nikitine
Suto is Agha of the Duskani tribe, from the village of Horamar and of the clan of Mala Miri. Tato is Agha of the Rekani tribe of the village of Razga, and the clan of Mala Mikail Agha. The Rekani from early times till now, have been continuously under the hands of the Horamar...