Over the course of several thousand years of Kurdish history—a time long enough for many other ethnic groups to have assimilated entirely into a dominant culture—the Kurds have remained a distinct people. Conversely, almost all who settled among them in the mountains—Scythians, Alans, Arameans, Armenians, Persians, Arabs, Mongols, Turkmens, and Turks—have been kurdified beyond recognition. —MEHRDAD R. IZADY, The Kurds: A Concise Handbook, 1992
