Jewish Origin Story For Kurds; What Does It Mean?

Discussion about the Hebrew Bible, Septuagint, pseudepigrapha, Philo, Josephus, Talmud, Dead Sea Scrolls, archaeology, etc.
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yakovzutolmai
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Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 6:03 am

Jewish Origin Story For Kurds; What Does It Mean?

Post by yakovzutolmai »

The Kurds, despite claiming a Median heritage, may not necessary be descended from this people. Certainly, they inherit the legacy of Corduene.

Corduene is interesting, since Josephus notes it as the understood home of Noah's Ark. Indeed, to this day the region contains a purely geological formation that vaguely resembles a rotted ship's foundation. Right near Ararat, North of Lake Van.

The legend is that Solomon used his magic to command some Djinn to capture of European or Lydian virgins for his harem, but Solomon died and/or the Djinn rebelled and mated with these women themselves. The result was the Kurds.

Apparently the Arabs also acceded to this story.

I'm interested because Solomon's temple so closely resembles the palace which Baal Hadad constructs in the Ugaritic Baal cycle. Thus, I see Solomon as a former polytheistic principal who is brought into history as Solomon. I wonder then, what the original mythological meaning of the Kurdish origins was?

The idea of Djinn incorrectly mating with human women reminds of Enochian beliefs about the watchers and Genesis which records the legend of the giants of the Earth.

The purpose of this discussion is to propose that the Kurds originated as an ethnic mix of two distinct cultures, and in the theological or mythological realm, the religious systems of these two culture represent, in their integration, the Enochian or Jewish religion. So, I am seeking via the nexus of cultures which is located at the Kurds, a categorization of Jewish belief.

Hurrian/Hattic culture was Indo-European. Assyrian was effectively Babylonian. The region also saw the Mitanni (Vedic IE) and Amorite (Semitic). The Kurds are slightly adjacent to Mitanni. They are beyond the Eblaite/Mari conflict. Is it the intersection of IE and Semitic cultures? Semitic and Sumerian?

If the watcher sinned by mating with the daughters of man, this appears to be a mythological construct where gods mate with foreign gods: i.e.: religious systems are inappropriately syncretized.

Who are the "Djinn"?

Solomon does appear to be Hadad, since in his palace Hadad offers his guest Yam some grain. Thus Hadad is Solomon and Yam is Yahweh, and Solomon offers Yahweh the sacrifice (not a one to one parallel, but accurate in this specific context).

Esoterically, Solomon's harem consists of the host of celestial virgins. Which "Djinn" would steal them away. Who/what are the "Djinn"? Why would the Kurds be associated with them? What are the Kurds, genetically? Which religious systems correspond to the ethnic make up of the Kurds?
yakovzutolmai
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 6:03 am

Re: Jewish Origin Story For Kurds; What Does It Mean?

Post by yakovzutolmai »

I've learned a few things.

I think one reason why the Kurds are identified as the children of the watchers because the region is associated with Noah's Ark. Noah is apparently identified with Kothar-wa-Khasis, or Kaveh the Blacksmith. This treats Noah in his role as a craftsman, or Tekton, and there is a direct connection to the shamanic methods of ancient near east animism.

Although Hadad is helped by Kothar, in other versions Kaveh himself overthrows the snake-limbed tyrant. This means that the craftsman himself sacrifices his son, not Hadad.

Kothar was given the same, first Cretan then Egyptian origin, which definitively links him to Daedalus. This makes Icarus another version of Adonis/Tammuz.

This is apparently also the basis for St. George legends and even some Arthurian legends.

The original god is called "the green man" and there's a sense of links to Pan (i.e.: Baneas). So, there's this craftsman/shaman, the nymph of the river spring, and the sacrificed son which is central to near eastern ancient religion and mysticism.

The Kurds mythic ancestor is supposed to be Noah himself, which is why they are called the children of jinn, in the end, by Jews.
yakovzutolmai
Posts: 296
Joined: Mon May 17, 2021 6:03 am

Re: Jewish Origin Story For Kurds; What Does It Mean?

Post by yakovzutolmai »

These recent volcano obsession has given me a thought. The belching, pounding rhythm of a volcano sounds a lot like various modern technological contrivances, but to an ancient I'm sure it must have sounded like pounding on an anvil.

The location of "Noah's Ark" South of Ararat, in Corduene, is also home to a formerly fairly active volcano. Up North in Urartu proper, volcanoes abound. Some were active around 3000 years ago.

I have been wondering if the Enochian story of the Watchers is in fact the original of the story of Noah. In that Noah is Kaveh the Blacksmith, and that some tradition treated him and his sons as divine entities, and that Enochian legend interprets the sudden arrival of Noah's Ark as a rather unwelcome innovation. Naturally, this is just to say that people of Canaan or Arabia were unhappy with ideas flowing out of Kurdistan. In any event, Genesis would split the difference on opinion, and create Noah as a positive character separate from the story of the Watchers.

That, anyway, is my conclusion about the Kurds. To the proto-Jewish tradition, this was the region of Noah, whom the Kurds recognized as Kaveh the Smith. Canaanites and Medians/Persians brought Kaveh in, but had him in a supportive role of their local heroes. Kaveh (or the heroes') enemy Zahhak is clearly Typhonic. Kavaeh as Kothar-wa-Khasis appears to spread or be syncretized with Cretan and Memphine tradition as Ptah, Daedalus etc.

A deeper treatment of Kaveh shows that his less Hellenized role as a mechanist has him almost as a shaman, literally the Green Man of the Mountain. A St. George figure (Armenia), whom many crusaders brought back with them, Kaveh's echo in the region apparently remaining important enough. There is also an association of Kaveh with Pan, and the various sacred Adonis sites in Canaan.

Nevertheless, what we have out of Kurdistan is a "home base" for the volcanic metalsmith Pan, and we have to ask how much of this figure is represented in Yahweh.

What's interesting about Kaveh is his relevance to Indo-European cultures. In that these Armenian micro-kingdoms had at various times adopted Sabazios of the Phrygians, and later Romans mistake the Jewish God for Sabazios. Although an etymological explanation is used to identify this as an error (Sabaoth), I'm not sure that this is sufficient proof in and of itself. Perhaps, to some degree, Jews had an esoteric tradition that identified Yahweh as this Kaveh or al-Khidr figure, and in the Greco-Roman context, they knew that gentiles recognized him as Sabazios.

We also see that Armenia was an origin for the Mithraic cult, at least the germ which pollinated Rome (Tiridates visit to Nero).

The connections here are hard to grasp, especially the Indo-European history of the region, in that I-E peoples could have come over into Armenia over the Caucusus, around them up from Persia, or around down from Greece or Cimmeria. I tend to believe that the sudden and competitive introduction of an alien religious system, but which has parallel structures due to an ancient common origin, will catalyze rapid and substantive change in long-standing religious systems. So, multiple I-E interactions with the area could produce a complex and unique set of religious ideas.

That said, I don't see the Kurds, or even this alleged "Noah" group fleeing from flooding Mesopotamia (ca. 10,000 BC) as I-E. On the other hand, the fundamental structure of mystery religion, Mitra as an early Hermes (covenant maker), might have an I-E origin. I see elements of Mitra as the master of mysteries descend into Wotan, who bears striking resemblance to Iapetus, especially if Loki is seen as descended from Lothurr, who is strikingly Promethean.

In this sense: Prometheus giving fire, creating man, chained in the Caucasus, Iapetus-as-Mitra, Prometheus... This sounds a lot like Kaveh, who taught men craftsmanship and metalworking, along with shamanic secrets passed through initiation and mysteries.
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