Certain cultures, such as Kurds, Albanians, and Afghans, are not attested to in any written sources until the middle ages. Why is this?

by Vladith

Presumably, Kurds, Albanians, and Afghans lived in the area since far earlier than the 14th century or thereabouts. Is it purely coincidence that all these cultures are Indo-European?

AnonEGoose

Oh yeah.

Let's not forget Chechens!

Interesting things:

  • One of the few tribes known to beat Genghis Khan & his Mongols. Twice (!)

  • If you got chased up into the mountains by invaders ( a common occurrence in the steppe country around the Caucuses), you could petition to become a sub-tribe/tribe in the Chechen nation (?).

  • Chechens are classified as Indo-Europeans and became Muslims only recently. Before than they were pagans & Christians.

Also: Azerbaijanians are descended from Kurds/Yezidis but somehow ended up being turkish-speakers, when they are actually Indo-European/Iranians. Go figure

More Also: Finns are originally barbarian Nomads that aren't even Turkish but ended up speaking a dialect of Turkish (!). They are a people related to Hungarians (!).

AnonEGoose

Known by different names

The Yezidis are pre-Islamic Kurds and their religion is shrouded in mystery. A little bit like the mysterious Druse who live in the Levant.

Albanians... well that's a curiosity. The region now know as Armenia (or is it Azerbaijania ?) was once called 'Albania' in ancient Roman literature. Tons of invader passing thru there, including invading Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes (Massagatae ?).

Afghans ? Descendants of all sorts of obscure regional empires like the Kushan. Or also known as Bactrian, Graeco-Buddhists.

Fascinating stuff.

And yes they are all know as Indo-European. And it's not a coincidence they are all mountain people; it's how you survive in those 'rough' neighborhoods (i.e. stay out of way of big Empires and invasion/migrations)