Tribal territory of the Kurds

The word zozan means today in kurdish the summer pastures. The word is also known in eastern armenian dialects (Bayazit, Mûsh, Van, Maratchkert, Tchatakh) and means as well, a pasture in the mountain.

For the medieval arab authors it is a specific geographical complex inhabited by
Armenians and Kurds. According to Ibn Hawqal (10th century), the master (Sâhib)
of Zûzân was al-Dayrânî, probably Deranik, the armenian king of Vaspurakan
between the lake of Van and Mount Ararat (Ibn Hawqal, vol. 2/348).

The authordoesn’t mention any trace of kurdish presence in that region where christians make
up a great part of the local population. Three hundred years later Yâqût in the Mu’jam
al-Buldân writes about Zûzân : « This is a region located in the center of the
armenian mountains between Akhlât, Azerbaydjan, Diyâr Bakr and Mosul. Its inhabitants are Armenians (ahluhâ arman ) ; there are also some groups of Kurds (wa fîhâ tawâ’if min al-akrâd ). Ibn al-Athîr (d. 1233) (Yâqût al-Hamawî, « zûzân ») at the same period writes : Zûzân is a vast region located on the eastern border of the Tigris river in the region of Jazîrat Ibn ‘Umar. It starts at a distance covered in two halshs-00350118, version 1 - 5 Jan 2009 days from Mosul, extend to the boundaries of Khilât and ends in Azerbaydjan until the district of Salmâs.

Source: Tribal territory of the Kurds