The Kurdish language embraces several dialects spoken in large districts of eastern Turkey, western Persia, and in the Persian province of Khorazan. To define this territory more accurately, we may mention the Turkish provinces of Erzeroum, Bitlis, Diarbekr, Mamuret-el-Aziz, Van and Mosul, and the Persian provinces of Azerbijan, Ardelen, and Luristan. And besides these, the Kurdish Colonies in Khorazan, which Schah Abbas I (1587- 1628) transferred from the Turco-Persian frontier to serve as a buffer state against the Turcomans.