Syncretic Kurds in 17th-century Afrin

Kurdish settlements were an inevitable stop for premodern British visitors en route to Aleppo. The first British contact with the Kurds of the Afrin Valley is documented by William Biddulph in 1609.

William Biddulph (17th century): 

In the Mountaines betwixt Scanderone and Aleppo, there are dwelling a certaine kind of people called at this day Coords, comming of the race of the ancient Parthians, who worship the Devill, and allege for their reason in so doing, that God is a good man, and will doe no man harme, but that the Devill is bad, and must be pleased lest he hurt them.