In the literature of ages past, the question of the Kurds' illustrious progenitor assumes several forms, each more curious than the last. Among the accounts preserved by al Masudi in the tenth century, two legends, drawing upon the ancient storehouse of Iranian mythology, undertake to trace the descent of all those who bore the name of Kurd to a single ancestral source. The notion of a common forefather, it seems, haunted more than one tradition. In the first account, the line of descent leads, by a winding and somewhat obscure path, to Fereydun, the fabled sovereign of the Pishdadian dynasty. The tale tells of a time when a single people inhabited (Iran), only to be divided thereafter into several distinct nations. The second account, by contrast, mingles the blood of Arab ancestry with Iranian mythology. It would appear, moreover, that al Masudi himself was unaware of the history behind the legendary origins of the first branch of this genealogical tree.
But what strange circumstance has given the Kurdish progenitor a father named Mard? The name is no mere accident of invention. Its roots reach into the shadowy borderland where history and fable intermingle. Behind it lies the memory of the Mardi, an ancient tribe whose name, through the slow transformations of tradition, became entangled with legend. What particular tales the Kurds of the tenth century may have associated with this name, however, has been lost to us. We are left to follow the faint traces of a tradition whose beginnings lie beyond our reach.
Yet the mythological associations of the Mardi are not without significance. In certain ancient accounts, the tribe came to be regarded as a people from whom mighty rulers might descend. Among the surviving ancient testimonies, perhaps the most striking is that of Nicolaus of Damascus. In his account of the life of Cyrus the Great, he invokes the Mardi and declares Cyrus to have descended from their stock.
Al Masudi writes:
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