A Family of Kurdish Nomads, from Voyage en Perse, 1825

This image is an 1825 lithograph: A Family of Kurdish Nomads, from Voyage en Perse by Gaspard Drouville. It is attributed to the French School; the work is held in a private collection and circulated via Bridgeman Images / MeisterDrucke (Image ID 427137).

It is the same scene behind the Berzerî homepage — a memory of reşmal life: in Kurdish, literally the black house, the name for the nomads’ black tent.

A whole day in one frame

This is more than an “ethnographic curiosity.” In one picture you can read a nomad day:

the tent and its shelter
sheep, cattle, and the household herd
sheep’s milk — dairy work of the camp, not cooking or washing
carpet-making and weaving
community and tribe — life held in common

For families like Berzeri — a babik of the Miran (Kocher Miran) — this is not a distant postcard. It is the visual echo of a way of living that still runs through our name, our language, and our family tree.

Europe’s eye, our life

Drouville and the French School of the 19th century looked at Kurdistan and Persia as the “Near East” and fixed it in print. We read these images carefully: they were drawn through the eyes of travelers and outside artists. At the same time they are historical witnesses — tent, flock, daily labor, and faces whose names may never have been written down.

From 1825 to now

Almost two centuries stand between this lithograph and today. Borders, states, roads, and official languages have changed. Some things endure — the word koçer, the memory of the zozan, and the sense that home is not only stone, but people and the road.

Source

Title: A Family of Kurdish Nomads, from Voyage en Perse
From: Voyage en Perse · Gaspard Drouville · published 1825
Artist: French School
Year: 1825 · technique: lithograph
Image ID: 427137 (MeisterDrucke)
Collection: Private Collection / Bridgeman Images

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