The study of archival treasuries of the Kurdish tribes of northern Khurasan is a relatively young field of research, hence the large number of unexplored Kurdish and Persian sources. In view of the paucity of other sources for this region, so momentous in the history of the Caucasus and the Middle East, the record heritage of Khurasani Kurdish tribes take on a particular importance for both historians and sociologists. Most local records on the Kurdish tribes of northern Khurasan, in north-east Iran, were written by semi-educated Kurds and Persians or were closely associated with elementary-level instruction in this subject. One's expectations of them in terms of intellectual stimulation and entertainment value are therefore fairly low. And these low expectations turn out to be fully justified: for the most part, the records are plodding, simplistic and conspicuously lacking in originality. But it is precisely these qualities which make them useful to the researcher, because it shows that they reflect the realities of Kurdish community in northern Khurasan. The threefold purpose of the present paper is to state briefly what is known about the personal record collections of Khurasani Kurdish tribes; to present an outline of the types of records; and, finally, to catalogue some very popular records of the Kurdish Mlan family as an instance and important treasury in their collections.
