The dozen or so dialects of Kurdish studied in this work are primarily those of the three northern provinces of Iraq, viz. Suleimaniye, Arbil and Mosul. The most important is that of Suleimaniye, which is the basis of an officially recognized and flourishing written language. Most of the material is entirely new and is presented in the form of a comprehensive descriptive grammatical sketches including references to known related dialects, The author is Lecturer in Iranian Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has travelled extensively in the Kurdish-speaking areas of the Middle East. $c From jacket.