what is Kurdish literature?
Kurdish literature is connected to the dialect continuum of Kurdistan; it is debated if there is one or various Kurdish languages (Zaza, Gorani, Kurmanji, Sorani); there are also various systems of writing, based both on Arabo-Persian and Latin script. Be that as it may, Kurdish speech is a part of Western Iranian family; it is thus Indo-European. The literary traditions of Kurdistan date back to medieval times, often in association with the peculiar religious history of the peripheral region: just to give an example, the earliest of Kurdish poets, Balûl (9th c.), is associated with the Yarsani faith (Ahl-e Haqq). Kurdish literature is believed to have been at its heyday already in the 11th century, with the poetry associated with the great figure of Ali Hariri (1009-1079); contemporary scholars doubt, nonetheless, that the poet, of which we know very little, might have been a kind of mythical figure to which diverse poetical works were attributed.
The approach that is in favour of considering various Kurdish languages separately is partially justified by the existence of separable lines of literary tradition in each of those tongues. There is thus a Zazaki-Gorani literature, and a Kurmanji literature, illustrated with Yezidi religious work, Meshefa Reş. Sorani literature is the youngest strand that developed in the 18th and 19th c., especially after the poetry of Nalî (1800-1856).
Overall, Kurdish pre-modern literature is essentially poetry. It occupies a minor position in relation to major regional literatures, such as Persian one. Presumably, the diwans that were immortalized in writing reflect only a part of a larger, oral creativity. This imperfect preservation and the incompleteness of contemporary research contribute to the fact that Kurdish literature is full of doubts, mysteries and surprises.
One of those mysteries is Meshefa Reş, a religious text attributed to Shaykh Hasan (born c. 1195), the nephew of the Yezidi prophet, Shaykh Adi ibn Musâfir. Nonetheless, as it is believed, the text was actually written later, maybe in the 13th century or, as some scholars assume, even in the 20th century, gathering the dispersed Yezidi beliefs. To find more palpable sources, we need to wait till the 17th and 18th century. Aḥmad Ḵāni (1650-1707) is famous not only for his own poetry, but also for the introduction to his romantic epic, Mam u Zin, where he enumerates his predecessors, offering a valuable contribution to Kurdish literary history. The text, speaking of the impossible love between the scions of two enemy clans, as if in a Kurdish version of Romeo and Juliette, illustrates also the interdependence between popular traditions and "high" written poetry, as it is based on the oral epic Mamē Ālān.
Kurdish literature increased in strength in the 20th and 21st century. Its poetic tradition has been modernised by Abdulla Goran (1904-1962). The 1930s brought about various attempts at linguistic and orthographic reforms, such as the creation of the mdern Kurmanji alphabet by Celadet Alî Bedirxan. Finally, the 20th century was also the time of the birth of Kurdish prose, journalism, novel.
The approach that is in favour of considering various Kurdish languages separately is partially justified by the existence of separable lines of literary tradition in each of those tongues. There is thus a Zazaki-Gorani literature, and a Kurmanji literature, illustrated with Yezidi religious work, Meshefa Reş. Sorani literature is the youngest strand that developed in the 18th and 19th c., especially after the poetry of Nalî (1800-1856).
Overall, Kurdish pre-modern literature is essentially poetry. It occupies a minor position in relation to major regional literatures, such as Persian one. Presumably, the diwans that were immortalized in writing reflect only a part of a larger, oral creativity. This imperfect preservation and the incompleteness of contemporary research contribute to the fact that Kurdish literature is full of doubts, mysteries and surprises.
One of those mysteries is Meshefa Reş, a religious text attributed to Shaykh Hasan (born c. 1195), the nephew of the Yezidi prophet, Shaykh Adi ibn Musâfir. Nonetheless, as it is believed, the text was actually written later, maybe in the 13th century or, as some scholars assume, even in the 20th century, gathering the dispersed Yezidi beliefs. To find more palpable sources, we need to wait till the 17th and 18th century. Aḥmad Ḵāni (1650-1707) is famous not only for his own poetry, but also for the introduction to his romantic epic, Mam u Zin, where he enumerates his predecessors, offering a valuable contribution to Kurdish literary history. The text, speaking of the impossible love between the scions of two enemy clans, as if in a Kurdish version of Romeo and Juliette, illustrates also the interdependence between popular traditions and "high" written poetry, as it is based on the oral epic Mamē Ālān.
Kurdish literature increased in strength in the 20th and 21st century. Its poetic tradition has been modernised by Abdulla Goran (1904-1962). The 1930s brought about various attempts at linguistic and orthographic reforms, such as the creation of the mdern Kurmanji alphabet by Celadet Alî Bedirxan. Finally, the 20th century was also the time of the birth of Kurdish prose, journalism, novel.
