Oral Literature of Iranian Languages: Kurdish, Pashto, Balochi, Ossetic, Persian and Tajik: Companion Volume II

History of Persian Literature A, Vol XVIII

Ulrich Marzolph, Philip Kreyenbroek, Ulrich Marzolph, Philip Kreyenbroek

• Publisher: I.B. Tauris
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780857732651
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Asiatische Literarische Sammlungen

A new History of Persian Literature in 18 Volumes. Persian literature is the jewel in the crown of Persian culture. It has profoundly influenced the literatures of Ottoman Turkey, Muslim India and Turkic Central Asia and been a source of inspiration for Goethe, Emerson, Matthew Arnold and Jorge Luis Borges among others. Yet Persian literature has never received the attention it truly deserves. A History of Persian Literature answers this need and offers a new, comprehensive and detailed history of its subject. This 18-volume, authoritative survey reflects the stature and significance of Persian literature as the single most important accomplishment of the Iranian experience. It includes extensive, revealing examples with contributions by prominent scholars who bring a fresh critical approach to bear on this important topic. This companion volume deals with two of the most under-researched areas of study in the Modern Iranian field: the Persian oral and popular literature of Iran, Tajikistan and Persian-speaking Afghanistan on the one hand; and the written and oral literatures of the Kurds, Pashtuns, Baloch and Ossetians on the other.

CHAPTER 1

WRITTEN KURDISH LITERATURE

JOYCE BLAU

1. Introduction

Kurdish literature is more extensive than is generally realized. Kurdish is the lingua franca of between twenty-five and thirty million people, most of whom live in a crescent shaped stretch of land in the northern part of the Middle East. This vast territory was never unified politically. Until World War I, it was split between the Ottoman and Persian empires, and the Allies, despite their solemn promise to establish an independent Kurdistan after the war, instead divided the Kurdish territories among Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Thus, the Kurds found themselves divided, citizens of states dominated by other ethnic groups—Turkish, Persian or Arab— whose attitude towards them was generally hostile. Outside Kurdish territory, half a million Kurds live in the states that emerged from the former Soviet Union. Eight hundred thousand live in northeast Iran, in Khorasan province, where their ancestors were sent in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the Safavid shahs to guard the empire’s northeastern borderlands. Over 100,000 live in Lebanon, and large numbers of Kurds live in the major cities of the Middle East. In addition, in the last three decades, a diaspora of about 850,000 has settled in Europe, the United States and as far away as Australia.

Kurdish belongs to the Iranian group of the Indo-European family of languages. The Kurdish dialects, which are dispersed over a large area, form a homogeneous group distinct from the other Iranian languages such as Persian, Balochi, Pashto, and the Caspian dialects. They have never been unified and standardized, and the degree of difference among them is in proportion to geographical distance separating them throughout a large and mountainous territory that has never been politically unified. The dialects of the northern group, generally called Kurmanji (or Badinani in Iraq) are spoken by the largest number, including the Kurds of Turkey, Syria, and the former USSR, and by some Iraqi and Iranian Kurds. The central group includes the dialects of northeast Iraq called Sorani, as well as the neighboring dialects of Iranian Kurdistan called Mokri, Kordi or Sene’i. The southern group includes the heterogeneous dialects of the Iranian provinces of Ilâm, Kermânshâh and Lorestân (MacKenzie 1961–62; Blau 1989).

While it is true that illiteracy was widespread in Kurdistan until the 1950s, there has always been a small, cultivated intellectual elite. This was noted by Prince Sharaf Khan Bedlisi (1543–1604) in his Sharaf-nâme (Adivar, Véliaminov-Zernof, Charmoy, Vasilieva) and by the traveler Evliya Chelebi (Sakisian 1957; cf. van Bruinessen and Boeschoten 1988). This educated elite wrote in Persian and Arabic (the dominant languages of the region). Thus, as early as the thirteenth century, Ebn al-Athir (d. 1233),¹ a historian and biographer of Kurdish origin, wrote al-Kâmel (the work which made him famous) in Arabic. Ebn-e Khallekân (d. 1282)² and Abu’l-Fedâ d. 1331)³ also wrote in Arabic. The high-ranking Ottoman dignitary Edris Hakem Betlisi (d. 1520), wrote the Hasht Behesht (The Eight Paradises), which recounted the lives of the first eight Ottoman Sultans, in Persian. Likewise, Sharaf Khan Bedlisi wrote the Sharaf-nâme in Persian.

This phenomenon still continues. For example, Ahmad Showqi (1868–1932) earned the title of “prince of poets” because he epitomized the Arab poets of his time. Boland al-Heydari (1926–96), along with three other talented poets, created an Iraqi school of literature well known for its creativity, which had a decisive influence on the entire Arabic literary movement. Salim Barakat (b. 1951), considered by his peers to be one of the most brilliant renovators of Arabic prose, evoked his childhood and the daily life of the Kurdish community in his works. Yashar Kemal (b. 1922), who stands head and shoulders above the other Turkish writers of his generation, writes in Turkish. His work, translated into over twenty languages, revives the dâstân (epic) tradition, and is notable for its attention to Kurdish folklore. Ali Mohammad Afghâni (b. 1925) made his reputation with Showhar-e Âhu Khânom (Mrs. Âhu’s Husband) written in Persian, and reprinted ten times since its first publication in 1961.

The beginnings of Kurdish literature are obscure. Not only do we know nothing about pre-Islamic Kurdish culture, but we also have no way of knowing how many manuscripts were destroyed in the turmoil of the endless conflict which has taken and continues to take place on Kurdish soil. The first indisputably Kurdish texts that have come down to us are written in the Arabo-Persian alphabet. For a long time this literature was accessible only to the urban population, while the literature of the great majority of Kurds—peasants and both sedentary and nomadic pastoralists— was transmitted orally. Written texts are few and generally inaccessible. The little information we have on the lives of the poets is contradictory.

The first Western scholar to write about this literature was Alexandre-Auguste Jaba, the Russian consul in Erzurum (Anatolia), who loved the Kurds and their culture. He had the good luck to meet the educated Kurdish mullah Mahmud Bâyazidi, who offered him invaluable assistance. In his Recueil de notices et récits kourdes servant à la connaissance de la langue, de la littérature et des tribus du Kourdistan, Jaba devoted an introductory chapter to “poets and writers of Kurdistan who have written in the Kurdish language,” and gave brief biographies of the following poets: Ali Hariri, Malâyê Jezri, Faqiyê Teyrân, Malâyê Bâte, Ahmad Khâni, Esmâ’il Bâyazidi, Sharif Khân, and Morâd Khân. The dates of the birth and death of Malâyê Jezrî and Faqiyê Teyrân have since been revised by D. N. MacKenzie (1969).

The first edition of Anjumani Adibâni Kord (Council of Learned Kurds) was published in 1920. Its author, Amiralay Amin Feyzi Beg (1860–1923) was a brilliant intellectual and officer, and a poet in his own right, writing in Kurdish, Turkish and Persian. Twenty years would pass before Kemal Bapir (Ali Bapir Agha, 1887–1975) brought out Guldestey shu’eray haw’esrim (A Bouquet of Poets of My Time; Suleimâni 1939). Even more important is the study by the historian Rafiq Helmi (Refîq Hilmî, 1898–1960), She’r u adabiyâti kordi (shi’r û edebiyatî kurdî).⁴ Mêzhuy adabi kordi (Mêjûy edebî kurdî), by Alâ-al-Din Sajjâdi (Elâ-el-Dîn Seccadî, 1910–85), was published in Baghdad in 1956. In this work the author mentions 296 deceased poets from Iraqi and Iranian Kurdistan who wrote in the Sorani dialect. He does not mention prose writers, authors from other regions of Kurdistan, or living writers or poets. This should give an idea of the scope and richness of Kurdish literature, although here it will only be possible to offer a brief description (see also Kurdo 1983; Uzun 1995).

2. Early Kurdish literature

The first known Kurdish literary masterpieces appeared at a time when the Ottoman and Safavid empires were just consolidating, whilst the princely Kurdish dynasties had failed to establish their own state. Kurdistan became the object of the greed of its powerful neighbors, who fought over it incessantly, leaving behind a trail of destruction.

However, even the earliest poetry that has come down to us shows a mastery of technique that suggests that it was based on a long tradition, whose earlier works so far remain unknown. The establishment of Kurdish dynasties led to political stability that in turn permitted the founding of cities in which culture and literary creativity blossomed. The princes fostered the founding of schools and colleges, supervising their work and offering scholarships to the neediest. The madreses (Qor’anic schools) attached to the mosques were the main educational institutions in Kurdistan until just after World War II. Through these, the Kurdish princes promoted the development of a Kurdish written literary tradition, based on shared techniques and conventions. Thus each generation of Kurdish poets could learn from their predecessors. Through poetry Kurdish became a literary language, while written prose texts emerged only much later. The poets adopted the basic forms of Arabo-Persian poetry, thus acquiring a store of genres and stylistic techniques. In their desire to trace the origins of Kurdish poetry as far back in time as possible, some Kurdish scholars have claimed that the first Kurdish poet was Bâbâ Tâher, sometimes called either Hamadâni or Lori (Sejjâdi 1956, p. 170). The argument is based on the origins of this mystic, who was born in Hamadan, claimed to have been situated in the Kurdish territory. Other specialists, such as Jaba or the Kurd Qanatê Kurdo (1909–85) considered Ali Termuki (or Termâxi), or Ali Hariri to be the first Kurdish poet (Kurdo 1985, pp. 14, 57). The most famous poet of the classical period is Sheikh Ahmad Nishâni (1570–1640), who is better known by his takhallos (pen name) of Malâyê Jezri (Jeziri, Cizîrî, Cizrî). Like many literate Kurds, he knew Arabic, Persian and Turkish. His Divân (collection of poems) includes over two thousand verses, and his qasides and ghazals remain popular and are still taught in the madreses of Kurdistan (see Hartmann 1904; Amêdî 1977; Sharafqandi 1982). Malâyê Jezri also composed sonnets, as did Mawlawi in the nineteenth century and as modern Kurdish poets still do. Malâyê Jezri’s love poetry, which was influenced by the Persian poets, notably Hâfez, fits into the context of Sufi mysticism. The poet celebrates the wine of ecstasy, and the joy and suffering of mystical love in its ideal form. Like many mystical poets, Malâyê Jezri was considered a saint in his lifetime, and legends about his life and miraculous deeds abound. He chose to write in the dialect of the Azizan family, Princes of the principality of Bohtân/Bukhtân connected by tradition with various heroes of the early days of Islam established there in 1514—an important point—and the content of his work was inspired by the Persian poetic tradition.

With great effort, and in spite of some inevitable differences, Persian and Kurdish poets modeled their poetry on Arabic forms. They adopted rhyme and a metrical system based on Arabic prosody, in spite of significant differences between Arabic and Iranian languages in this respect.

Malâyê Jezri traveled all over Kurdistan and had many disciples. In this way his literary standards, as well as the language of the Princes of Bôtân, became core elements of classical Kurdish literature. A disciple of Malâyê Jezri’s who deserves mention is the enigmatic Mohammad of Mikis, known as Feqiyê Teyran (The Birds’ Jurist, 1590–1660), who composed qasides and ghazals. He may have been the first Kurdish poet to write novels in verse, using the sweeping poetic span of the mathnavi (rhymed couplet) form. He left several works, signed with his initials M. H. (Mim Hâ): He-kayeta Sheikhê Senhani (The Story of Sheikh San’ân), Qewlê hespê resh (The Poem of the Black Courser), Qeseya Barsiyayi (The Story of Bersis), and an elegy on the death of his master Malâyê Jezrî.

Ahmadê Khâni (1650–1707) was a mystical poet and philosopher, who understood the people and felt himself one of them. His greatest work, Mem û Zîn, a long mathnavi of 2,655 distiches, rich in poetic imagery and lyrical scenes, is based on the popular romance Memê Alân, which recounts the tale of the pure love of Prince Mem and Princess Zîn (Lescot 1999).

In composing his work Ahmadê Khâni borrowed his imagery from the stock of Persian poetry. Probably inspired by Nezâmi of Ganje’s Leyli o Majnun, he composed his poem in the Persian mathnavi style, each line consisting of two hemistiches in hazaj meter. This is a popular meter, compact, light, musical and rapid, and very well suited to the natural genius of the Kurdish language. The sad romance of the two heroes is replete with national symbolism, and patriotic declarations of faith abound in it. The poet presents his romance as a reaction against the growing nationalism of the Ottoman and Safavid empires, proclaiming the individuality of the Kurds and their right to independence and freedom. Ahmadê Khâni formulated the four major problems of Kurdish literature, namely: the profession of the writer; the role of poetry; the relations between language, literature, and society; and finally the status of the Kurdish language itself.

Gurani literature

At about the same time, in the far south of Kurdistan, one of the most brilliant members of the Kurdish Ardalân dynasty,⁵ Halo Khan (1585–1616), reached an agreement with Shah Abbâs at Isfahan. In exchange for paying tribute and defending the Empire’s western frontiers, the Kurds were granted peace and a measure of independence. Halo Khan and his successor, Khan Ahmad, rebuilt towns and patronized men of letters and poets who composed their work in Arabic, Persian, and above all in Gurâni, a language which was much more widespread then than it is today.⁶ It was amongst the Gurân and the people of Hawromân (who speak a form of Gurâni) that the esoteric faith of the Ahl-e Haqq was born, a faith that was to gain a considerable following in later years (see Chapter 3 in this Volume). Gurâni became the most important language in the classical textual tradition of the Ahl-e Haqq. The Ardalân princes, who may secretly have adopted this faith, favored Gurâni, which became the language of their court. Gurâni literature was promoted, and Gurâni became the common literary language in southern Kurdistan, and at the courts of the Bâbân and Sorân dynasties, which were settled on the western slopes of the Zagros.

Gurâni developed its own lyrical, epic and religious poetry (MacKenzie 1965; Mokri 1956), using a ten-syllable meter in rhyming couplets with a caesura between the two hemistiches. This form is characteristic of the folk poetry and music of the Gurân region and of Kurdish areas that used Gurâni as a literary language.

It is generally believed that one of the first poets to write ghazals in Gurâni was Yusuf Yaskâ (c. 1592–1636), whom some Kurdish scholars compare with the Persian Rudaki. He founded a school of poetry and had many disciples (see Soltani 1998), including Shaikh Ahmad Takhti Mardukhi (1617–92), Shaikh Mostafâ Besarâni (1641–1702), and Ahmad Bagi Komâsi (1796–1877), among many others. Khânây Qobâdi (1700–59) eulogized Mohammad and Ali in his poem Salavât-nâme, but he is mainly remembered for his romantic epic Shirin o Khosrow (Kerîm 1975), as Malâ Bulâd Khan (d. 1885) is for his beautiful poem Leyli o Majnun. The last and most famous poet to write in Gurâni was Sayyed Abd-al-Rahimi Malâ Sa’îdi Tawegozi (c. 1806–82). His tomb has become a place of pilgrimage. He was descended from an old family that traced its origins to Pir Khedri Shâho, who lived in the fourteenth century at Khânegâh and Pâwe in the Hawromân area. He wrote poetry under the takhallos of Ma’dûm or Ma’dûmi, but is better known by the name of Mawlawi (Mewlewî). He wrote religious eulogies in Persian, Arabic and Gurâni,⁷ drawing his inspiration from Sufism. Following the example of the Persian Sufi poets, Jalâl-al-Din Rumi, he celebrated the mystical wine of ecstasy (she’ri meykhwâri; see Kerîm 1998). He is, however, better known for his romantic poems and lyrics (she’ri suz) written in a language that mixes the Hawrâmi and Tawegozi dialects. He uses the characteristic rhyming couplet form of oral Gurâni poetry, with a decasyllabic meter. Mawlawi is the only Gurâni poet to have also composed stanzaic lyrics.⁸ In poetry rich in unusual imagery, the poet sings of nature, and it is he who introduced the traditional image of the young Kurdish girl into the Kurdish poetic tradition. Gurâni was so influential as a language of poetry that the word ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Preface
• The Study Of Popular Literaure In The Persian Context
• Chapter 1: Written Kurdish Literature
• Chapter 2: Kurdish Oral Literature
• Chapter 3: Orality And Religion In Kurdistan: The Yezidi And Ahl-E Haqq Traditions
• Chapter 4: Pashto Literature: The Classical Period
• Chapter 5: Modern Pashto Written Literature
• Chapter 6: Pashto Oral And Popular Literature
• Chapter 7: Balochi Literature
• Chapter 8: Ossetic Literature
• Chapter 9: Persian Popular Literature
• Chapter 10: NaqqâLi: Professional Iranian Storytelling
• Chapter 11: KâSheFi’S Rowzat Al-Shohadâ’: The Karbalâ Narrative As Under Pinning Of Popular Religious Culture And Literature
• Chapter 12: The Popular Literature Of The Tajiks
• Chapter 13: Oral And Popular Literature In Dari Persian Of Afghanistan
• Bibliography