Pir Khidir Suleyman

Literary Situation in South (Iraqi) Kurdistan

In order to analyse the literary life in Iraq and South Kurdistan, a complex of political, social and economic factors have to be taken into account. Certainly, the revolts and destruction of South Kurdistan during the last 150 years and most notoriously in 1974, 1991 and 1996 have also destroyed archival material needed to discuss our cultural heritage.

After the elimination of the autonomy of the Kurdish prinicpalities of Baban, Soran and Bahdinan by the Ottoman Empire, the World War 1 followed and all this resulted in the creation of the articficial state called Iraq. This took place despite the will of the Kurds who themselves set up a statehood - the Kingdom of Sheikh Mahmud Barzandji - crushed by the British occupation forces. The rebellios history of the Barzani community and the July Revolution of 1958 gave the people hope to wage a normal life within a liberalised Iraq of the Arabic majority and Kurdish minority. All the mentioned events played a significant role for the Kurdsih literature becasue they were accompanied by the journals, books, academic and literary discussions.

Consequently, the activites of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the chauvinistic approach displayed by the BAATH regime impacted the Kurdsih literary themes and motifs. It is important to stress that the Kurdish freedom fighters known as Peshmerga have always been supported by the men and women of letter with many writers and poets themselves living in the mountains and waging the war of liberation.

I am really perplexed how to start my presentation about a very rich and developed Kurdish literature in the South. Should I start with Besarani and Khani Qubadi (17-18th century), Salim or Kurdi (19th century) or maybe with Nali who wrote:

Yesterday I prayed in the night//Today I amin  the garden of apples//Am I obsessed with your face//And your kiss that I am still waiting for?

I believe that free verse of the poet Goran and the moderniser of the South Kurdish literature Faiq Bekes both living in the 20th century have impacted all those who write in Kurdish. The famous patriotic author Piremerd combined new hopes with old memories as he said:

On the day of the New Year came Newroz//The ancient Kurdish holiday is happily with us.

All these authors wrote in Sorani, or South Kurdish dialect, although many others, especially in the region of Bahdinan, used North Kurdish widely known as Kurmandji. The most prominent Bahdinan names are Melaye Bateyi, Bekir Bege Erzi and Xeyas Neqshebendi. Sheikh Memduh Brifki refers to the fate of Kurdistan and its original religion:

I visited Lalish and saw a young men under the pitiful lamp.       

The new poets liberate us from old-fashioned traditions and introduce us to the modern challenges. These are Sherko Bekes, Abdullah Peshew and Rafiq Sabir who write in Sorani and Bedirkhan Sindi, Sebri Botani and Abdulrehman Mizuri who create in Kurmandji. We are fortunate to have thousands of poets and prosaics, some of whom organised themselves into the Union of the Kurdish  Writers in 1970, which later would be banned by the Iraqi regime. Still, our literary representatives are bound to their homeland, their readers and fully understand their role as spiritual smoothers of our many times betrayed people.