Farhad Shakely: We Drank the Wine from His Hand: Studies on the time, life and poetry of the Kurdish Sufi poet Malā-yē Jazīrī

Abstract

This study is about the Kurdish Sufi poet Malā-yē Jazīrī (1570–1640), whose poems are considered to mark the beginning of classical Kurdish poetry.

To understand the poet’s time and poetry, the political, religious and cultural background is presented, which represents an important phase of Kurdistan’s history. Jazīrī lived in a period when several semi-independent Kurdish principalities were established and flourished as a result of the rivalry between the Safavids and the Ottomans. He lived in the city of Jazīra, the capital of Botan principality, and was close to the princely family of Azīzān, especially Prince Šaraf-Xān III, for whom he composed two panegyrics.

Two important philosophical and Sufi schools of thought were present and active during Jazīrī’s lifetime, and they had a great impact on his thought and poetry. These were the Naqšbandī order and Ibn ʿArabī’s doctrine of Waḥdat al-wujūd.  

Manuscripts and printed editions of Malā-yē Jazīrī’s Dīwān are presented, and formal and linguistic aspects of Jazīrī’s poetry are studied, particularly how he applied the Arabic prosodic system to Kurdish poetry. Various aspects of Jazīrī’s poetry are also examined with a focus on his Sufi ideas and the aesthetic expression of his philosophical and spiritual experience.