Ehmedê Xanî work discovered
Ehmedê Xanî work discovered
An undiscovered work of great Kurdish poet and scholar Ehmedê Xanî has been found on the basement floor of a mosque in Konya city. The work piece is estimated to be written out for the students studying at the madrassa (religious school).
The assertion about the presence of some unknown works of Ehmedê Xanî in Konya firstly came from a faculty member of Konya Selcuk University who didn’t give an explicit address. My story of making after the missing works of one of the greatest poets of the Kurdish story, in other words, began just with a legend.
This myth was pointing the libraries of historical mosques as a clue. To start with, I began a search in the libraries of written works, such as Mevlana, Karatay and Yusufaga libraries. I kept making a search for about a year but I could find nothing in the end.
After that, I continued my search in the libraries of the historical mosques in the surrounding. At last, as a result of great efforts, I managed to find the works of Ehmedê Xanî on the basement floor of the Y. A. mosque in Konya.
The school book-type work, which includes a part named Madrassa, consists of 27 pages and 11 chapters. Some pages of the book are damaged due to bad storage and the last chapters and the back cover are missing.
The work, consisting of chapters on Islamic law, logic and language, is considered written by Ehmedê Xanî for adult learners studying in the madrassa. The scientific language of the work corroborates this argument.
The work has an introductory chapter under the title "Ilm-i Arab”(Arab scholar) which is followed by another chapter “Ýlm-i mantýk” (Logic). Including chapters on Islamic history, jurisprudence, and geography, the work also consists of information widely available in the Islamic world about astronomy. It is attention grabbing that the first word of sentences in each chapter is written in red.
Some pages and words of Xani’s work became unreadable due to ink flows.
The work is written in Arabic but some some explanations are in Kurdish.
And it is a real mystery how this work came to this mosque in Konya. Yet, it is supposed that the book was donated to the library of the mosque to prevent the work’s demolition by the family of Abdülmecit Ünlükul, brother of Bediüzzaman Said-i Kurd-i who died in Konya in 1967.
It is also a considerable note that there are a large number of graves of Kurds’ in Üçler Cemetery beside the mosque I found the book in.
It is known that the personal archives of Ünlükul, who moved to Konya by his daughter upon his dismissal from the mufti seat in Ürgüp, consist of a large number of Kurdish and Turkish works that he rescued from the demolition of Kurdish works in the early Republican periods.
Besides this work which has Xane’s name on it, the different copy of his work Nubýhar and several other works with his handwriting in Kurdish corroborate the possibility that these works were brought to Konya by Ünlükul.
There is also another possibility that this work was brought to Konya by Kurdish scholars who came to the madrsasas in Konya from the Bitlis Nuh Beg madrassa.
It is also known that some handwritten works had been collected from various provinces of Kurdistan and brought to Konya in the 1980s for maintenance. The work may also have been brought to Konya among these handwritten works.
Novelist Mehmet Uzun, making a mention of Ehmedê Xani on his book 'Introduction to Kurdish literature’, states that Mir Celaddet Ali Bedirxan mentions on the 33rd issue of Havar magazine about a missing work of Xani which cannot be found despite all searches. However, I don’t think that the work I have found is the book mentioned there as it consists of lecture notes.
Only six works (Dîwân, Nevbahara Pýçukan, Eqîdeya Îmanê, Eqideya Îslâmê, Fî Beyanni Erkani Îslam ve Mem û Zîn) of Ehmedê Xanî have reached up today who lived between 1651-1707 and known to have written a large number of pieces.
It is also a common sight in Konya that Xani, who is one of the most important milestones of the Classic Kurdish literature, has many other work pieces on the Kurdish literature apart from these notes.
Because a large number of Kurdish scholars moved to Konya and founded madrassas where religious training was given in Kurdish language.
Translation: Berna Ozgencil
The assertion about the presence of some unknown works of Ehmedê Xanî in Konya firstly came from a faculty member of Konya Selcuk University who didn’t give an explicit address. My story of making after the missing works of one of the greatest poets of the Kurdish story, in other words, began just with a legend.
This myth was pointing the libraries of historical mosques as a clue. To start with, I began a search in the libraries of written works, such as Mevlana, Karatay and Yusufaga libraries. I kept making a search for about a year but I could find nothing in the end.
After that, I continued my search in the libraries of the historical mosques in the surrounding. At last, as a result of great efforts, I managed to find the works of Ehmedê Xanî on the basement floor of the Y. A. mosque in Konya.
The school book-type work, which includes a part named Madrassa, consists of 27 pages and 11 chapters. Some pages of the book are damaged due to bad storage and the last chapters and the back cover are missing.
The work, consisting of chapters on Islamic law, logic and language, is considered written by Ehmedê Xanî for adult learners studying in the madrassa. The scientific language of the work corroborates this argument.
The work has an introductory chapter under the title "Ilm-i Arab”(Arab scholar) which is followed by another chapter “Ýlm-i mantýk” (Logic). Including chapters on Islamic history, jurisprudence, and geography, the work also consists of information widely available in the Islamic world about astronomy. It is attention grabbing that the first word of sentences in each chapter is written in red.
Some pages and words of Xani’s work became unreadable due to ink flows.
The work is written in Arabic but some some explanations are in Kurdish.
And it is a real mystery how this work came to this mosque in Konya. Yet, it is supposed that the book was donated to the library of the mosque to prevent the work’s demolition by the family of Abdülmecit Ünlükul, brother of Bediüzzaman Said-i Kurd-i who died in Konya in 1967.
It is also a considerable note that there are a large number of graves of Kurds’ in Üçler Cemetery beside the mosque I found the book in.
It is known that the personal archives of Ünlükul, who moved to Konya by his daughter upon his dismissal from the mufti seat in Ürgüp, consist of a large number of Kurdish and Turkish works that he rescued from the demolition of Kurdish works in the early Republican periods.
Besides this work which has Xane’s name on it, the different copy of his work Nubýhar and several other works with his handwriting in Kurdish corroborate the possibility that these works were brought to Konya by Ünlükul.
There is also another possibility that this work was brought to Konya by Kurdish scholars who came to the madrsasas in Konya from the Bitlis Nuh Beg madrassa.
It is also known that some handwritten works had been collected from various provinces of Kurdistan and brought to Konya in the 1980s for maintenance. The work may also have been brought to Konya among these handwritten works.
Novelist Mehmet Uzun, making a mention of Ehmedê Xani on his book 'Introduction to Kurdish literature’, states that Mir Celaddet Ali Bedirxan mentions on the 33rd issue of Havar magazine about a missing work of Xani which cannot be found despite all searches. However, I don’t think that the work I have found is the book mentioned there as it consists of lecture notes.
Only six works (Dîwân, Nevbahara Pýçukan, Eqîdeya Îmanê, Eqideya Îslâmê, Fî Beyanni Erkani Îslam ve Mem û Zîn) of Ehmedê Xanî have reached up today who lived between 1651-1707 and known to have written a large number of pieces.
It is also a common sight in Konya that Xani, who is one of the most important milestones of the Classic Kurdish literature, has many other work pieces on the Kurdish literature apart from these notes.
Because a large number of Kurdish scholars moved to Konya and founded madrassas where religious training was given in Kurdish language.
Translation: Berna Ozgencil
