Ehmedê Xanî

Xanî was born in the village of Khan in the region of Hakkari (in modern-day southeastern Turkey) in 1650. He received his education in religious schools and went to study in different parts of Kurdistan. He wrote his first poem at the age of fourteen and became a clerical secretary at the princely court of Bayazid at the age of twenty. It is possible that he also visited Syria and Egypt. There are indications in his poetry that he lived for a long time in the city of Jazira (Cizre), which was the capital of the Kurdish principality of Bohtan. He completed the romantic epic Mem and Zin, his most famous work, at the age of 44. He worked as a teacher in Bayazid in the last years of his life. Most scholars concur that he died in Bayazid in 1707.{{Cite book |last=Koff |first=Leonard Michael |title=Kurdish Art and Identity: Verbal Art, Self-definition and Recent History |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2020 |isbn=9783110599626 |editor-last=Korangy |editor-first=Alireza |pages=41 |chapter=Mem û Zîn as Court Literature}}

Xanî is sometimes considered the founder of Kurdish nationalism or viewed as a proto-nationalist. He expressed his negative opinion of Arabs, Persians, and Armenians in his poetry.{{Cite web|last=Olson|first=Robert|title=Kurds|url=http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0891|url-status=dead|access-date=30 April 2021|website=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027074721/http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/article/opr/t236/e0891 |archive-date=27 October 2020 }} In the introductory chapters of his epic poem Mem and Zin, he did not devote parts of the introduction to praising the rulers of his time, which was typical in classical Oriental literature. Instead, he wrote of the subjugation of the Kurds and the occupation of Kurdistan by the Ottomans and the Safavids, as a result of which the Kurds lacked their own independent state with a Kurdish monarch. Such a ruler could liberate Kurds from the 'vile'. He also believed that an independent Kurdistan could safeguard the Kurdish language for scientific and intellectual purposes. He wrote:

{{Verse translation|lang1=ku-Latn|Ger dê hebûya me ittifaqek

Vêk ra bikira me inqiyadek

Rum û ʻEreb û ʻEcem temamî

Hemiyan ji me ra dikir xulamî

Tekmîl dikir me dîn û dewlet

Tehsîl dikir me ʻilm û hikmet

Temyîz dibûn ji hev meqalat

Mumtaz dibûn xwedankemalat

|If we could form a union by agreement

And to that union we all submitted

It would force the Turks, Arabs and Persians all together

To show deference to us [{{abbr|alt.|alternatively}} would become our servants]{{Cite book |first=Martin |last=Van Bruinessen|chapter=Ehmedê Xanî's Mem û Zîn and its role in the emergence of Kurdish nationalism|title=Essays on the Origins of Kurdish Nationalism |date=2003 |publisher=Mazda Publishers |isbn=978-1-56859-142-1 |editor-last=Vali |editor-first=Abbas |series=Kurdish Studies Series |location=Costa Mesa, Calif.|page=3}}

Then we would perfect religion and State

We would be able to cultivate knowledge and wisdom

Then the hodgepodge would be sorted

Those with excellence would become distinguished{{cite book|first=Mücahit |last=Bilici |chapter=Ehmedê Xanî's Political Philosophy in Mem û Zîn |title=Kurds and Yezidis in the Middle East: Shifting Identities, Borders, and the Experience of Minority Communities |year=2021 |page=37|editor-first=Güneş Murat |editor-last=Tezcür|ISBN=9780755601196|publisher=I.B. Tauris}}|attr2=Translation by Mücahit Bilici}}

According to Ferhad Shakely, many later Kurdish poets, such as Haji Qadir Koyi (1824–1897), followed Xanî's example and lauded the struggle of the Kurds for liberty. In the 20th century, Mem and Zin was hailed as the earliest expression of Kurdish nationalism. This interpretation has been criticized by Hakan Özoğlu, who argues that "it is highly unlikely that Ahmed-i Hani sought a nation-state for the Kurds." According to Özoğlu, Xanî may have only had Kurmanji speakers in mind when writing.{{Cite book |last=Özoğlu |first=Hakan |title=Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State: Evolving Identities, Competing Loyalties, and Shifting Boundaries |date=2004 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-5993-5 |series=Suny series in Middle Eastern Studies |location=Albany |pages=33}} Martin van Bruinessen states that it is incorrect to call Xanî a nationalist, although his works "have played an important part in crucial phases of the Kurdish national movement."{{Sfn|Van Bruinessen|2003|pp=1-2}} He writes, "Kurd in [Xanî's] period appears to refer only to the Kurdish tribes and a part of the urban aristocratic elite, but not to the non-tribal peasantry." In van Bruinessen's view, if Xanî conceived of a state when wishing for a Kurdish king, it was not of a Kurdish nation-state but a multi-ethnic state where Kurds would conquer their neighbors.{{Sfn|Van Bruinessen|2003|p=4}} Leonard Michael Koff argues that Xanî wrote of Kurdish moral and cultural independence but understood the impossibility of political independence.

• Mem û Zîn (Mem and Zin)
• Eqîdeya Îmanê (The Path of Faith)
• Eqîdeya Îslamê (Basics of Islam)
• Nûbihara Biçûkan (The Spring of Children)
• Erdê Xweda (Astronomy and Geography book)
• Dîwana Helbestan

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|first=Ferhad |last=Shakely |author-link=Ferhad Shakely |title=Kurdish Nationalism in Mem û Zîn of Ehmed-i Xani |location=Sweden [Uppsala] |year=1983 |ref=none}} New edition: Brussels, Koerdisch Instituut, 1993.

{{Commons category|Ahmad Khani}}

• {{Librivox author |id=12863}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20190401143459/http://kurdishacademy.org/?q=node%2F81 Ahmad Khani], Kurdish Academy of Language KAL
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070521081955/http://www.noahsarkholidays.com/poetry.html Our Trouble by Ehmedê Xanî], Noahs Ark Holidays

{{Kurdish literature}}

{{Islamic astronomy}}

{{Historians of Islam}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xani, Ehmede}}

Category:1650 births

Category:1707 deaths

Khani, Ahmad

Category:Kurdish-language poets

Category:Kurdish-language writers

Category:Kurdish scholars

Category:Kurdish nationalists

Category:Kurdish philosophers

Category:Kurdish historians

Category:Kurdish people from the Ottoman Empire

Category:Lexicographers

Category:People from Hakkâri Province

Category:17th-century Kurdish people

Category:18th-century Kurdish people