A A A

Fritillaria Kurdica. Bulletin of Kurdish Studies no. 7-8

We have pleasure to present the new issue of our e-zine Frittilaria Kurdica.Bulletin of Kurdish Studies no. 7-8. This time it is multilingual and presents articles in English, Russian and Kurdish (Sorani). The e-zin can be downloaded below in pdf form.

 

Contents:

 

Marcin Rzepka

Unthinkable Translation, Conversion and the Kurdish Soul.

 

Said Khan Kurdistani’s response to Christianity.Said Kurdistani (1863-1942), a Kurdish Christian is undoubtedly one of the most important persons in the history of Christianity in Kurdistan in the 20th century. But not only. He himself represents and also expresses some cultural values and aspirations of his nation. Becoming part of the history of education or rather the social history of science among Kurds, he translates cultures and religions. The variety of contexts in which Kurdistani appears allows us to place him in the global history of Christianity which loses its strict and particular links to the foreign missionary practices. Having been committed to various Churches, Kurdistani represents the tendency of a convert to simplify Christian doctrine and practice and make it more universal by emphasizing the non-denominational style of the church, which probably we may assume as his - Kurdish answer to Christianity.

 

Sabah Mofidi

The Process of Leading Change in the Kurdistan Islamic Movement – Iraq (Emergence, Factors and Trends)

 

This article studies the process of the emergence of the Islamic Movement in South Kurdistan (Iraqi Kurdistan) and follows its internal changes. It explains how the Islamic organizations rise came about and provides solutions to questions such as: What have the effective factors been in the emergence of this movement and its internal changes? What is the difference between this and other Islamic movements? How have other Islamic movements affected it? Which ideological-intellectual trends have existed within it? The effect of other Islamic Movements and the special situation of Kurdistan, on its trends, parties and ideological-intellectual relations with others will be mentioned. Indeed, by far, the reasons of the uprising of this movement, its relation with Kurdish nationalism and also its influence and function in an autonomous region of Kurdistan have been explained. The article tries to clarify which internal trend could be maintained in the Kurdistan political arena.

 

Karol Kaczorowski

Towards The Study of New Kurdish Migration in Turkey

 

The paper proposes a new approach to the study of Kurds in Turkey, it focuses on the new wave of voluntary migration. The article begins with a general overview of theories on migration to provide scientific context, then, the history of forced Kurdish migration in Turkey is explained including its potential impact on new migration. The third part of the paper is devoted to the flow of voluntary migration in the Turkish Republic, their circumstances and significance. The fourth and final part defines the scheme of voluntary migration in Turkey and some characteristics of Kurdish migration in20th century.

 

Krzysztof Lalik

Towards a comprehensive methodological conception for analysing language policy in Kurdistan

 

Due to significantly diversified factors defining social reality of Kurdistan: linguistic, ethnic, religious, economic and political ones, it seems intractable to discover or design a methodological conception on language policy that will explain mutual dependence between language policy and language usage and will be adaptable to all parts of Kurdistan irrespective of size and type of its ethnic groups. While searching for such a comprehensive model one has to refer then to different notions and ideas coined by scientists so far and in this article I discuss, assess and compare the theories of language vitality of Howard Giles and Harald Haarman, scale of endangered languages of Joshua Fishman and Paul Lewis, and, finally, a conception of language policy by Bernard Spolsky. Although, none of these theories proves to be fully comprehensive and applicable to every linguistic and ethnic minority in Kurdistan, their distinguishing of many sociolinguistic components and variables determining language vitality and status provides us with some methodological equipment that considerably increases the probability of successful examination of language policy execution at various social levels and forms of its expression in the entire Kurdistan region.

 

Angelika O. Pobedonostseva Kaya

Курды в Турции: депортация как метод решения этнического конфликта в XIX-XX вв.? (The Kurds in Turkey: deportation as a method of solving the ethnic conflict in the XIX-XX centuries?)

 

This article includes the review of Kurdish rebellions in Turkey during the last two centuries and reaction measures of Turkish authorities to combat the upsurge of the Kurdish National Liberation Movement. The analysis of deportation and multifaceted assimilation politics of Turkey from the moment of founding the republic until nowadays reveals the inability of the Turkish government to resolve the protracted long-term ethnic conflict.

 

Joanna Bocheńska

Рассказ и Любовь. Об источниках этических ценностей в курдской культуре. (Story and Love. The Source of Ethical Values in Kurdish Culture.)

 

The article aims to dispel the widespread conviction that the ethical dimension of Kurdish culture (so called ahlaq) boils down to the Islamic or tribal community norms. In fact, ethics and the process of moral education is much broader. It was also rooted in Kurdish oral tradition of storytelling and in the concept of Love presented in Yezidi sacred texts, Ehmede Khani’s classical poem Mem and Zin and in the Sufi tradition. Alasdair MacIntyre defines so called “traditional communities” rather as “heroic” ones pointing out the role of heroic stories in bringing up the mature and loyal member of such a community. His definition is well suited to the Kurdish traditional society where the meaning of heroic deeds and ethics were often taken from the many diverse stories. Courage and honour were the most important values on which that a single member or group would always rely upon. In other words both values were crucial in building the fragile equilibrium of a given society. On the other hand, the Love idea was able to challenge the existing patterns and open it up to new meanings and solutions. In Khani’s work Love became crucial even for a ruler and man in obtaining maturity and perfection.

 

Haidar Lashkry

پيرۆزكردنى زمان. خوێندنەوەيەك بۆ پێگەى زمانى كوردى لە گوتارى ئايينى سەدەكانى ناوەڕاستدا (Sanctification of the Language. The status of the Kurdish language in religious discourse of the Middle Ages )

 

The Arab - Islamic conquest of Kurdistan led to a lot of political, social, administrative and religious developments. As a result, in the longue durée of the Middle Ages, the Arabic language becomes a legitimate language used in the areas under the Islamic caliphate, especially in the religious field. Consequently, the local languages had lost their position especially in the religious sphere. The Kurdish language was one of those languages. However, the Kurds consort with the new religions’ doctrine and become part of what they call the Islamic nation. However, the Kurdish language was not up to the level of expression of the religious sacred. Kurdish political discourse, which represents a system of independent Emirates, had not been able to develop an internal religious heritage which depends on the local language. With the advent of Sufism and spread among the Islamic societies - including the Kurds - changed the status of languages in the religious sphere. Sufism has a mystical association with the social reality of the Kurds, and for some Kurds Sufi appeared because they do not know the Arabic language or are not very familiar with Arabic religious sciences. So they tried to use non-Arabic language to express their Sufi opinions and beliefs. They used Languages which preceded Islam, such as the old Pahlavi language and they put their ideas and Sufi poems in this language. This use of the local language has far-reaching effects, including reverence for the language spoken in the social sphere, which believed in the Sufi and followed their rituals.