Ali Hariri or Sheikh Ahmed Bohtani (; 1009 in Harir – 1079/1080) was a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

who wrote in

Kurmanji Kurmanji ( ku, کورمانجی, lit=Kurdish, translit=Kurmancî, also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northern dialect of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Sy ...

and considered a pioneer in classical Kurdish Sufi literature and a founder of the Kurdish literary tradition.

Biography

Hariri was born in 1009 in the village of Harir, part of the Hakkâri district of

Bohtan Bohtan (also Buhtan, ''Bokhti'') was a medieval Kurdish principality in the Ottoman Empire centered on the town of Jazirah ibn 'Omar (modern Cizre also known as ''Cizîra Botan'' (''Jazira Botan'') in southeastern Anatolia. Bohtanis were an a ...

. He was first mentioned by

Ahmad Khani Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

in the 17th century, and limited information is known about him. His poetry focused on love, love for

Kurdistan Kurdistan ( ku, کوردستان ,Kurdistan ; lit. "land of the Kurds") or Greater Kurdistan is a roughly defined geo-cultural territory in Western Asia wherein the Kurds form a prominent majority population and the Kurdish culture, languages ...

, its beautiful nature and the beauty of its people. The poems were popular and spread all over Kurdistan. According to historian Muhibbî, Hariri moved to Damascus to study and had a son named Şex Ehmed (d. 1048) who possibly was a mullah and a faqih. He died in

Cizre Cizre (; ar, جَزِيْرَة ٱبْن عُمَر, Jazīrat Ibn ʿUmar, or ''Madinat al-Jazira'', he, גזירא, Gzira, ku, Cizîr, ''Cizîra Botan'', or ''Cizîre'', syr, ܓܙܪܬܐ ܕܒܪ ܥܘܡܪ, Gāzartā,) is a city in the Cizre Di ...

and his grave is considered a sacred place and visited by numerous people every year.

References

1009 births 1079 deaths Kurdish poets {{Kurd-writer-stub People from Erbil Kurdish Sufis 11th-century Kurdish people