Feqiyê Teyran (born Mir Mihemed, "Novice of Fowls", 1590–1660) was a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

poet who wrote in

Kurmanji Kurmanji (, ), also termed Northern Kurdish, is the northernmost of the Kurdish languages, spoken predominantly in southeast Turkey, northwest and northeast Iran, northern Iraq, northern Syria and the Caucasus and Khorasan regions. It is the ...

. He is best known for his work

Zembîlfiroş Zembîlfiroş () is a work by Kurdish writer and poet Feqiyê Teyran. It is believed to be based on a true story, transmitted from generation to generation through oral tradition, and is part of Kurdish mythology. Summary The plot revolves ar ...

, and is also credited for writing the first literary account of the

Battle of Dimdim The siege of Dimdim was an operation orchestrated by the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I (), in which his forces besieged the Dimdim Castle of the rebellious Kurdish Emirate of Bradost from November 1609 to the summer of 1610. The siege was led by t ...

which took place in 1609 and 1610. He is considered a pioneer in Kurdish

Sufi Sufism ( or ) is a mysticism, mystic body of religious practice found within Islam which is characterized by a focus on Islamic Tazkiyah, purification, spirituality, ritualism, and Asceticism#Islam, asceticism. Practitioners of Sufism are r ...

literature and one of the founders of the Kurdish literary tradition with

Ali Hariri Ali Hariri or Sheikh Ahmed Bohtani (; 1009 in Harir – 1079/1080) was a Kurdish poet who wrote in Kurmanji and considered a pioneer in classical Kurdish Sufi literature and a founder of the Kurdish literary tradition. Biography Hariri was bo ...

Melayê Cizîrî Melayê Cizîrî (, also Sheikh Ahmad Jaziri; – ), born Ahmad Nîşanî, was a Kurdish poet who laid the foundations for Kurdish poetry. Biography Born in Cizre of Bohtan around year 1570, Cizîrî was a Sufi who spoke Kurdish, Arabic and ...

Mela Huseynê Bateyî Mela Huseynê Bateyî (born Hussein, , ) was a Kurdish poet and cleric. He laid the foundations for Kurdish ''mawlid'' literary genre since almost all Kurdish mawlids are influenced by him. Biography Not much is known about the life of Bateyî; ...

and

Ehmedê Xanî Ehmedê Xanî (also Ahmad-e Khani, ) was a Kurdish intellectual, scholar, mystic and poet who is viewed by some as the founder of Kurdish nationalism. He was born in the Hakkâri region in 1650 and died in Bayazid in 1707. Xanî's most impor ...

Biography

The first written information about Teyran stems from

Mahmud Bayazidi Mahmud Bayazidi (, 1797 Doğubeyazıt – 1859 Erzurum), was an Ottoman Kurdish philosopher and polymath from Bayazid. Early life He was born in Bayazid (present-day Doğubeyazıt in Ağrı Province, Turkey) in 1797. He started his studies by ...

in the mid-19th century. He was born in the village of Verezuz/Verezor, in Miks,

Hakkâri Hakkari or Hakkâri may refer to: * Hakkari (historical region), a historical region in modern-day Turkey and Iraq *Hakkâri (city), a city and the capital of Hakkâri Province, Turkey *Hakkâri Province Hakkâri Province (, ; ), is a province ...

of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and graduated from a

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

. During his studies, he travelled to

Hizan Hizan (; ) is a town in Bitlis Province, Turkey. It is the seat of Hizan District.İlçe Beled ...

Finik Finik is an archaeological site in southeastern Turkey. It is located on the rocky cliffs overlooking the eastern bank of the Tigris, 14 kilometers upstream from the city of Cizre. It has been identified with the ancient ''Pinaka'', mentioned by St ...

, Heşete and also to

Cizre Cizre () is a city in the Cizre District of Şırnak Province in Turkey. It is located on the river Tigris by the Syria–Turkey border and close to the Iraq–Turkey border. Cizre is in the historical region of Upper Mesopotamia and the cultura ...

Bohtan Bohtan was a medieval Kurdish principality in the Ottoman Empire centered on the town of Jazirah ibn 'Omar in southeastern Anatolia. The official religion of this principality was Yezidism in 14th century, although the rulers eventually conv ...

where he might have studied under

. Instead of becoming a

mullah Mullah () is an honorific title for Islam, Muslim clergy and mosque Imam, leaders. The term is widely used in Iran and Afghanistan and is also used for a person who has higher education in Islamic theology and Sharia, sharia law. The title h ...

, he continued to work on poetry as a profession and would wander around like a

dervish Dervish, Darvesh, or Darwīsh (from ) in Islam can refer broadly to members of a Sufi fraternity (''tariqah''), or more narrowly to a religious mendicant, who chose or accepted material poverty. The latter usage is found particularly in Persi ...

and read his poems to the assemblies and madrasas he visited. His father was named Abdullah and Teyran plausibly came from a family of

beys Bey, also spelled as Baig, Bayg, Beigh, Beig, Bek, Baeg, Begh, or Beg, is a Turkic title for a chieftain, and a royal, aristocratic title traditionally applied to people with special lineages to the leaders or rulers of variously sized areas in ...

since he used the title ''mir''. He died in Miks, but his tombstone was only found in 2013 in the village of Şandis in Hizan.

Style and legacy

Poems of Teyran which have been described as 'colorful' have subsequently been used in Kurdish

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

. He wrote in plain language, used folklore elements and drew attention to

mysticism Mysticism is popularly known as becoming one with God or the Absolute (philosophy), Absolute, but may refer to any kind of Religious ecstasy, ecstasy or altered state of consciousness which is given a religious or Spirituality, spiritual meani ...

. Subjects included

divine love Love of God can mean either love for God or love by God. Love for God (''philotheia'') is associated with the concepts of worship, and devotions towards God. The Greek term ''theophilia'' means the love or favour of God, and ''theophilos'' me ...

, knowledge, wisdom, female beauty, nature and the waḥdat al-wujūd. His poems were written in prosody and he preferred

quatrains A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Gree ...

over

couplets In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

Works

*''Çîrroka Şêxê Sen’an (1621)'' * ''Qiseya Bersîs'' * ''Qewlê Hespê Reş'' * ''Dilo Rabe (1631)'' *''Cizîrî (1640, written to

)'' * ''

'' *''Bersîsê Abid'' *''Beyta Dimdim''

Biography

Style and legacy

Works

References

Further reading