Mahwi ( ku, مەحوی ''Mehwî''; full name: مەلا موحەمەد کوڕی عوسمان بەڵخی ''Mala Mohammed Osman Ballkhi'') (1830-1906) was one of the most prominent classical Kurdish poets and

sufis Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

from

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 ...

of Iraq. He studied in Sablakh and Sanandaj in

Iranian Kurdistan Iranian Kurdistan or Eastern Kurdistan ( ku, ڕۆژھەڵاتی کوردستان, translit=Rojhilatê Kurdistanê) is an unofficial name for the parts of northwestern Iran with either a majority or sizable population of Kurds. Geographically, it ...

. He became a judge in the court of

Slemani Sulaymaniyah, also spelled as Slemani ( ku, سلێمانی, Silêmanî, ar, السليمانية, as-Sulaymāniyyah), is a city in the east of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, not far from the Iran–Iraq border. It is surrounded by the Azmar, ...

, in today's Iraq, in 1862, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. He travelled to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and met Abdul-Hamid II in 1883. He established a

khaneqah A khanqah ( fa, خانقاه) or khangah ( fa, خانگاه; also transliterated as ''khankah'', ''khaneqa'', ''khanegah'' or ''khaneqah''; also Arabized ''hanegah'', ''hanikah'', ''hanekah'', ''khankan''), also known as a ribat (), is a buildin ...

, an Islamic religious school and mosque, in Slemani and named it after an Ottoman emperor. In his poems, he mainly promotes

sufism Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...

, but also deals with the human condition and existential problems, such as questions about the meaning of life.

Works

A collection of his poems has been published several times. #''Dîwanî Mehwî'', Slemani, 1922. #''Dîwanî Mehwî'', Edited by Jamal Muhammad Muhammad Amin, Serkewtin Publishers, Sulaimaniya, 1984. #''Dîwanî Mehwî'', Edited and Analyised by Mala Abdolkarimi Modarres and Mohammed Mala Karim, Hissam Publishers, Baghdad, 1977 and 1984.

External links

A collection of essays on Mahwi's poems (in Kurdish)

Classical Traditions and Modern Meanings
by Stephen Sperl. Last visit 19 November 2013. Iraqi Kurdish poets 1830 births 1906 deaths 19th-century poets of Ottoman Iraq {{Kurd-writer-stub