Ehmedê Xanî

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Ehmedê Xanî
Ehmedê Xanî
Born	1650 Hakkari, Hakkâri Province
Died	1707 (?)
Occupation	Writer, Poet, Philosopher
Nationality	Kurdish
Literary movement	Renaissance

Influences - Malaye Jaziri - Ali Hariri - Faqi Tayran

Influenced Many

Ehmedê Xanî, (or Ahmad Khani), (1650-1707) was a Kurdish writer, poet and philosopher. He was born amongst the Khani's tribe in Hakkari province in present-day Turkey. He moved to Bayezid in Ritkan province and settled there. Later he started with teaching Kurdish (Kurmanji) at basic level. Khani was fluent in Kurdish , Arabic and Persian. He wrote his Arabic-Kurdish vocabulary "Nûbihara Biçûkan" (The Spring of Children) in 1683 to help children with their learning process.

His most important work is the Kurdish classic love story "Mem and Zin"(Mem û Zîn) (1692), is considered to be the épopée of the Kurdish literature. He is believed to be the first Kurd who has discussed about Kurdish independence ^[1]. In his Mem û Zîn , there is a long poem of more than 2,650 distiches, about this. He also created a good picture of Kurdish life in 17th century in his works.

In his work Kurdish patriotism and Kurdish reality are incredibly powerful. His nationalist interest and awareness was amongst pioneers for his time. When people of the Middle East were in the midst of religious conflicts to identify themselves as Christian and Muslim rather than by their ethnic origins, Xanî's proposal was circulating around an independent Kurdistan. The remarkable fact is that Xanî lived before the rise of modern nationalism. His other work include a book called Eqîdeya Îmanê' (The Path of Faith), which is part poem and part prose. The book explains the five pillars of Islamic faith. It has been published in 2000, in Sweden.