HOW TO MAKE A VOICE AUDIBLE? CONTINUITY AND CHANGE OF KURDISH CULTURE AND OF SOCIAL REALITY IN POSTCOLONIAL PERSPECTIVES FRITILLARIA KURDICA BULLETIN OF KURDISH STUDIES № 3, 4 03/2014 ISSN 2353-4052 INSTITUT OF ORIENTAL STUDIES JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY NATIONAL SCIENCE CENTRE KRAKÓW, MARCH 2014 Fritillaria Kurdica. The current 3rd and 4th issue of our bulletin consists Bulletin of Kurdish Studies. of two parts. The first one is devoted to the Yezidi No 3, 4/03.2014 topic and presents papers delivered during the in- ISSN 2353-4052 ternational seminar The Diverse Heritage of Yezidi tradition which was held in Kraków on November 13 2013. The second consists of Kurdish and English The e-zine is edited in the scope of the rese- articles on other topics that contribute to our rese- arch project: How to Make a Voice Audible? arch project. Continuity and Change of Kurdish Culture and We owe our special thanks to prof. Martin van of Social Reality in Postcolonial Perspectives Bruinessen for his extensive text on The Veneration approved for financing by the decision num- of Satan among the Ahl-e Haqq community and to ber DEC-2012/05/E/HS2/03779 of The Natio- Sidqî Hirorî for his will and interest to explore old and nal Science Centre of Poland almost forgoten Polish texts and newspaper cuttings on the Kurds. Published by: Section of Kurdish Studies, Department of Iranian Studies Institute of Oriental Studies of Jagiellonian University ul. Podwale 7, 31-118 Kraków Contents 3 The Diverse Heritage of Yezidi Tradition 6 Martin van Bruinessen, Veneration of Satan Editors: Among The Ahl-e Haqq of The Gûrân Region dr Joanna Bocheńska (editor in chief): [email protected] 42 Artur Rodziewicz, Yezidi Eros. Love as The dr Renata Kurpiewska-Korbut: Cosmogonic Factor and Distinctive Feature of [email protected] The Yezidi Theology in The Light of Some Ancient dr Marcin Rzepka: Cosmogonies [email protected] 106 Karol Kaczorowski, Yezidism and Proto-Indo- Krzysztof Lalik: Iranian Religion [email protected] Karol Kaczorowski: 122 Joanna Bocheńska, Following The Snake. Yezidi [email protected] Inspirations in Contemporary Kurdish Literature 153 Marcin Rzepka, Discovering Communities, Inventing Beliefs. Christian Missionary Attitudes Proof-reading towards the Yezidis in the 19th century Mark Bryan 165 Sidqî Hirorî, Bi kurtî li ser kurdnasiya polonî (Few Remarks on Kurdish Studies in Poland) Layout, typesetting 175 Ferzan Şêr, Li Keleha Vegotinê Vebêjerekî RastGo Tomasz Mieloch (The Raliable Narrator At The Castle of Narration) 182 Renata Kurpiewska-Korbut, Cultural Policy of The Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. Some Kraków, March 2014 Preliminary Notes 191 Krzysztof Lalik, The Origins and Formation of www.kurdishstudies.pl Syriac Christian Churches in Kurdistan The Diverse Heritage of Yezidi Tradition The international seminar Diverse Heritage of Yezidi Tradition, which took place in Kraków on November 13, 2013 was organized in the scope of the research project How to Make a Voice Au- dible? Continuity and Change of Kurdish Culture and of Social Reality in Postcolonial Perspectives, in cooperation with Göttingen University (Germa- ny) and The KRG Representation in Poland. The seminar was held in memory of Prof. Ordixanê Calîl (1932-2007) who was an out- standing Kurdisch scholar, researcher and a specialist on folklore. He was born in Ar- menia into a Kurdish Yezidi familly. His par- ents escaped from the Ottoman Empire after the pogroms of 1914 and 1915. They were brought up in orphanages in Armenia. Or- dixan together with his brother (Celîlê Celîl) and two sisters (Cemîla and Zîne) took up the arduous job of collecting Kurdish folk songs, fairy tales, stories and proverbs in Armenia and Georgia then in Iraq, Syria, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. Prof. Ordixanê Calîl (1932-2007) FRITILLARIA KURDICA. BULLETIN OF KURDISH STUDIES | NO. 3-4/2014 3 Today, the Kurdish family archive of the Eichgraben Kurdish Library (Austria) consists of more than 50 kilometres of tape recorded sessions and a 100,000 docu- ments and photographs concerning Kurdish daily life as well as the portraits of story- tellers. Ordixan published more than 60 books devoted to the Kurdish oral tradition. He was a professor of the Leningrad University, a member of the Kurdish Institute in Paris and the Iraqi Academy of Science. He deeply believed in the power of culture which he considered to be the only solid foundation for any dialogue. In 2003 he enjoyed a visit to Kraków. That is why the seminar was to dedicated to him. Yezidis were amongst those inhabitants of the Middle East who for a long time but especially in the 19th and 20th centuries had suffered under the colonial policies of different powers. They were held in contempt as a religious minority, worship- pers of the devil, and as the Kurds when a national and chauvinistic policy dom- inated the region. In spite of this difficulty and forced exile their diverse heritage of beliefs, thoughts, ethic and aesthetic values were hidden in the oral tradition of religious texts and folklore today is one of the richest sources of interest and inspi- ration not only for Kurdish writers, poets, politicians and activists but foreign non Kurdish scholars too. The multidimensional heritage of Yezidism is connected to many different re- ligious traditions influencing the region in the past and present. Its links with an- cient Iranian beliefs are unquestionable but there are many more connections to be explored such as the ancient Greeks or Anatolia . It is more than just possible that it was Yezidi tradition which inspired Ehmede Khani for constructing his Mem û Zin – immortal dastan devoted to the God-Love idea. Yezidi motifs can be traced in many literary works of contemporary Kurdish writers such as Mehmed Uzun, Hesenê Metê or Jan Dost. However, it is no exaggeration if we compare some elements of theYezidi tradition with selected European experiences and works de- voted to the idea of “good, faithful and desperate devil”. To give some examples, Lermontov and Wróbels’ Demons or Mikhail Bulhakov’s Voland from the novel Master and Margarita. Such attitudes offer us new possibilities in considering Yezidi beliefs in the wider comparative context of world cultural heritage. The aim of the seminar was to present the rich and multiple connections based on the legacy of the Yezidi tradition which is seen both in past and present thoughts, beliefs, works of art and social activity of Kurdish people as well as comparing FRITILLARIA KURDICA. BULLETIN OF KURDISH STUDIES | NO. 3-4/2014 4 them with selected universal motifs of other cultures and traditions. There is no doubt that making the voice of Yezidi tradition audible is one of the most important challenges and tasks for contemporary research especially in the scope of Kurdish and Middle Eastern studies. PROGRAM OF THE SEMINAR: Session I • Prof. Christine Allison (University of Exeter), The Orphanage Generation: Yezi- di Cultural Production in the Former Soviet Union • Prof. Philip Kreyenbroek (University of Göttingen), The links between Yezidism and Zoroastrianism in the light of new evidence. • Prof. Martin van Bruinessen (Utrecht University), Veneration of Satan among the Ahl-i Haqq (Yarsan) of Dalahu, South Kurdistan • Dr Artur Rodziewicz (Warsaw University of Life Sciences), Eros and the Pearl. Love as the Cosmogonic Factor in the Yezidi Theology and Some Ancient Cosmogonies. Session II • Dr Joanna Bocheńska (Jagiellonian University), Yezidi Inspirations of Contem- porary Kurdish Literature. • Karol Kaczorowski (Jagiellonian University,Yezidism and the complex of Pro- to-Indo-Iranian religion. • Dr Marcin Rzepka (Pontifical University of John Paul II) Discovering commu- nities, inventing beliefs. Christian missionary attitudes towards Yezidis in the 19th century. FRITILLARIA KURDICA. BULLETIN OF KURDISH STUDIES | NO. 3-4/2014 5 MARTIN VAN BRUINESSEN Veneration of Satan among the Ahl-e Haqq of the Gûrân region In 1976 I made two visits, of some ten days each, to the Ahl-e Haqq communities of the mountainous districts North of the Kermanshah – Qasr-e Shirin road that used to be the core of the Gûrân emirate. I had heard that these communities hold Satan, whom they know by the name of Malak Tâwûs, in special veneration. Many of the people with whom I conversed during my visits spoke quite freely of Satan or Malak Tâwûs, but I soon also discovered that there was no consensus about his place in Ahl-e Haqq cosmology. I found in fact that in this relatively small region there existed two competing views of Ahl-e Haqq cosmology, one of them more explicitly dualistic than the other. I attempted to analyse this in a lengthy article that I wrote a few years later but never published, fearing that the new Islamic re- gime might not look kindly on the heterodox beliefs held by these communities.1 The invitation to present a paper at the Kraków Seminar on the Yezidi tradition provided the opportunity to revisit this old paper, have a fresh look at my old field notes and photographs, and present some old and new reflections on the subject.2 It is quite common to describe the Ahl-e Haqq religion, like that of the Yezidis, as a “little-known religion”; in fact, I have in an unguarded moment used these words myself although I am aware that we know in fact a great deal about them. Thanks to such scholars as Minorsky, Ivanow, Mokri and Safîzâde, we know much about the Ahl-i Haqq belief system and have access to a considerable amount of 1 The original article, titled “Satan’s Psalmists: some heterodox beliefs and practices among the Ahl-e Haqq of the Guran district”, remains unpublished but I shared it with some colleagues for whose work it was relevant.