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 That's
it, it is published
at last ! Between the translation of Ahmedê Khanî's work, the pictures
and searching a publisher, it took a few time, but the result did worth...
Instead
of making a long speech about Mem and
Zîn (you'll have plenty of time for reading it), I rather to
present it by pictures. A short résumé all the same, for those who
don't know the story : in the province of Botan, a young Kurd, Mem, fall
in love with the sister's prince, the beautiful Zîn. She shared that
passionate love, but the treacheries of Bekir the traitor
(1)
provoked the Prince's and he refused their union. However, neither
separation nor prison could success to break their love which surveyed
to death.
Around
both of young people, Ahmedê Khanî painted the splendours and the
magnificence of a royal Kurdish court on the XVIIth century,
with its feasts, its banquets, its huntings, its feats of arms... He
showed the fascinating picture of human soul where love, friendship, courage
opposed to gossip, jealousy and tyranny. Inspired by a Kurdish legend,
this chef-d'œuvre is the first national manifesto of Kurdish literature
and a great poem of mystical love. Ahmedê Khanî made an acute and
visionary analysis of its people 's fate, who are still nowadays torn
apart by their divisions and their failures.
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For
seeing a picture, click on its miniature
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 Ahmedê
Khanî (1651 - 1706) was borned in the province of Hakkari.
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 He
lived in
Dogubayazit
(where
he was behind a literary school),
not far from Isak Pasha Saray,
of which he evidently drew his inspiration when he described the
princes of Jezrieh's palace.
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 Today,
the Kurds come of all the countries for visiting his
mausoleum : more than a simple poet, he is considered like a great
sheikh.
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 The
door of the main gate of Isak Pasha Saray (17th century).
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 A
court inside the palace.
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 Minaret
of the mosque of the palace.
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 Cizre
is the modern name of Jezireh. The city, near to Irakian, Syrian
and Turkish borders, had to have a new mosque...
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 Next
to the new mausoleum...
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 sheltering
the authentic brand new tomb of ... Noah !
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Ahmedê
Khanî placed in Jezireh the action of Mem and Zîn's legend. |
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 Not
far from the famous patriarch, an else mosque, more humble, is
devoted to the cult of Mem
and Zîn.
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 Against
a wall, a pannel reminds to the visitors that they are in a
legendary place.
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 The
lovers' story is still very popular.
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 In
the garden, set back from the mosque, the türbeh shelters the
lovers' tombs. The entrance is the small blue building, on the
left.
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 A
the entrance, a commemorative plaque.
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 Mem
and Zîn joined for ever... under the surveillance of Bekir the
traitor (back).
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 A
romantic person had adorned Mem's tomb.
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 After
they have prayed, some visitors hang a ribbon and make a wish.
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 The
most ancient mosque of Cizre (12th century).
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 Some
one knows the name of this plant in French and in Kurdish ?
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 A
the entrance of the town, an old Kurdish building (bichrome
decoration). Unfortunately, after this picture, we spent a short
time in the police station (all the region is listed military zone)
and we were evicted to Mardin. Too bad for the pictures of Joudi
Mount
- compared with which Ararat Mount is nothint but a vile
usurpator - and the discovering of the famous arch of Noah... it
will be for a next time !
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 Akif Hasan,
originated from Botan, had studied languages and literature in the
university of Aleppo (Syria) before to exercise political
functions in the Kurdish resistance.
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 Sandrine Alexie
had studied arts of Islam in the École du Louvre, and the Kurdish
language and civilisation in the Institut National des Langues et
Civilisations Orientales. She makes researches in Kurdistan, and is one
of the founders of the Observatoire Franco-Kurde.
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 One
of the last meeting of working in OFK. Jan Dost
(on the left) who has translated Mem and Zîn in Arabic is
coming to offer his help, and Selim Curukkaya (beside) a friendly
support.
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Pictures Roxane
2000 - 2001
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The
book is saled in bookshops, in Institut Kurde de Paris (106 rue
Lafayette 75010 Paris - Métro Poissonnière)
and on the WEB (www.fnac.fr
www.chapitre.com www.alapage.fr).
You can commend it by post in l'Harmattan (16
rue des Écoles 75005 Paris, www.editions-harmattan.fr).
Roxane (1)
Any resemblance or similarity to persons living or dead is purely
accidental, ...but you know how coincidences could be malicious"
! (back to the text) |
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