The Yezidi oral tradition in Iraqi Kurdistan

PREFACE

This book is an exercise in 'mapping', in a form comprehensible to outsiders, the terrain of the oral tradition of the Yezidis, Kurdistan's misunderstood religious minority. It attempts to identify the major areas and features of this oral tradition, and to note their relationships with one another. Like most initial attempts at mapmaking, it is quite possible that as the territory becomes better known to scholars, many of the contentions and conclusions of this work will be debated. Nevertheless, the first step has to be taken. Scholarly attention has so far focused primarily on traditions associated with the Yezidi religion. Most of the secular material published so far has been in Kurdish, and even where translations into European languages have been made, the meanings of the traditions for the Yezidis have not been explored. They are certainly overdue for academic study; the oral traditions of the Yezidis, and of Kurds in general, are one part of a whole field of `folklore' which is not only full of variety but also very strong in emotional resonance. Even the discourses of identity of young, urban Kurds make some use of it. Images from oral tradition are found in popular songs, political speeches, paintings and novels; they are employed with great enthusiasm by Kurdish nation-builders. The Yezidis are part of this Kurdish cultural process, but they have their own special concerns.

It is no idle metaphor to use the analogy of cartography for the process of studying the oral traditions of Yezidis and other Kurds. For many peoples who recall much of their past orally, there is an intimate relationship between the topography of the land and the narratives of the people. Oral tradition is the vehicle for the transmission of most Kurdish history and almost all specifically Yezidi history. The events recalled in that tradition are very closely associated with particular locations in the homeland. In Kurdish discourses, the process of remembering the land also recalls its history, including both conventionally `historical' and more 'legendary' events. For the Yezidis in particular, whose whole way of life is integrated into their religion, past and present events are closely linked to each other and to their environment. Locations are not only associated with past events, but may also be imbued with strong religious meanings. History, especially religious history, finds expression in current social structures; Yezidi identity is expressed in terms of religious purity and of difference from other groups. At such an early stage in Kurdish oral studies, this book will not venture to consider the religious dimensions of Yezidi oral culture in detail, but it will consider some of the most popular kinds of secular oral tradition, set them in the context of Yezidi discourse, and consider their position in Yezidi life in Iraqi Kurdistan at the close of the twentieth century.

I have tried to understand some of the most important meanings which the Yezidis ascribe to their oral traditions by collecting some traditions myself, comparing them to the relatively few examples already published, and asking numerous Yezidis, in Northern Iraq and in Europe, about the meaning and significance of oral traditions in general and specific examples in particular. I have tried to avoid limiting individual Yezidi voices as Orientalists have been so wont to do in the past, though some factors have complicated this. Given the volatility of politics in Iraq, where association with Westerners can sometimes bring reprisals, acquaintances and friends still living there will remain anonymous in this book. Even for those Iraqis now living outside Iraq I think it best to use names sparingly. Thus I have sometimes referred to `informants', though I have also tried to give some sense of individual identity and integrity by using such shorthand as 'Mr H' etc. The reader can then gain some idea of the help given by each of these individuals, and I hope it will be clear that some gave a great deal of their time and patience. It will certainly be abundantly clear that this book has been written by an outsider, a non-native speaker, conditioned to think in Western academic terms, who has had to start from first principles in attempting to understand very complex forms of communication.

In trying to find a framework in which Yezidi oral traditions could be analysed and discussed, I discovered that the three broad themes of war, love and death, apart from being readily understandable to outsiders, were also used by Yezidi performers themselves to categorise the lyrical songs which they sing. Analysis of the treatment of these three themes is the core of this book. However, thematic analysis is not enough without an understanding of genre and context. Thus a number of introductory chapters are also necessary; Chapter One sets the current work in its academic context, of studies of Kurdish `folklore' and of orality and literacy. Chapter Two describes the fieldwork environment of the Northern Iraqi Yezidi community, including some important aspects of Yezidi identity. Chapter Three gives an overview of the most important generic and historical frameworks of the oral traditions. In Chapters Four, Five and Six, a number of Kurdish texts and translations are discussed; some of these are quite long and, if placed within the main part of the book, they would break up the argument. Instead I have opted to put them together at the end, though this admittedly incurs the risk that they will be `lost', or that the reader will endlessly be trying to move between text and discussion. I have attempted to minimise this annoyance by quoting substantially from the texts during the discussion chapters, so that the argument can be followed, but the reader will have a much fuller impression of these compositions if each is read at the point at which it is summarised in the main part of the book, before the discussion begins. Chapter Seven briefly brings together some of the conclusions of the preceding chapters and considers their implications.

I have used the term 'Iraqi Kurdistan' in the full knowledge that it is unacceptable to many; however, despite this, and despite the many debates over the exact extent of the territory of Kurdistan, it still seems to me the most widely understandable term referring to that part of the modern state of Iraq which is predominantly inhabited by Kurds. Iraqi Kurdistan, in its traditional sense, comprises the Kurdish provinces of Badinan, north-west of the Great Zab river, where the northern Kurdish dialect of Kurmanji (the language of the Yezidis) is spoken, and Soran, to the south, where the other major dialect, Sorani, is spoken. Since 1991, when much of Iraqi Kurdistan came under Kurdish control, the term has been used to denote the area under Kurdish administration (the modern governorates of Dihok, Erbil and Suleymaniye); however, this 'Kurdish autonomous zone' or 'Kurdish zone' is smaller than the true extent of Iraqi Kurdistan. This zone stretches beyond the so-called 'safe havens' originally set up by the Allied military, extending from Pêsh Khabûr in the west to the Iranian frontier in the east; its border follows a line through the 'Saddam Lake', Fayde (near Dihok), to the south of Ba'drê, north of 'Eyn Sifni, west of' Agra, southwards to the Kelek Bridge (south-west of Erbil), and west of Chemchemal; thus it covers the large towns of Dihok, Erbil, Suleymaniye and Halabja. It includes some, but not all, of the sizeable Yezidi settlements of Northern Iraq. The frontier between Kurdish and Iraqi government-held areas passes through the Yezidi region of Sheykhan.

Kurdish is usually written in Arabic script in Iraq and Iran and often in Cyrillic in the former Soviet Union. The transcription system which has been used for the texts in this work broadly follows the scheme developed by Bedir Khan for writing Kurmanji in Roman script. The system has been well explained elsewhere, and it would be superfluous to list it in detail here. Letters are pronounced as in UK English, with the following exceptions: a is long as in farmer, c as in jelly, ç as in chip, e is close (in Badinan) to the English short a of cat, ê as in French mere, i either as Turkish ı or as in English fish, î as in feel, j as in English pleasure, q as pronounced in Arabic, r as a strongly rolled 'Italian' r, ş as in ship, û as in fool, x as in loch. Among Iraqi Kurds, letters such as h (as in the name Hasan), 'Cain, glottal stop) and x (ghain) are given the Arabic pronunciation. The difference between f and ê, and e and a at the end of words, is often very difficult to hear in Badinani Kurmanji. Double consonants are usually not used by Kurdish authors, and their convention has been followed here.

The texts are taken from various sources, with slightly differing transcription systems; for the sake of consistency, slight modifications have been made to the way some texts transcribe certain sounds. However, in those texts which I transcribed myself, I have tried to remain faithful to the performance by preserving the pronunciation of the speaker; thus some slight inconsistencies may be detectable in words which are used many times, and at some points where the words do not seem to conform to 'standard' Kurdish grammar. All the translations, except that of the love song Kherabo, which is based on an existing French translation by Roger Lescot, are my own.

For Kurdish words and the proper names in Part I, it is difficult to achieve consistency. Arabic and Persian names have different transcription conventions, and the Turkish alphabet is different again. There are certain very well-known placenames, such as Erbil or Halabja, and words, such as sheykh, where deviation from norms would simply be distracting, so I have kept to common English norms. In general, I have attempted to make the main body of text easily readable by avoiding excessive use of diacritical marks. For the less familiar Kurdish names, I have used a transcription system as close to English as possible when they are presented in their Kurdish context. Thus I have used sh for Kurdish ş, ch for Kurdish ç, kh for Kurdish x, and zh for Kurdish j (as in English vision). For the vowels, the Kurdish system, with its circumflexes, is not counter-intuitive for English speakers, and I have adopted it. However, there are certain key Kurdish terms where Kurdish transcription has been retained throughout, such as stranbêj; these are italicised. In general I have avoided the use of the ezafet in Kurdish names; however some individuals, usually poets or heroes of oral traditions, are invariably referred to by at least two names, such as Ehmedê Khanî or Derwêshê 'Evdi, and I have retained it in these cases. For certain Kurdish tribal and village names I have used standardised Kurdish forms such as Bekiran, where local usage is more often Bekira. For names which are well known or are common in this book, such as Tur Abdin, Sheykh Adi, and Kurmanji, simplified forms are used. Where Kurdish authors or informants have themselves chosen to transcribe their names in a specific way, it seems courteous to keep to their preferences.

Many of the conclusions of this book are rather tentative; the 'map' I have drawn still has many sections marked 'Here be Dragons' or similar. Certainly the meaning and significance of certain images and concepts could be explored much further; this will require a detailed consideration of a wider range of oral traditions. Even those relatively few texts I have selected for analysis are considered primarily from the standpoint of the subject-matter, the imagery and the broader patterns of construction. Much more could be done on the analysis of technical formal details. I hope that such work will be done in the future, and that the terrain of Kurdish oral tradition will become much more familiar to scholars.