Those who wrote this memory
Figures
Twelve figures who shaped — in ink, sword or film — the face of modern Kurdish memory.
Ahmedê Xanî
1651 – 1707
A Kurdish poet, thinker and jurist, born in 1651 in Bohtan. He completed his immortal epic "Mem û Zîn" in 1692 — at once a hymn to Kurdish l...
Cegerxwîn
1903 – 1984
The greatest Kurdish national poet of the 20th century. Born Şêxmûs Hesen in 1903 near Mardin, he emigrated to Syria and was among the pione...
Melayê Cizîrî
c. 1570 – c. 1640
The greatest Kurdish Sufi poet, who lived in Cizîr (Cizre) of Bohtan in the 17th century. His classical Kurmanji *Diwan* weaves divine and h...
Mustafa Barzani
1903 – 1979
The foremost Kurdish military and political leader of the 20th century, born in Barzan in 1903. He led repeated revolts against Iraqi govern...
Politician
Qazi Muhammad
1893 – 1947
A Kurdish Iranian political and religious leader, born in Mahabad in 1893. On 22 January 1946 he proclaimed the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad,...
Saladin (Salah ad-Din)
1137 – 1193
Born in 1137 in Tikrit into a Kurdish family of the Rawadiya tribe. He founded the Ayyubid dynasty and united Egypt, the Levant and Yemen un...
Sherko Bekas
1940 – 2013
The foremost Sorani Kurdish poet of the 20th century, born in Sulaymaniyah in 1940. He pioneered Kurdish free verse and wrote epics and hymn...
Şivan Perwer
1955 –
A pivotal Kurdish singer, born in Siverek (Turkey) in 1955. Forced into German exile in the 1980s for his patriotic songs, his pieces *Heleb...
Yılmaz Güney
1937 – 1984
A Kurdish-Turkish director, actor and writer. Born in Adana in 1937, he turned from a Turkish box-office star into the country's most insurg...
Bahman Ghobadi
1969 –
A Kurdish Iranian director, born in Baneh in 1969. His debut *A Time for Drunken Horses* (2000) was the first Kurdish film to win the Caméra...
Jalal Talabani
1933 – 2017
An Iraqi Kurdish statesman, born in Kelkan in 1933. He founded the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in 1975 and in 2005 became the first Kurdish...
Leyla Zana
1961 –
A Kurdish-Turkish activist and politician, born in 1961 in Silvan. In 1991 she became the first Kurdish woman elected to the Turkish parliam...