Feqiyê Teyran

Feqiyê Teyran (born Mir Mehemed, Kurdish: فەقیێ تەیران, romanized: Feqiyê Teyran "Novice of Fowls", 1590–1660)^[1] was a Kurdish poet who wrote in Kurmanji.^[2] He is best known for his work Zembîlfiroş,^[3] and is also credited for writing the first literary account of the Battle of Dimdim which took place in 1609 and 1610.^[4] He is considered a pioneer in Kurdish Sufi literature and one of the founders of the Kurdish literary tradition with Ali Hariri, Melayê Cizîrî, Mela Huseynê Bateyî and Ehmedê Xanî.^[5]

Biography

The first written information about Teyran stems from Mahmud Bayazidi in the mid-19th century. He was born in the village of Verezuz/Verezor, in Miks, Hakkâri of the Ottoman Empire and graduated from a madrasa. During his studies, he travelled to Hizan, Finik, Heşete and also to Cizre of Bohtan where he might have studied under Melayê Cizîrî. Instead of becoming a mullah, he continued to work on poetry as a profession and would wander around like a dervish and read his poems to the assemblies and madrasas he visited. His father was named Abdullah and Teyran plausibly came from a family of beys since he used the title mir. He died in Miks, but his tombstone was only found in 2013 in the village of Şandis in Hizan.^[1][5]

Style and legacy

Poems of Teyran which have been described as 'colorful' have subsequently been used in Kurdish folk music.^[6] He wrote in plain language, used folklore elements and drew attention to mysticism. Subjects included divine love, knowledge, wisdom, female beauty, nature and the waḥdat al-wujūd. His poems were written in prosody and he preferred quatrains over couplets.^[5]

Works

Zembîlfiroş, which would become his most important work and based on a true love story.

• Çîrroka Şêxê Sen’an (1621)^[5]
• Qiseya Bersîs^[5]
• Qewlê Hespê Reş^[5]
• Dilo Rabe (1631)^[5]
• Cizîrî (1640, written to Melayê Cizîrî)^[5]
• Zembîlfiroş
• Bersîsê Abid
• Beyta Dimdim