Suchergebnisse

The biblical Book of Daniel (twelve chapters) is largely written in Kurdish Aramaic. One wonders why. This study offers a partial comparison of Chapters Seven and Eight ; it omits the latter half of each chapter, the chronicling of the Succession of Kings. Both chapters focus on some issues in the account of ancient visions of the Creation: the creation of human beings and the creation of the Temple site in Urshalīm al-Kuds. The source of this tradition is not dealt with. Both chapters are indicative of the traditions and beliefs governing the period of the building of the First Temple in the life of the King of Kings Suleimān (pen-name: Shlomo) and up to the time of the conquest of Judah (Judea) by the Chaldean King of Kings, Nebūchadnezzar King of Babylon. The northern province of the Kingdom of Israel had already been conquered by the Assyrians, and their fate needs to be further investigated. The ultimate objective of this research within a broader project is to show that the provincial First Temple was governed jointly by both proto-Kurds, such as Medians together with tribal notables of the Kingdom of Israel.

The biblical Book of Daniel is an epic and chronicle telling of the Succession of Kings in the Middle East after the Babylonian conquest of UrShalīm al-Kuds. It is narrated by "Daniel" who has a cyclic existence as a visionary who first supports the Babylonian King of Kings, and later Darius the Mede, the Median King of Kings. Important to this discussion on angels is the appearance of a divine being arguably a "proto-angel." The rabbinic redactors of Daniel's narrative, twelve chapters written down and recorded, describe but do not mention the name of the proto-angel arguably "Sraosha." Sraosha as understood in this study is a divine being known to us through Mazdaism. The two angels Michael and Gabriel known to early Judaism are not clothed or otherwise described, and it is not until Daniel supports Darius the Mede that Daniel's vision presents Gabriel as a "personage" who "flies."

The biblical poem entitled Shir Ha-Shirim (The Song of Songs) composed by Shlomo, the third King of the united tribes of Israel about 1,000 years before the Common Era was composed in Hebrew. However, it was also translated and sung by numerous bards in ancient Arabic dialects, as well as being translated to Kurmanji Kurdish. The King composed this poem to substantiate the primeval identity of his kingdom and its connection to the expanses leading up to Jerusalem and the mountain range surrounding Jerusalem. The poem's underlying meaning leans on the King's knowledge of the ancient science of Kabbalah. The eight chapters included in the Hebrew Bible as debated in the first century CE, and recorded by the mishnaic Sages of Tiberias in the second century CE, now constitute what we have on record of the Song of Songs. The external shell of the poem, the first chapter of which mentions apple-wine and love, and tribal ethics, symbolizes and reminds of the first moment of love's intoxication and knowledge. The King is mentioned in the Qur'an as the prophet Suleimān and is known in English as King Solomon. This study ends with an original translation of the Song of Songs with Notes.

Aviva Butt has just finished translating in collaboration with the author, Salim Barakat's first novel Fuqahā' al-Ẓalām (Sages of Darkness) written in 1985. The translation was done from a later original Arabic manuscript roughly the same as the 1994 Baghdadi edition. Sages of Darkness is a Kurdish Sufi novel depicting Kurdish life in late Ottoman times. It is, in fact, a philosophical novel with a strong dose of psychological realism, written in a style derived from Classical Modernism. And so, it is mainstream literature, an achievement in view of the late start in novel-writing by the Kurdish far-flung writers' community. The action line, full of suspense, violence, and murder, is greatly about the tribal notable "Avdei Sarei," who does everything he can to ensure the survival of his business and the economic health of his endeavors. In this article, the translator of Sages of Darkness analyzes Barakat's novelistic techniques for the purpose of prompting a better understanding of the novel, and by-the-by, if possible, to solve the enigma of the meaning of the title.

The present study brings to light some of the original novelistic writing techniques that Salim Barakat evolved in his first novel entitled Fuqahā' al-Ẓalām (Sages of Darkness). With this novel, the author laid the foundation for techniques to be used in his subsequent novels. In the absence of an established Middle Eastern or Kurdish tradition of novel writing, Barakat had ample space to develop his own original techniques. He first published Sages of Darkness in 1985 in Nicosia Cyprus, and later published a second edition in Baghdad in 1994—with a further overlay of cinematic imagery and use of his own poetics and vocabulary as in his poems of the intervening period. An anthology of Barakat's poems in the original Arabic can now be read online. And there are also English translations in the Anthology of Aviva Butt's book of 20 September 2021(see the References at the end of this article). A previous article on Sages of Darkness published in IJOKS 7 (1) (2022) attempted to establish the genre of Barakat's novel as psychological realism with philosophical and fantastical elements—the first 50 pages were examined. In this study, I will mention the frequent symbolic relationship of the environment to Kurdish life—as seen in the first approximately 120 pages. A completed English translation of Sages of Darkness, including the remaining 90 pages underway, will hopefully be published by early next year.

In his novel Sages of Darkness (Fuqahā' al-Ẓalām), we encounter Salim Barakat as a writer of psychological realism, which this paper attempts to show by a comparison to Fyodor Dostoevsky's ground-breaking novel Crime and Punishment (1866). Barakat's main protagonist is a Kurdish Sufi Mullah, a protector of his rural community in al-Qamishli, Jazira in Ottoman times. With the sudden appearance of "dried up fields," Mullah Benav carries on with his undertone of murmured prayer and reliance on the techniques of Kurdish Sufi practice (somewhat similar to Jewish Kabbalistic practice) to solve the problem. And then, lo and behold, a fantastical event occurs with the birth of a baby son whom the Mullah calls "Bekas." Sages of Darkness has five long chapters of approximately fifty pages each, comparable to the original serial publication of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. It introduces an aside on the psychological cause and result of child molestation by respected personages within the society and especially within the education system. The present paper uses quotations from the first fifty pages of Sages of Darkness. Long passages from the book are quoted because no English translation has as yet been published. I anticipate completing the translation in about 7 months.

Naḥūm was a Kurdish Jewish prophet who lived in northern Syria in the period of the Assyrian conquests and internecine wars over 2,500 years ago. Part of Naḥūm's long poem, which is in the Kurdish-Persian genre Shāḥnāma has since been included in the canonized Hebrew Bible. The first chapter of the Book of Naḥūm, henceforth Section I is a song of praise (panegyric) introducing the main protagonist – in this case HaShem. Section II and Section III of Naḥūm's Book carry on with narrative still in the genre Kurdish Shāḥnāma. However, instead of an ensuing lengthy tale, Section III winds up with a few lines of "conclusion," written by another hand.

The biblical Book of Naḥūm explains the way HaShem (The Name) deals with Evil. An inner biblical interpretive technique is used to reach this meaning, a technique inconsistent with the method of the rest of the Hebrew Bible. As a prophetic song, the Book of Naḥūm rightly prophesies the pending downfall of the Assyrian Empire. In the light of the story of the Jews of Kurdistan together with a careful reading of Naḥūm's book, there is enough evidence to assert that the Book has passed through oral translations and various oral recitations. Thus, as oral literature, Naḥūm's "book," in actuality a long poem in three sections has been transmitted not only in the original Hebrew but also through Kurmanji Kurdish and neo-Aramaic translations before the final Hebrew redaction took place. Accordingly, the biblical text throws light on not only an episode in ancient history, but also on the antiquity of the Kurmanji dialect and its vernaculars.