Magin_Edward-thesis

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He was a severe social critic, revealing in his poems many injustices,
weaknesses and faults in society. His language is exuberant and powerful,
the images sharp and poignant to the smallest detail.
Another Nali school poet, Mahwî (1830-1909), is counted as another of the three great
Kurdish Sufi poets. His works are considered among the best of classical oriental poetry
for both form and content (Shakely 2002).
2.1.1.4 Early publication
The first texts printed in Kurdish were the dîwan, ‘collection of poems,’ written
by Mawlana Khalid (1777-1826). He was the leader of the Naqshbandi, a Sufi religious
order. The book, printed in 1844 (Nerîman 1977:14), consists mostly of poems in Arabic
and Persian, but contains a few in the Hawramî dialect (Hassanpour 1996:61). The first
periodical in Kurdish was published on April 22, 1898. Named Kurdistan, it was a
bilingual Kurdish-Ottoman newspaper (Blau and Suleiman 1996:157). Miqdad Midhat
Badir Khan wrote these challenging words in its first issue:
Today, whatever happens in the world is reported in newspapers from
which we learn a great deal. Unfortunately, the Kurds – brave and
intelligent though they are – live without knowing what is going on in our
planet. I am publishing this paper to inform you of the development of
events in the world and to encourage you to read and write Kurdish. (Blau
and Suleiman 1996:157)
Between 1898 and 1902, thirty-one issues were printed, and publication was expanded to
Geneva, London and Folkestone. Eventually, minority peoples in Turkey responded
enough to the restrictive governance of Sultan Abdul-Hamid that in 1908 he was
constrained to bring about constitutional reform, which granted various people groups
(not just Kurds) greater political and cultural rights. One result of this reform was the
publication of many other new Kurdish newspapers and magazines (Shakely 2002).
2.1.2 1920-1960
Prior to World War I, some Kurdish journalism was permitted, but “Kurdish
literature had been restricted to poetry and some prose, little of which had been