Arab Shamilov
Arab Shamoevich Shamilov | |
---|---|
Native name | Erebê Şemo |
Born | 23 October 1897 Kars Oblast, Russian Empire |
Died | 21 May 1978 Yerevan, Armenian SSR |
Occupation | Writer, poet, journalist, interpreter |
Nationality | Soviet |
Genre | Novel, story |
Notable awards | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Arab Shamilov (Kurdish: Erebê Şemo/Ә'рәб Шамилов or Ereb Shemo) (23 October 1897 – 1978) was a Yazidi Kurdish[1] novelist who lived in the Soviet Union. He was born in the city of Kars in present-day north-eastern Turkey.
Early career[]
During World War I, from 1914 to 1917, he served as an interpreter for the Russian army. Later on, he became a member of the central committee of the Armenian Communist Party. In 1931, he began working on Kurdish literature at the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies. He assisted in developing a Latin-based alphabet for the Kurdish language in 1927.[2]
He became a member of the editorial board of the Kurdish newspaper Riya Teze (The New Path), published in Yerevan from 1930 to 1937. In Leningrad, he also met the Kurdish linguist Qenatê Kurdo and published his work as a document about Kurdish language in Armenia.
Literary output[]
His first and most celebrated work, the story The Kurmanji Shepherd (Şivanê Kurmanca), based on his own life,[2] was published in 1935 (in Russian only after serious censorial edits) and later translated into Italian as Il pastore kurmanji, it is considered the first Kurmanji novel.[3] In 1937, he was exiled by Joseph Stalin and was only allowed to return to Armenia after 19 years, in 1956, following Stalin's death.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Arab_Shamilov%27s_plaque%2C_Yerevan.jpg/220px-Arab_Shamilov%27s_plaque%2C_Yerevan.jpg)
In 1959, he published another novel, Jiyana Bextewer (Жийина бәхтәwар) (meaning: Happy Life) that was then translated into Armenian and later also into Russian (1965). In 1966, he published a historical novel, Dimdim, inspired by the old Kurdish folk tale of Kela Dimdimê about the battle of Dimdim. It has been translated into Italian as well (as Il castello di Dimdim). In 1967, he published a collection of Kurmanji folk stories in Moscow.
Books[]
- Şivanê Kurmanca, the first Kurdish novel
- Barbang (1958) (published in Yerevan by Haypetrat, 1959)
- Jiyana Bextewar (1959) (re-release: Roja Nû Publishers, 1990, 253 p.)
- Dimdim (1966) (re-release: Roja Nû Publishers, 1983, 205 p.)
- Hopo (1969) (re-release: Roja Nû Publishers, 1990, 208 p.)
See also[]
References[]
- ^ Joanna Bocheńska (2018). Rediscovering Kurdistan's Cultures and Identities: The Call of the Cricket. p. 95.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Galip, Özlem Belçim (2014). "Re-visioning "Kurdistan" and "Diaspora" in Kurdish novelistic discourse in Sweden" (PDF). Nordic Journal of Migration Research. 4 (2): 82–90. doi:10.2478/njmr-2014-0009.
- ^ Galip, Özlem Belçim (24 April 2015). Imagining Kurdistan: Identity, Culture and Society. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85772-643-8.
- Avesta Cultural Magazine (in Kurdish)
- Kurdish Literature
- Malpera Mehname
- A Glimpse on the Kurdish Literature in the former Soviet Union
- Il Castello di Dimdim, epopea kurda[permanent dead link] Autore: Shamilov, Ereb ; traduzione di Shorsh A. Surme, ISBN 88-86051-68-9, 1999
- Shamilov, Arab, "Dastanî Qelay Dimdim", Kurdish Academy of Baghdad, 1975.
- Kurdish-language writers
- Kurdish writers
- Kurdish people
- 1897 births
- 1978 deaths
- Soviet novelists
- Soviet male writers
- 20th-century male writers
- Recipients of the Order of Friendship of Peoples
- Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner
- Kurds in Armenia
- Armenian Yazidis