Mawlawi Tawagozi

Statue of Mawlawi in Sulaymaniyah

Mawlawi Tawagozi, pen name Maʿdumi, better known as Mawlawi (1806-1882/3, Kurdish: مەولەوی تاوەگۆزی‎)^[1] was a Kurdish poet and leading Kurdish literary figure in the 19th century. He wrote in Gorani, Arabic and Persian.^[2]

Biography[]

Mawlawi was born in a village in Javanrud County in Iran into a family of notable theologians and the mystic and scholar Abu Bakr b. Hedāyat-Allāh Ḥosayni Kordi from the 16th century. His dad Mollā Saʿid was headmaster of a madrasa in Iraqi Kurdistan and Mawlawi himself also attended various madrasas where he completed his studies. After his studies, he became a Mullah near Halabja where he quickly integrated himself into the social life of the region. He had been interested in Sufism for a while and joined the Naqshbandi order led by Oṯmān Serāj-al-Din who was a Naqshbandi leader of Kurds. He moreover received support from local Sufi Sheikhs who acted as patrons and also fostered close relations with the Jaff tribe and the Ardalan state. His wife Ḵātun ʿAnbar, died before him and he wrote many poems about the pain of losing her. In the final years of his life, his library burnt down and he was blind for the last seven years of his life. He died falling of a horse near Halabja.^[2]

Poetry[]

Mawlawi was a prolific writer and his favorite genre was the ghazal. He was influenced by especially Hafez but also Rumi who he knew since childhood, but remained loyal to the Gorani literary traditions.^[2]

Works[]

1. Eqîdey Merzîye,^[2] a book on Islamic faith and the science of Kalam in Kurdish. He began writing the book in 1863 and finished it by 1865. It has been published three times so far. The first edition was published in Cairo, 1933, the second edition in Tehran and the third one in Baghdad in 1988 with a detailed commentary by Abdul Karim Mudarris. Mawlawi has written two other books on the same subject: Al-Fazila in Arabic, and Al-Fawatih in Persian.
2. Eqîdey Mewlewî, a book on the Islamic faith. it has been published in 1977 in Baghdad, and for the second time in the Kurdish journal Roşinbîrî Nwê in 1993.
3. Collection of Poems, is his most important work. It is written in Kurdish in a dialect which a mix of Sorani and Hewrami. It was edited and published by Piramerd in two volumes in Sulaimaniya in 1935 and 1940. It was published for the second time with commentaries and analysis by Mala Abdul Karim Mudarris in Baghdad in 1961. Mawlawi's poems have been the focus of research and analysis by several other Kurdish writers and academics, among them Alaaddin Sajadi, Abdullah Goran and Izzadin Mustafa Rasul. The poems of Mawlawi were the focus of a PhD thesis by Anwar Qadir Muhammad in the Leningrad Institute of Orientalism (Soviet Academy of Sciences). This research was published in Sweden in 1990.

References[]

Further reading[]

• The life and works of Mawlawi (in Kurdish)
• Lîrîkay shairî gewrey kurd, Mewlewî, 1806-1882, (In Kurdish)