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The study of southern Kurdish literature is largely dominated by a bipolar perspective. Literature in southern Kurdistan is mostly, if not exclusively viewed in the context of relations between Iran on the one hand and, on the other, Iraq, the local states of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To be sure, Iran acquired a dominant role in southern Kurdistan, yet it is also considered to have been the only dynamic factor in southern Kurdish dialect, while the Iraqi regions are supposed to have fulfilled an essentially passive one. This article presents the most well-known poem of Arkawazī, a southern Kurdish poet from Pistiku, an Iranian region of southern Kurdistan. It transcribes, translates, and glosses a Feyli elegiac text in which the poet describes the death of his son. Notwithstanding my dialectological purpose, the article may also provide some raw material for the historians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of archival treasuries of the Kurdish tribes of northern Khurasan is a relatively young field of research, hence the large number of unexplored Kurdish and Persian sources. In view of the paucity of other sources for this region, so momentous in the history of the Caucasus and the Middle East, the record heritage of Khurasani Kurdish tribes take on a particular importance for both historians and sociologists. Most local records on the Kurdish tribes of northern Khurasan, in north-east Iran, were written by semi-educated Kurds and Persians or were closely associated with elementary-level instruction in this subject. One's expectations of them in terms of intellectual stimulation and entertainment value are therefore fairly low. And these low expectations turn out to be fully justified: for the most part, the records are plodding, simplistic and conspicuously lacking in originality. But it is precisely these qualities which make them useful to the researcher, because it shows that they reflect the realities of Kurdish community in northern Khurasan. The threefold purpose of the present paper is to state briefly what is known about the personal record collections of Khurasani Kurdish tribes; to present an outline of the types of records; and, finally, to catalogue some very popular records of the Kurdish Mīlan family as an instance and important treasury in their collections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Qisey Giranba" (The Valuable Remark) is one of the most well-known folktales in present-day Mukrî Kurdistan, a stateless nation in northwestern Iran. Unlike northern and southern Kurdistan—where folktales are appreciated in written form—literature inMukrî Kurdistan is most popularly appreciated in its oral form and has not been widely published. "Qisey Giranba" is a hekayet largely transmitted orally in the region by elder beyt singers, but a total of three incomplete manuscripts of the tale exist in personal libraries of Mukrî Kurds and a Persian version of the text has been published in Tehran. This article presents a complete transcription from a recorded performance by an old singer in the region and translated into English in a style that remains as close as possible to the original performance. The article presents the tale as an example of the Sôranî dialect and places the tale within the context of the region's contemporary culture as an example of central Kurdish literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the Kurmancî lyric verse from northern Khurasan. It notes on the life of Ja'far Qoli and offers linguistic and historical data for Khurasani Kurdish. It also translates the "Milwari Dexazim," an example of a Khurasani Kurdish literature that became the trend during the late Qajarid period and present-day Khurasan.