Ahmad-i Khani (Shaykh Ahmad)

A poet, Sufi and scholar; the author of Mem û Zîn, regarded as the classical mesnevî of Kurdish, and a figure held by the people to be a saint.

He was born in 1061 (1651). His father's name was İlyas. His nisba is said to derive from the village of Han near Hakkâri, from the Hânî tribe, or from the Hâniyan family. Travelling through eastern Anatolia he studied Arabic, rhetoric and the religious sciences; he also occupied himself with astronomy.

He resided at Cizre, one of the regional centres of culture of the day, and there composed Mem û Zîn. He later settled at Old Bayazıt (Doğubayazıt) and remained there to the end of his life.

The date of his death is accepted as the year 1119 (1707), which the phrase "Târe Hânî ilâ rabbih" yields by the abjad reckoning.

His Circle of Influence — Among the students he trained are counted İsmâil Bâyezîdî (d. 1121/1709), Şerîf Han Cûlâmergî (d. 1161/1748) and Murad Han Bâyezîdî (d. 1192/1778). After his death he was held by the people to be a saint and his grave became a place of visitation; it is related that Said Nursi visited his grave in his youth. Mem û Zîn, for its part, has carried his influence by way of the book: it has been translated into Russian (Rudenko, 1962), into Arabic in prose (al-Bûtî, 1957) and into Turkish (Bozarslan, 1968 and 1975), and was adapted for the cinema in Turkey in 1991.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — In his poetry questions of theology, existence, ethics and society are interwoven. As a theologian on the Sunnî-Ash'arite line he treats the mysteries of creation and the question of divine accountability; he holds that the contradictions in nature give rise to understanding and harmony, and that what appears evil may in truth be good. He gives voice to the hardships of his age and points to social solidarity and education as the remedy; he laments the replacement of wisdom by materialism. On his Sufi side he says that what truly changes a person's character is divine love and piety alone. He stands under the influence of mystic poets such as Mevlânâ and Câmî; the source states that the claims advanced about pre-Islamic influences upon him are without foundation.

His Works — 1. Mem û Zîn (1104/1693). A romance in the manner of Leylâ and Mecnûn, consisting of sixty sections and about 3000 couplets. Its subject is this: Mem, a secretary of the chancery, loves Zîn, the emir's sister; the servant Bekir prevents their union; both lovers die of longing, and their friends avenge them by killing Bekir. Their graves at Cizre are visited. Its first edition was printed at Istanbul (1335) and the second at Aleppo (1947). 2. Nûbahârâ Bıçûkân (1094/1683). An Arabic-Kurdish rhyming lexicon composed in thirteen different metres; it was arranged to ease the study of grammar for children learning the Qur'an. It was printed together with al-Hâlidî's work (Istanbul 1310), reissued by al-Jazarî at Damascus, and transcribed into Latin letters by Zinar (Istanbul 1992). 3. Akîdâ Îmân. A creedal text in verse of eighty couplets setting out the fundamentals of Islam from the Sunnî standpoint; it treats the divine unity, prophecy, the divine attributes, intercession and the hereafter, enters upon the question of ef'âl-i ibâd, and draws selectively on Ash'arite and Mâtürîdite positions. 4. Çârkûşe. Quatrains in which Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Kurdish stand together in each couplet; five of them, on love, separation and union, have survived. Ahmed Hilmî wrote commentaries on the Nûbahârâ Bıçûkân and the Akîdâ Îmân.

His Tomb and Complex — His grave lies at Doğubayazıt near the İshak Paşa Palace and is a place of visitation to this day.