The Sharafnāma as a Case Study in the Ecolinguistics of Kurdistan
Résumé
The Sharafnāma, composed in 1597, is certainly the most important text of Kurdish history ever written. Yet, it was composed in Persian by its author, Sharaf Khān, amir of Bidlīs. It is unclear if Sharaf Khān even knew Kurdish, and, if he did, to what extent. The Kurdish language is, however, by no means absent from the Sharafnāma, wherein its position is fundamentally ambiguous. Sharaf Khān presents Kurdish as an essential feature of the Kurds, the one trait that distinguishes them from the region’s other peoples. It is through an act of language loss (of Persian or Arabic) and, then, of language creation (of Kurdish) that a community of rough mountain dwellers become Kurds. That rough character of the Kurds in turn colours Sharaf Khān’s view of the language throughout the book, and, despite his keen interest in it, he clearly does not see Kurdish as a language of adab, that is, proper Islamic civility and literacy. In this communication, I will provide an overview of Sharaf Khān’s discourse on Kurdish and, going beyond the Sharafnāma, I will also delve into the ecolinguistics of the multilingual land of Kurdistan.
Domaines
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
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