Ahmad Khani

Ehmedê Xanî (, also Ahmad-e Khani) was a Kurdish intellectual, scholar, mystic and poet who is viewed by some as the founder of Kurdish nationalism. He was born in the Hakkâri region in 1650 and died in Bayazid in 1707.

Xanî's most important work is Mem and Zin, a long romantic epic which is sometimes viewed as the Kurdish national epic. It is the most famous work of Kurdish literature among both Kurds and non-Kurds. His other important works include , a versified Arabic-Kurdish vocabulary, and , a religious poem. These works were studied in Kurdish schools from the time of Khani towards the 1930s. Joyce Blau called him the spiritual son of Cizîrî, Teyran and Ali Hariri.

Biography Xanî was born in the village of Khan in the region of Hakkari (in modern-day southeastern Turkey) in 1650. He received his education in religious schools and went to study in different parts of Kurdistan.

Nationalism Xanî is sometimes considered the founder of Kurdish nationalism In the introductory chapters of his epic poem Mem and Zin, he did not devote parts of the introduction to praising the rulers of his time, which was typical in classical Oriental literature. Instead, he wrote of the subjugation of the Kurds and the occupation of Kurdistan by the Ottomans and the Safavids, as a result of which the Kurds lacked their own independent state with a Kurdish monarch. Such a ruler could liberate Kurds from the 'vile'. Then we would perfect religion and State We would be able to cultivate knowledge and wisdom Then the hodgepodge would be sorted Those with excellence would become distinguished |attr2=Translation by Mücahit Bilici

According to Ferhad Shakely, many later Kurdish poets, such as Haji Qadir Koyi (1824–1897), followed Xanî's example and lauded the struggle of the Kurds for liberty. Martin van Bruinessen states that it is incorrect to call Xanî a nationalist, although his works "have played an important part in crucial phases of the Kurdish national movement." He writes, "Kurd in [Xanî's] period appears to refer only to the Kurdish tribes and a part of the urban aristocratic elite, but not to the non-tribal peasantry." In van Bruinessen's view, if Xanî conceived of a state when wishing for a Kurdish king, it was not of a Kurdish nation-state but a multi-ethnic state where Kurds would conquer their neighbors. Leonard Michael Koff argues that Xanî wrote of Kurdish moral and cultural independence but understood the impossibility of political independence.

Works Mem û Zîn (Mem and Zin) Eqîdeya Îmanê (The Path of Faith) Eqîdeya Îslamê (Basics of Islam) Nûbihara Biçûkan (The Spring of Children) Erdê Xweda (Astronomy and Geography book) Dîwana Helbestan