International Journal of Kurdish Studies

Abstract

urdish poet Salim Barakat (b. 1951, Qamishli, Syria)
in 1986 published a philosophical poem entitled Haza’in Manhuba (Glimpses
of Spoliation), the whole of which I have translated from the original Arabic
and included as annotated appendix. Barakat writes modern secular poetry in a
genre I describe as modern Islamic literature, a genre that finds its roots in
the Turkic poetry of Shah Isma’il I who founded the Safavid dynasty in Persia.
Barakat’s theoretical model for his philosophical poem within the
aforementioned genre, and his use of meaning-making techniques of repetition is
to be found in the arena of ancient Greek literature. It is, however,
essentially his concept of history that affords him space to include these
meaning-making poetic techniques as he strives to present to his readership an
exact description of the revolts, uprisings and insurgencies that have been
ongoing since the Abbasid caliphate. He explains the why and how of the
wrongdoing, and the consequences on the Day of Judgment, the divine sphere of
action functioning as part of his historical narrative. His symbols, in this
particular poem, lean less on the Persian and Arabic Sufi poets. He rather
creates symbols of his own, symbols that provide an aura of the scientific, and
are as “unimaginative” as possible – being symbols of the most basic kind. As
usual, his extraordinarily skilled and extensive use of devices of repetition
reflect his Kurdish heritage.