Introducing Yusuf Yasakah, the Eleventh-Century (AH) Poet and Quelling Misgivings about the Story of “Zarkulah and Yusuf”

Abstract

The unreliability of many historical and literary sources is one of the serious obstacles facing researchers working on the history and histography of Kurdish literature. Many Kurdish poets’ works have also been lost in the past centuries. There remained only their names and parts of their poems, giving us incomplete information, such as many of the classical poets of the Kurdish Gurani. The 11th century AH was the beginning of a Kurdish poetry movement in large parts of Kurdistan, and at this time there were many poets who wrote in Kurdish. Yusuf Yasekah was a poet in the 11th century AH. The similarity between his name and the character of Yusuf in Seir Al-Akrad caused some researchers to consider both characters as one. The present study introduces this poet based on historical and literary sources and tries to quell misgivings about the similarity between his name and the character in Seir Al-Akrad. Based on some literary references in Yasekah and Mullah Mustafa Bisarani’s poems, the historical events, toponyms, and proper nouns in historical books and sources, this study determined that Yusuf Yasakah had lived in the late eleventh century AH, adopting an analytical methodology. The historical and literary evidence and documents also clarified that this poet has nothing to do with Yusuf’s story in Seir Al-Akrad.

Keywords

• history of kurdish literature
• yusuf yasekah
• "zarkulah and yusuf"
• saraei
• mulah mustafa bisarani