Introduction and Codicology of Gorani Religious Epic

Abstract

The epic has a special place in Kurdish literature; in such a way that many manuscripts of Kurdish epopee (epic poems) have been preserved today, which deserve to be introduced so that epic researchers can easily find these copies. Among different types of Kurdish epics (heroic, religious, and historical) religious epics have been less discussed; the epopees that often report the campaigns and wars of the time of the Prophet (PBUH) or the fictional battles of the renowned Islamic figures such as Hazrat Ali (PBUH), Hamzah Sheid al-Shahda, Muhammad Hanafiyah, Khaled Ibn Walid, Zarir Khazai and… have been turned into verse. In this research, the authors try to first provide information about the epic and its types in Kurdish literature and then introduce the Goran religious-epic epopees kept in the libraries of Iran and the world, along with the codicology.

Keywords

• kurdish literature
• gorani
• epic
• religious epopees
• manuscripts