Language, Kingship, and Nation: The Ambiguous Politics of Ehmedê Xanî's Mem û Zîn

Abstract

In this article, I argue that discussions of whether any Kurdish nationalism may be found in Xanî’s Mem û Zîn proceed from rather anachronistic assumptions. Through an exploration of the language ideology found in this work, I demonstrate that the work’s mystical meaning interacts in rather complex ways with its political views. In particular, the king or prince plays a crucial, if ambiguous, political, linguistic, and eschatological role in the poem. Thus, Mem û Zîn may be read as a specimen of vernacularisation rather than romantic nationalism.