Mela Huseynê Bateyî

Mela Huseynê Bateyî was a Kurdish poet and cleric. He laid the foundations for Kurdish mawlid literary genre since almost all Kurdish mawlids are influenced by him.

Biography

Not much is known about the life of Bateyî; most information stems from Alexandre Jaba and Mahmud Bayazidi, which is considered unreliable. Recent studies have indicated that he was born in the 17th century and lived until the mid-18th century, not in the 15th century as Bayazidi stated. He belonged to the Ertuşi tribe and was born in the village of Batê in Elkî.

Works

His main work is called Mewluda kurmancî or Mewlûdu'n-Nebî, written in Kurmanji Kurdish. A mawlid in this context is a work on the birth and life of the Prophet Muhammad. The poem contains 19 chapters. It was used as a textbook for teaching Kurdish in the past and was also very popular among Muslim Kurds in northern Kurdistan who could recite its poems by heart. Its poems are also recited at other occasions such as in charity. This book was published for the first time in 1905 in Egypt. It was published for the second time in 1919 in Istanbul. One of his poems, which is about morality, has become a part of the oral tradition of Yazidis. He also has ghazals.

Bateyî school

Because Bateyî became so influential in subsequent Kurdish mawlid poetry, one can talk of a Bateyî school. These poems all start with basmala and hamdala, all of them mention the birthday of Muhammad melodically. It is recommended to recite their salawat with chorus and prosody to escape eternal hell fire.