Ehmedê Xanî

Ehmedê Xanî (also Ahmad-e Khani, ) was a Kurdish intellectual, scholar, mystic and poet who is viewed by some as the founder of Kurdish nationalism. He was born in the Hakkâri region in 1650 and died in Bayazid in 1707.

Xanî's most important work is ''Mem and Zin'', a long romantic epic which is sometimes viewed as the Kurdish national epic. It is the most famous work of Kurdish literature among both Kurds and non-Kurds. His other important works include , a versified Arabic-Kurdish vocabulary, and , a religious poem. These works were studied in Kurdish schools from the time of Khani towards the 1930s.

Xanî admired the Kurmanji poets Melayê Cizîrî and Feqiyê Teyran. Joyce Blau called him the spiritual son of Cizîrî, Teyran and Ali Hariri. Provided by Wikipedia