Hall of Immortals

The Hall of Immortals gathers the Kurdish figures whose work left a lasting mark on history, civilization and the memory of the people.

Deioces · Deioces · c. 727 – 675 BCE

  • Founder of the Median Kingdom · First King of the Medes
  • 8th – 7th century BCE
  • The legendary and historical founder of the Median kingdom — the first organised state of the western Iranian peoples and the earliest known political nucleus of the Kurds. He founded his capital at Ecbatana on the slopes of Zagros.

Cyaxares · Cyaxares · 625 – 585 BCE

  • Breaker of Assyria · The Greatest Median Emperor
  • 7th – 6th century BCE
  • The third Median king and the greatest of their military leaders. He turned Media into an empire stretching from the Aegean to Central Asia, and brought down Nineveh to end centuries of Assyrian dominion.

Astyages · Astyages · 585 – 549 BCE

  • The Last King of Media · Grandfather of Cyrus the Great
  • 6th century BCE
  • The fourth Median king and the last of the great Median rulers. He reigned at the height of imperial glory before the throne passed to his grandson Cyrus in one of the most dramatic moments of the ancient world.

Saladin al-Ayyubi · Salâh ad-Dîn al-Ayyûbî · 1137 – 1193 CE

  • Liberator of Jerusalem · Sultan of Egypt and Syria
  • 12th century CE
  • The Kurd of the Rawādiya from Tikrit, founder of the Ayyubid state and liberator of Jerusalem after the Battle of Hattin — an icon of chivalry and justice in both Islamic and world memory.

Qazî Mihemed · Qazî Mihemed · 1893 – 1947 CE

  • President of the Republic of Mahabad · Martyr of the Modern Kurdish Dream
  • 20th century CE
  • The first president of a modern Kurdish republic in history — the Republic of Mahabad (1946). He was hanged standing on the gallows in the very square from which he had proclaimed the republic, becoming the icon of modern Kurdish dignity.

Mistefa Barzanî · Mistefa Barzanî · 1903 – 1979 CE

  • The Immortal General · Father of the Modern Kurdish Revolution
  • 20th century CE
  • The legendary commander, minister of defence of the Republic of Mahabad, and founder of the modern Peshmerga. Fifty years of war, exile, and leadership without surrender raised the Kurdistan flag over the heights of Barzan.

Ehmedê Xanî · Ehmedê Xanî · 1651 – 1707 CE

  • Author of Mem û Zîn · Father of Classical Kurdish Literature
  • 17th century CE
  • A Kurdish poet, jurist, and philosopher from Bayezid, and the author of the great epic Mem û Zîn (1692). He was the first to bind the Kurdish language to a national identity in a written text.

Melayê Cizîrî · Melayê Cizîrî · c. 1570 – 1640 CE

  • Master of the Kurdish Poets · Sufi of Botan
  • 16th – 17th century CE
  • Sheikh Ahmad ibn Muhammad, a Kurdish Sufi poet of Botan. The foremost poet of mystical gnosis in classical Kurdish literature, he established the prosodic standards of Kurmanji verse.

Cegerxwîn · Cegerxwîn · 1903 – 1984 CE

  • Poet of the Toilers · Voice of the Kurds in the 20th Century
  • 20th century CE
  • Şêxmûs Hesen — a Kurdish poet, linguist, and political activist. The bridge between classical verse and the modern Kurdish poem, and the voice of the Kurds throughout the twentieth century.

Nalî · Nalî · 1797 – 1855 CE

  • Father of Sorani Poetry · Poet of Baban
  • 19th century CE
  • Mela Khidir ibn Ahmad al-Shawaysi, the founding father of classical Sorani Kurdish poetry and the foremost poet of the Baban court — the cornerstone of all modern Sorani literature.

Hejar Mukriyanî · Hejar Mukriyanî · 1920 – 1991 CE

  • Poet of Mahabad · The Greatest Kurdish Lexicographer
  • 20th century CE
  • Abdurrahman Sharafkandi — poet, lexicographer, and translator. He compiled the largest Kurdish dictionary in history and produced the first Sorani translation of the Qur'an, becoming the wall that protected the Kurdish language through its darkest decades.

Qane' · Qane' · 1898 – 1965 CE

  • Poet of the Peasants · Voice of the Hewlêr Plain
  • 20th century CE
  • Muhammad ibn ʿAbdullah ibn Qane, a Kurdish poet from the village of Sergelû north of Hewlêr. He broke the elite monopoly on Kurdish poetry and made the peasant, for the first time, the hero of the poem.

Hacî Qadirê Koyî · Hacî Qadirê Koyî · 1817 – 1897 CE

  • Poet of the Kurdish National Awakening · Teacher of the Renaissance
  • 19th century CE
  • Mela Qadir of Koye, the intellectual father of modern Kurdish nationalism and the first poet to call openly for Kurdish unity in verse.

Ibn al-Athîr al-Jazarî · Ibn al-Athîr al-Jazarî · 1160 – 1233 CE

  • Author of al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh · The Greatest Historian of Islam
  • Late 12th – early 13th century CE
  • Kurdish historian from Jazirat ibn ʿUmar in Botan, author of al-Kāmil fī al-Tārīkh — the broadest historical encyclopedia composed before the 13th century.

Celadet Alî Bedirxan · Celadet Alî Bedirxan · 1893 – 1951 CE

  • Creator of the Latin Kurdish Alphabet · Founder of Hawar Magazine
  • Late 19th – mid 20th century
  • Prince and linguist, grandson of the last ruler of Botan, creator of the Latin Kurmanji alphabet — the greatest linguistic reform in modern Kurdish history.

Mestûre Erdelan · Mestûre Erdelan · 1805 – 1848 CE

  • The First Kurdish Woman Historian and Poet · Princess of Ardalan
  • 19th century CE
  • Mah Sharaf Khanum of Ardalan — the first Kurdish woman to write systematic history and the first to leave a poetic diwan under her own name.

Şêrko Bêkes · Şêrko Bêkes · 1940 – 2013 CE

  • Prince of Modern Kurdish Poetry · Voice of the Mountain and of Exile
  • Second half of the 20th century
  • Sorani Kurdish poet from Slemani, the most important Kurdish poet of the second half of the 20th century and founder of the 'poetic narrative' current.