Origin
Kurdish oral tradition, Kurmanji
A tragic Kurdish love epic that every dengbêj keeps in memory. Xecê was a girl of the Shekhan tribe; Siyabend a shepherd of a rival tribe in the Mount Cudi range. They met by chance at a spring and fell, eye to eye, into a love that would not be extinguished. Siyabend asked Xecê's family for her hand; the tribal divide barred the marriage. They fled together into the mountains and lived a brief love in a rock hut. They were discovered, and Xecê's kin came to kill Siyabend. The two climbed the peak of Mount Xerube. Siyabend placed Xecê behind him on a narrow ledge and stood alone against them all, until he fell. When Xecê saw his body sliding toward the abyss, she threw herself after him and died at his side. To this day a peak in the Cudi range bears the name 'Çiyayê Xecê û Siyabend' — the Mountain of Xecê and Siyabend.