Mem û Zîn

The greatest Kurdish love story was written by the poet Ahmedê Xanî in 1692, and is still recited and sung. It tells of Mem, the son of a Bohtan prince, who fell in love with Zîn, sister of Zînedîn, prince of Jazira, on the day of Newroz after they accidentally exchanged rings. They loved in silence, for tribal custom forbade marriage between their families over an old feud. Bekir Agha, a jealous vizier, played informer; Mem was thrown into a secret dungeon and died not of his wound but of his longing for Zîn. When she learned, she came to his grave, lay down beside him, and died in the same place. They were buried in a single tomb, and between them a black thorn tree grew — symbol of Bekir Agha who came between them even in death. Kurds still visit their grave at Cizîrê in Turkey today. Mem û Zîn is to Kurds what Romeo and Juliet is to the English — but it is a tragedy with a political dimension: Xanî used it as a metaphor for the divisions of the Kurdish princes that had deprived the Kurds of a state.