On Saturday, February 22, 2025, in Erbil city, the first Hejar Mukriani symposium titled “Hejar and Language” was held, attended by various personalities, writers, and guests from both inside and outside the region.
The event began with a documentary about Hejar Mukriani titled “A Pen for Kurdistan,” followed by a speech from Hejar Mukriani’s family.
During the symposium, three panels were conducted on the topics of “Unified Language, Language and Culture, Digitalization of Language and Artificial Literature,” presented by experts and academics. It was decided that this commemoration would be held annually.
Abdulrahman Mohammad Sharafkandi, known as Hejar Mukriani, was born on April 13, 1921, in Mahabad, Eastern Kurdistan, to an intellectual and patriotic Kurdish family.
In his early years, he learned reading and writing from his father and later from various religious teachers in traditional schools (hujras).
He began writing poetry in 1940, influenced by the works of Ahmad Khani, Wafayi, and Mela Jaziri. He was a Kurdish poet and translator who produced numerous significant literary works.
Hejar was an exceptional linguist with extensive knowledge of Kurdish, Arabic, and Persian languages. He was highly skilled in book translation. He was the first person to translate the Quran into Kurdish. One of his masterpiece translations was Omar Khayyam’s quatrains from Persian to Kurdish, maintaining the original rhythm and rhyme so well that it feels as if Khayyam wrote them in Kurdish originally.
He also translated Ahmad Khani’s “Mem u Zin” from Kurmanji Kurdish dialect to Sorani Kurdish dialect, preserving its poetic form.
Most importantly, he created the “Henbane Borine” dictionary, a Kurdish-Kurdish-Persian dictionary. Henbane Borine was published in both single and double-volume editions, with its first publication in Tehran in 1990. The dictionary incorporates all Kurdish dialects and subdialects, without favoring any particular dialect. This dictionary made the greatest contribution to preserving and developing the Kurdish language.
By Muaiyad Ahmed