Mahwi

Mahwi or Mehwî (Mala Muhamad Osman Ballkhi), (1830-1906), was one of the most prominenet classical Kurdish poets and sufis from Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He studied in Sablakh and Sanandaj in Iranian Kurdistan. He became a judge in the court of Sulaimaniya, in today's Iraq, in 1862, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. He travelled to Istanbul and met Abd-ul-Hamid II in 1883. He established a khaneqah, an Islamic religious school and mosque, in Sulaimniya and named it after an Ottoman emperor. In his poems, he mainly promotes sufism, but also deals with the human condition and existential problems, such as questions about the meaning of life.

Works

A collection of his poems has been published several times.

References