Heciyê Cindî (born 1907/1908 – died May 1, 1990) was a Kurdish philologist, translator, folklorist, and writer. Cindî also authored the book Ûsiv û Zelîxe.
Biography
Heciyê Cindî was born in 1908 into an Yazidi family in the village of Emançayîra Dîxor, Kars, located in Northern Kurdistan. His childhood was spent in the same village. However, in 1918, due to massacres and attacks by Turkish soldiers, his family was forced to flee and relocate to Soviet territory. There, Hecî became an orphan and entered an orphanage, where he began a new chapter of his life. This orphanage housed hundreds of unaccompanied Kurdish children who received primary and secondary education. By 1929, he had enrolled in a teacher training course.
In 1930, he commenced his studies at the Faculty of Philology in Yerevan, becoming the first Kurdish student to be admitted to a university in Armenia. By 1932, he began collecting materials related to Kurdish oral traditions and folklore. Additionally, from 1930 onwards, he worked for the newspaper Riya Teze. He also contributed to Kurdish radio, which at the time primarily broadcast news. He served as the head of the Kurdish Pedagogical Academy in Armenia.
In 1938, under the Stalinist administration, he was arrested and imprisoned along with many other Kurdish intellectuals, accused of being agents of imperialist states. Following his release, he resumed his creative and scholarly work. He authored numerous textbooks for schools, translated several books from other languages into Kurdish, and published many collections. Concurrently, he played a leading role in the Union of Kurdish Intellectuals, the Union of Kurdish Writers, the Academy of Kurdology, various newspapers, and language commissions. Intellectually and personally, he was regarded as a wise and progressive individual. He was the first Kurd in the Caucasus to send his daughters to higher education. Furthermore, he was the first Kurd in the Caucasus to arrange his daughters' marriages without a bride price and according to their wishes. Among all Soviet Kurds, he was the most prolific and accomplished author.
Death
Heciyê Cindî passed away on May 1, 1990.
He left behind over 110 books, collections, and research works. Many of his works remain unpublished.
Works
- The Strikebreaker Kolkhoz Worker, Alphabet for Adults (1933)
- Kurdish Language Book, for the Third Group (1933)
- Kurdish Writer, Second Creation (1934)
- Kurdish Language Book, for the Third Classroom (1935)
- Kurdish Language Book, for the Sixth Classroom (1935)
- Kurmanji Folklore (with Emînê Evdal, 1936)
- Kurdish Folk Songs (with composer Karo Zakaryan, 1936)
- Kurdish Folk Tales (1940, in Armenian)
- Ker and Kulik of Silêmanê Silîvî (research and text, 1941, in Kurdish and Armenian)
- Kurdish Folklore (1947, in Armenian)
- Branches of the Kurdish Koroghlu Epic (research and text, 1953, in Armenian)
- Mem and Zîn (research and text, 1956, in Armenian)
- Kurdish Folklore (1957)
- Kurdish Epic-Narrative (1962, with Russian translation by various authors and scholars, prepared and prefaced by Heciyê Cindî, Moscow)
- Kurdish Lyrical Community Songs (1975)
- Branches of the "Kurdish Rostam and Zal" Epic (text and research, volume 1, 1977)
- Six Volumes of "Kurdish Community Tales"
- Ûsiv and Zelîxe (research and text, 2003)
- Dimdim, research and text (Yerevan, 2005 and Erbil, 2007)
- Branches of the "Kurdish Rostam and Zal" Epic (new volume, 2, Duhok, 2006) and so on.
- Kurmanji Folklore, 2008, Avesta Publications.