The accounts of Leili o Majnun in Kurdish literature

There are no fewer than nine accounts of the story of Leili o Majnun in Kurdish literature most which have been written both in verse and prose in imitation of Nizami of Ganjeh and his emulators. Of these works four belong to the Kormānji dialect within the Kurdish populated areas of Turkey and Northern Khorasan, the composers, and translators of only two of them being known. But the other five accounts are related to the Gorāni dialect in Iran’s Kurdistan. Among the Kormānji and Gorāni versions the two composed respectively by Hares-e Badlīsī and Khānā-ye Qobādi are both more extensive and famous.In this article, by identifying and introducing the Kurdish versions of Leili o Majnun, attempts have been made to demonstrate to scholars both the extent of the influence of Nizami’s Leili o Majnun in Kurdish literature and make known to the scholarly community some of the obscure Kurdish poets and their contribution to connecting the Persian and Kurdish literatures.