As #KCAC#'s first publication, Shene Mohammed translated Hejar Mukiryanî's autobiography, The Food of the Mosque Servant, into English. In this remarkable book, Hejar takes the reader on a freewheeling journey through his life. We follow his footsteps from Iran and Iraq to as far as France and Russia, we sit in on his discussions of the minutiae of poetic composition and translation, we witness the tumultuous struggles of Kurdish revolutionaries of the last century, we laugh with him at his jokes and his wild stories. Bringing The Food of the Mosque Servant into English invites a global audience to catch a glimpse of Kurdish culture and history through the eyes of one of its most beloved characters.

=KTML_Bold=Why 'The Food of the Mosque Servant'?=KTML_End=
The mosque servant would bring his pot and collect all the food left over, and this strange mishmash was their Eid reward, called “The Food of the Mosque Servant.” In this pot, the rice grain sits up against the wheat grain. The raisins from the pilau dish are scattered all over, each settled in a corner. A piece of bone–once placed next to a rice ball–is now drowned in wheat kashk and fine wheat. I saw that the story of my life, which I revisit after sixty-something years, had become one such dish. I don’t remember the exact timing of the events, nor can I tell them one after another in a series; it’s all mixed together. I don’t recall which came first, but I know what I have written, what I have seen or experienced myself, or taken from my companions’ anecdotes. I wanted to call it Blown Thistle, Windblown Hay, or Let Me Tell You, but I realized that The Food of the Mosque Servant is the best fit [1].