Musaelian J. On the First Kurdish Edition of the ‘Sharaf-nama’ by Mullā (Melā) Mahmūd Bāyazīdī // Manuscripta Orientalia. Vol. 5. No. 4. December 1999. P. 3—6.
The Sharaf-nāma, a work by the Kurdish historian Sharaf-khān Bidlīsī, is the only monument on the late medieval history of the Kurds, Kurdistan and the neighbouring countries on record. Written in Persian in late sixteenth century, it is a valuable historical and cultural source, which was repeatedly translated into French, Turkish, Arabic, German and Russian. But it was only in 1972 that the composition was published in Sorani, the southern dialect of Kurdish.
Owing to the Description of the Kurdish Manuscripts from Leningrad collections, compiled by the late M.B.Rudenko, a brilliant expert in the Kurdish language and literature, we know that in the manuscript collection of the National Library of Russia there is a translation into the northern dialect of Kurdish (Kurmanji) of the work by Sharaf-khān Bidlīsī entitled Tawārīkh-i qādim-i Kurdistān. The translation which was carried out by the prominent scholar and public figure Mullā (Melā) Mahmūd Bāyazīdī in the mid-nineteenth century deserves special attention as a very valuable specimen of a literary work performed by an enlightened Kurdish author.
The foreword to the translation, compiled by Mullā Mahmūd Bāyazīdī, contains the name of the eminent Russian Orientalist A.Jaba as an initiator of the translation. In his foreword, Mullā Mahmūd Bāyazīdī briefly informs the reader: “This book by Sharaf-khān is a rarity; there are only two to three scripts in the whole of Kurdistan. I have translated it from Persian into Kurmanji on the request of Mr. Jaba”. After that he says that he translated the book in 1275/1858—59.
Who are these two men — A. Jaba and Mullâ Mahmûd Bâyazîdï — whose names are linked inseparably in the history of the Kurdish studies?.[1]