Sharafxan describes his father's wedding to the monarch of Sason's daughter, providing a glimpse into five-century-old Kurdish wedding customs. And, indeed, the wedding feast lasted for one week. The text is interesting because it depicts collective cohesion among the Kurdish dynasties. Weddings were a crucial occasion for royal households to demonstrate who their dynastic friends were. The paragraph also contains an implicit custom: dancing. Dancing has a long tradition in Kurdish culture, particularly among the warrior class. The symbolism is practically gone in its current forms, but it may still be observed in the modern mutation if one observes the movements and considers what they signify.
Sharafxan (16th-century):
This joyful gathering was so well-adorned that the celestial sphere, trad-ing places with the world, opened its thousands of astonished eyes to contemplate it, thus offering on a plate, as tokens of congratulation and silver coins for the guests, the diamond-like stars it had fostered for years in its pocket and garment. As the banquet assembly, gathered in the tent pavilion, was dressed with the beauty and elegance of all sorts of bliss and delights, the most illustrious princes of Kurdistan, such as Sayyid Muhammad Hakkārī, Šāh 'Alī Beg Bohti, Malik Halil Ayyūbī and Hasan Beg Pālūhī, partook in the pleasures and cheerfulness of this flamboyant feast. During these days, the young princes of Kurdistan were constantly occupied with games of polo and archery; they offered, as gifts, plates of gold coins and polished gold to the newly-weds. After carrying out the duties associated with the etiquette of feasts and banquets, he [Šaraf Hän] gave worthy presents and splendid robes of honour to the great and noble ruling princes and granted them leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment