Arab Shamilov

Arab Shamoevich Shamilov
Native name	Erebê Şemo
Born	23 October 1897 Kars Oblast, Russian Empire
Died	21 May 1978 Yerevan, Armenian SSR
Occupation	Writer, poet, journalist, interpreter
Nationality	Soviet
Ethnicity	Yazidi
Genre	Novel, story
Notable awards
Signature

Arab (or Arap) Shamilov (Kurdish: Erebê Şemo‎, also Ereb Shemo) (23 October 1897 – 1978) was a Kurdish novelist who lived in the Soviet Union. He was born in the city of Kars in present-day north-eastern Turkey (Turkish Kurdistan).

Early career

During the World War I, from 1914 to 1917, he served as an interpreter for the Russian army. Later on, he became a member of the central committee of the Armenian Communist Party. In 1931, he began working on Kurdish literature at the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies. He assisted in developing a Latin-based alphabet for the Kurdish language in 1927.

He became a member of the editorial board of the Kurdish newspaper Riya Teze (The New Path), published in Yerevan from 1930 to 1937. In Leningrad, he also met the Kurdish linguist Qenatê Kurdo and published his work as a document about Kurdish language in Armenia.

Literary output

His first and most celebrated novel, The Kurdish Shepherd (Şivanê Kurd), based on his own life, was published in 1935 (in Russian only after serious censorial edits) and later translated into Italian as Il pastore curdo. In 1937, he was exiled by Joseph Stalin and was only allowed to return to Armenia after 19 years, in 1956, following Stalin's death.

Arab Shamilov's plaque on Abovyan street of Yerevan

In 1959, he published his first Kurdish novel, Jiyana Bextewer. In 1966, he published a historical novel, Dimdim, inspired by the old Kurdish folk tale of Kela Dimdimê about Dimdim Castle. It has been translated into Italian as well (as Il castello di Dimdim). In 1967, he published a collection of Kurdish folk stories in Moscow.

Books

1. Şivanê Kurmanca, the first Kurdish novel
2. Barbang (1958) (published in Yerevan by Haypetrat, 1959)
3. Jiyana Bextewar (1959) (re-release: Roja Nû Publishers, 1990, 253 p.)
4. Dimdim (1966) (re-release: Roja Nû Publishers, 1983, 205 p.)
5. Hopo (1969) (re-release: Roja Nû Publishers, 1990, 208 p.)

See also

• List of Yazidi people
• Yazidis in Armenia

References

• Avesta Cultural Magazine (in Kurdish)
• Kurdish Literature
• Malpera Mehname
• A Glimpse on the Kurdish Literature in the former Soviet Union
• Il Castello di Dimdim, epopea kurda Autore: Shamilov, Ereb ; traduzione di Shorsh A. Surme, ISBN 88-86051-68-9, 1999
• Shamilov, Arab, "Dastanî Qelay Dimdim", Kurdish Academy of Baghdad, 1975.