Thursday
January 11, 2001
In the path of foreign armies
I enjoyed reading your article on Hawraman (Owraman) ["People
of Oraman"]. It seems that you have partially traveled along the
Sirwan River, because you have mentioned the village of Hadjeedj (your
spelling Hajij), the shrine there [Kuce-e Hadjeedj], and the spring gushing
out from the dry stones and pouring into the river. The spring was once
called Wollow Bllie.
This route that you have taken was once traveled by the 13,000-strong
Greek forces who went to Iran to help Bardia (the brother of Kambudjia
who attacked Egypt) to become a Persian King. History says that Bardia
was defeated and the Greeks took the Sirwan route to return to Armenia
and then Greece. They lost 3,000 of their men along the Sirwan River. How?
According to late Dr. Rasheed Yasamie, the Kurds used to vacate their
villages as soon as they knew the army was approaching. They would take
all their belongings including food that was not very much in those days
(and still is not much today either) with them and run to the mountain
tops. When the army was about to cross a point, the Kurds would role down
large pieces of stones towards them. As a result, the Greeks, lost 3,000
men along the Sirwan River.
I traveled that route on foot in 1332 (1953). It took me five days
to go from Hadjeedj to Sanandadj. I slept in three mosques, one teahouse,
and a khan' s house. When I arrived at Hadjeedj from Nodeshe (a village
at which I was a teacher and school principal), the villagers asked me
to be their imam to perform the evening prayer (Nemaz-e Maghrib). I did.
The villagers brought walnuts, mulberries, almonds, dried figs, etc., to
distribute among the participants of the prayer. The village did not have
a regular imam.
And let me write a line of poetry in Hawramie for you, and will translate
it for you as well (assuming that you don't know Hawramie). Unfortunately,
I have forgotten most of that beautiful language because I have not used
it. And here is the line that relates to the Arab army's attack on the
region presumably written after the attack (some 1,400 years ago):
Arab zur kaar kerdenah khaapour
Kataa'-e paala-ie hatta Sharazour.
Translation: The powerful Arabs destroyed the castle of Nehavand to
the Shahrzour [a region in Iraq]. This covers a large part of Kurdestan.
A question about the photos: The three ladies in the picture, two of
them seem busy
with sowing the klash (geev in Farsi), have faces that are not weathered
like the ladies of Hadjeedj, and their garments are not quite of the Hadjeedjee
tradition. Have I been away for long?
Thank you for writing about Hawraman. I taught at schools there (in
several villages) for almost five years. Has the living conditions changed
for the inhabitants since the Greeks traveled the area? The weathered and
sad faces of the people in your photo might say, "No".
Mohammad Bat-haee
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