Mirza Mehmet Yücel, president of "Ehmedê Xanî Cultural Association", spoke to ILKHA about the life and works of the Kurdish literary critic, astronomer, poet, historian, and Islamic scholar Ahmad-i Khani, who lived in the 17^th century.

Expressing that the political, literary or other characteristics of personalities of some scholars emerge after centuries, Yucel said that one of these important personalities was Ahmad-i Khani.

Yucel, who said that Ahmad-i Khani was born in 1650 as a general opinion and left important works for humanity in his 59 years of life. "After Ahmad-i Khani was born in Doğubeyazıt [an eastern district of Turkiye, near Iran border], he grew up in the palace with his father and receive the education."

Yucel narrated that Ahmad-i Khani first takes lessons from his older brother Mullah Kasım, and then after completing lessons with Mullah Kasım, he goes after science. "After receiving his first education from his older brother, he goes to the centers of sciences."

"First, he goes to the Ahlat, Bitlis and Botan madrasahs. There he meets with Feqi Tayran and Mihemedê Ciziri. Then he goes to Damascus and Aleppo."

He meets with [the works of] Hippocrates, Plato (Eflatun) and Aristotle. He meets Farabi, Suhrawardi, Ibn Arabi in Baghdad. He meets Kermanshah, Ali Hariri, Firdowsi and Omar Khayyam in Iran. In this way, he continues to collect knowledge.

"His works were taught as lessons in madrasahs"

Speaking about the works of Ahmad-i Khani and the purpose of his works, Yucel said: "Ahmad-i Khani emphasizes that the fundamental key to the liberation of all mankind is embracing the science. He thinks 33 years before he writing his works. He writes his first work 'Nûbâra / Nevbahara Pıçukan' in 1683."

"Ahmadi Khani knows Persian, the language of literature, as his native language. He also speaks Arabic, the language of Qur'an, like his native language."

"'People in this region were far from science, so the only way these people can get rid of this misery is embracing the science,' he says. How will they embrace science? They will learn the language of science. The language of science was Arabic at that time. So he acts in accordance with this logic."

Talking about the first work of Ahmad-i Khani, the 'Nûbâra / Nevbahara Pıçukan', Yucel said it was an Arabic-Kurdish dictionary. "He says that the people of this society are Muslims that they read the Qur'an, but that they do not know what the Qur'an says. So people first need to know their religion, he says"

"He finishes his first work in 1968," said Yucel and continued: "He wrote the work so perfectly that even the next generation see the same perfection. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and even the first 50 years of the Republic, this work was being read as a textbook in the madrasahs."

After 4 years of his first work, Yucel says that Ahmad-i Khani writes his second work called "Eqida Imané" [Pillars of Faith]. "He then writes poems on various topics and he has a 'divan' [collected poems].

"Someone wanted the works of Ahmad-i Khani to stay on dusty shelves"

Stating that Ahmed-i Khani is a great scholar among Muslims, Yücel said: "They did not know Ahmed-i Khani, or did not want to know him. Someone wanted his works, which he did for the interest of humanity, to remain on dusty shelves."

"If we had known Ahmed-i Khani, if we had known the philosophy of in this geography, we would have been far more advanced than Europe today." (ILKHA)