Memê Alan
The oral epic behind Mem û Zîn: the national love story.
- Type
- Epic (destan)
- ✦
- Traditional (folk repertoire)
Memê Alan is the great oral epic of Mem and Zîn: the love story that the poet Ehmedê Xanî reworked in 1692 into Mem û Zîn, the national epic of Kurdish literature. In the dengbêj tradition the older oral versions lived on independently, sung in long narrative kilams that follow Mem from the city of Muxurzemîn to Cizîra Botan, into love, betrayal by Bekir, prison and death beside his Zîn. Scholars have recorded strikingly complete versions from master singers, making Memê Alan one of the best-documented monuments of Kurdish oral literature, and a cornerstone of what this archive exists to preserve.
Lyrics and translations for this song are being prepared. We publish texts only after editorial verification and a copyright check: traditional and public-domain works in full, modern protected works as context and meaning only.