The Crisis of Hujra Islam in Kurdistan and the Construction of Modern Discourse by Four Kurdish Poets

Ebrahimzadeh, Saman; Shariati Mazinani, Sara; Akhzarian Kashani, Mohammadreza

doi:10.22034/jss.2025.2016793.1812

The Crisis of Hujra Islam in Kurdistan and the Construction of Modern Discourse by Four Kurdish Poets

Document Type : scientific

Authors

Saman Ebrahimzadeh ¹

Sara Shariati Mazinani ²

Mohammadreza Akhzarian Kashani ³

¹ PhD in Cultural Sociology, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Science and Research Branch Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

² Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

³ Assistant Professor of Political Sciences, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/jss.2025.2016793.1812

Abstract

Hujras are humble rooms in the mosques of Kurdistan's pre-modern history, which were a place for study and living of the seminarians. These centers were the core institution of knowledge production in general, and religious knowledge in particular. In this article, we examine the decline of Hujras and their corresponding discourse, Hujra Islam, through studying the intellectual transformation of four prominent Kurdish poets, from the second half of of 19th century to the middle of 20th century. They themselves were educated in the Hujras, but at some point of time, abandoned their studies and started to develop a kind of modern literary discourse. Historical thinking and a type of critical social approach were two pillars of their poetical themes, which gradually came into conflict with the theological structure of Suffi Islam. we argue that this discourse transformation has taken place in parallel to a process of sociohistorical transformation which led to the gradual decline of pre-modern socio-religious authorities (Shaykhs and tribal chiefs) and the emergence of a new urban and modern elite. The study is based on two group of sources. First: biographies and literary works of the poets in order to grasp a good account of their life events as well as intellectual transformation. Secondly, historical sources for reconstructing a general image of the historical period of their life. Careful examination of these two sources enables one to place intellectual developments of the individual poets in their historical circumstances in order to build a bridge between intellectual and social – historical levels and achieve a good understanding of relationship between the two.

Keywords

Hujra

Islam of Hujra

Sufi Islam

Modern Discourse

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