The romance of Cembelî and Binevşa Narîn belongs to Kurdish oral literature and has also entered novels and theatre. Recorded performances show why its characters, opening scenes and endings need to be understood through particular versions.

An illustrated manuscript spread with a court, musicians and servants on the left and hunters among coloured mountain rocks, birds and animals on the right
Court and hunting imagery from a Sharafnama manuscript, Bodleian Libraries, MS. Elliott 332, folios 32b–33a. The public-domain image is catalogued on Wikimedia Commons as a Hakkari scene. It provides historical context for a princely world; it is not an illustration identifying Cembelî or Binevşa Narîn. Bodleian Libraries · MS. Elliott 332 · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain.

A romance across a broad geography

Cembelî is associated with the princely world of Hakkari, while Binevşa Narîn is the woman at the centre of the love story. Yakup Aykaç and M. Ş. Filiz’s 2022 motif study places its geography between Karacadağ and Hakkari and draws attention to tribal relations, highland life and the households of princes. Love therefore unfolds within a social landscape: families, rank and seasonal movement shape the possibilities open to the characters. The study treats the work as a Kurdish epic with multiple recurring motifs, rather than a verified biography of a named ruler. [1]

Two performers and an unexpected beginning

Lokman Turgut’s 2002 study transcribes performances identified as those of Bedranê Mala Sivûk and Reşîdê Omerî, with Kurdish texts and French translations. The first identification is qualified: Turgut adopted Bedran’s name from an informant. The recordings come from the Mardin region’s Tor and Omeriyan traditions. In both, Ehmedê Mitirb’s search begins after a dispute over butter for guests: he promises to find the prince a more generous wife. The search lasts six months in one performance and six years in the other. The everyday question of hospitality thus sets the romance in motion. [2]

Why there is no single compulsory ending

Turgut’s Reşîd recording stops before the story is finished. A related published version by Şerefxan Cizîrî continues to a successful escape with Binevş. A compulsory tragic ending would misrepresent this evidence. Recordings and printed versions should be identified separately when discussing the romance. [2]

From oral story to a modern novel

Îhsan Colemêrgî adapted Cembelî into a novel, Cembelî Kurê Mîrê Hekaryan. İlyas Suvağci’s scholarly bibliography records the first Apec edition in 1995 and an Avesta edition in 2001. In his 2019 recollection of knowing Colemêrgî, writer M. Xalid Sadînî describes the novel’s combination of the love story with songs, laments, sayings and anecdotes associated with Hakkari speech. These details explain how a writer can reshape an inherited romance within a modern book. The publication dates belong to that literary history; they do not date the events of the oral tale. [3] [4]

An announced stage adaptation in Hakkari

An İhlas News Agency report published on 27 May 2016 announced Cembeli û Binevş for 5 June at Hakkari’s Atatürk Cultural Centre. It named Süleyman Seven as writer and Senar Abi as director, with the Hakkari Young Volunteers Association’s theatre group preparing the production. The announcement is a concrete record of adaptation, including people, venue and planned date. Its description of a sixteenth-century setting belongs to the production’s presentation and should not become an independently established life date for the legendary lovers. Through recordings, print and theatre, the romance remains a work people interpret and retell. [5]

Sources and further reading

  1. Yakup Aykaç and M. Ş. Filiz, “Analîza Motîfên Destana Cembelî û Binevşa Narîn li gor Kataloga Stith’s Thompson,” Second International Zap Basin Symposium (2022), pp. 545–562; authors’ university abstract.
  2. Lokman Turgut, Cembelî fils du prince de Hekkarî et la tradition des Mitirbs (2002), pp. 9–18 and paired transcriptions/translations; primary performance study.
  3. İlyas Suvağci, “Romaneka Dîrokî Ya Dîroknasekî: Zeynel Bega Îhsan Colemêrgî,” Mukaddime 14(1) (2023), pp. 73–88: author biography and bibliography of Cembelî editions.
  4. M. Xalid Sadînî, “Hakkari’nin bilge tarihçi ve yazarı; İhsan Colemêrgî,” Independent Türkçe (2019): personal recollection and discussion of the novel.
  5. İhlas News Agency, theatre announcement (27 May 2016), republished by Son Dakika: writer, director, venue and scheduled performance.
  6. Bodleian Libraries, MS. Elliott 332, illustrated Sharafnama spread, folios 32b–33a; Wikimedia Commons public-domain reproduction.