Sages of Darkness

Introduction

Salim Barakat’s narrative in five parts, a saga of two branches of a particular fictionalized extended family, presents the externalities of Kurdish life in Qamishli Syria in late Ottoman times—as influenced by overall historical developments. Barakat, a contemporary author, is still producing literature, and still in an updated style. His aim has always been to bring continuity from ancient and medieval Kurdish compositions to relevance in our modern literature. Narrative literature in the Middle East, for example, Kurdish, Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi literature, all mix prose and poetry,¹ that is to say the literary genre “adab” is a mixture of prose and poetry.² There are for example extant examples as written down in the ‘Abbāsid period.³

In any case, Barakat’s narrative Sages of Darkness is clearly a continuation of his writing poems in the genres of Kurdish Shahnama: the Epic and the Ballade. Accordingly, he embellishes Sages of Darkness with actual poems. On the subject of Kurdish Shahnama, let us turn to the Hebrew Bible, which offers information on the ancient Kurdish kings.

In the biblical Book of Daniel, Chapter Seven we find a description of the Creation, which logically speaking hearkens back to the times of the Mazdaism rituals and beliefs then held in Solomon’s First Temple and beyond.⁴ The verses below are as translated by the present writer:⁵

And four huge animals were tossed out of the sea, diverse this from that [3]‌

The first was like a lion, with wings of an eagle.

The vision remained until the wings were [abruptly] plucked from its body

And it was washed up onto dryland and made to stand on two feet as a human

And a human heart was given it [4]‌

The human heart mentioned in the above line is a dual noun in the Hebrew (לבב) in keeping with firmly delineated concepts of Evil and Good as in Zoroastrianism. The depiction of the world emanating from the deep goes on to tell of another three animals all of which is followed by a description of the Ancient of Days in the transcendental world—the description of the Ancient of Days appearing in juxtaposition to the description of the Creation:

I was looking at the horns, when behold another small horn came up between them.

And three of the front horns were plucked from their former [roots]

And behold in that horn were eyes like human eyes and a mouth murmuring incessantly [8]‌

I watched until thrones arose, and the Ancient of Days was seated

His clothing, white like snow. The hair on his head, like clean wool.

His throne was the flames of a fire, its wheels the lit fire [9]‌

A stream of flames opposite and issuing from in front of him.

Thousands upon thousands administered to Him,

Ten thousand times tens of thousands stood ready before Him

To reverse the judgment and the Books were open [10]

In the above lines, it is clear that the Ancient of Days is the primordial King, the prototype for the earthly King. Pertinent to the discussion on hand is that the heavenly King appears in this guise together with the first created human being. Thus it becomes logical for the first unspoken poem that would eventually be spoken and written, to be Kurdish Shahnama; as far as is known, this record of the Succession of Kings would be referred to as the “Sumerian King List.”⁶ This is of course in view of Soren Hamarash’s conclusion that the ancient Sumerians were ancient Kurds who spoke Old Kurdish or what might be called “proto-Kurdish.”⁷ Hamarash here resorts to the terminology linguists use to describe Semitic languages, which Kurdish is not. Pertinent to the discussion on hand is that it is logical for a Sumerian King List, the oldest “book” so-to-speak in Middle Eastern tradition to be about a succession of kings. This logicality seems certain when we see from the Book of Daniel that the heavenly King appeared simultaneously with the account of the Creation as passed on to us by “Daniel.” Shahnama, “Shah” meaning “kings,” is now understood to be Epic or the Ballade, both of which are either performed sung-poetry or published written sung-poetry.

A modern readership might well ask why poetry came on the scene first—before the concept of prose as a genre. So many people think of poetry as being difficult, an obstruction to getting the facts right, and in any case hard for them to understand. Throughout Sages of Darkness, the author unobtrusively lapses into prose that can be rearranged in lines indicating the presence of poetry. This manner of expression brings his reader close to the very source of his thought, the “poem-of-his-being.”⁸ It becomes natural to comprehend new concepts. As Maurice Blanchot theorizes, ideas as thought prior to actualization in “speech” are reiterated in the poet-writer’s “poem-of-his-being.” The messages that will be found in Sages of Darkness will ring out clearly in Barakat’s poems and subsequent narratives, the author’s subsequent Kurdish and accordingly Middle Eastern equivalent of the “novel.” Barakat’s aware philosophical approach to poetry will inevitably effortlessly open out meaning upon meaning to whosoever reads his writings.

What with Sages of Darkness being a modern production, the author is uninhibited in providing graphic descriptions of the internalities of existence. Commenting on this narrative as a whole, I shall try to point to both the storyline and the devices used that maintain a well-conceived continuity throughout. It is also worth noting that novel writing in 1985 was in its infancy in Arabic and Kurdish literature, and Sages of Darkness, which laid bare the poem-of-the-writer’s being, also laid bare the basis for Barakat’s subsequent narratives, and presented as an experimental “novel.”