According to Kurdish sources, in 1914 Huseyn Huznî Mukriyanî bought a printing machine in Germany and transported it to Aleppo in 1915, where he started using it. In 1925 he moved it to the town of Rewandiz in Southern Kurdistan. It was the first printing machine in Southern Kurdistan owned by a Kurd (34). Although some sources state that a book by Huseyn Huznî Mukriyanî (35) was published in Kurdish in Aleppo in 1916 and that magazines such as Kurdistan, Çiyayê Kurmanc, Botan, Diyarbekir (36) were published by his printing house, this information has not been confirmed (37). I have not found a Kurdish book printed in Syria during the Ottoman times.

According to Kurdish sources, in 1914 Huseyn Huznî Mukriyanî bought a printing machine in Germany and transported it to Aleppo in 1915, where he started using it. In 1925 he moved it to the town of Rewandiz in Southern Kurdistan. It was the first printing machine in Southern Kurdistan owned by a Kurd (34). Although some sources state that a book by Huseyn Huznî Mukriyanî (35) was published in Kurdish in Aleppo in 1916 and that magazines such as Kurdistan, Çiyayê Kurmanc, Botan, Diyarbekir (36) were published by his printing house, this information has not been confirmed (37). I have not found a Kurdish book printed in Syria during the Ottoman times.

During the period of the French mandate (1920–1946)

During the period of the French mandate, education in Kurdish language at the schools in Syria was not permitted but publications in Kurdish were not banned. The first Kurdish book published in Syria was written by Huseyn Huznî Mukriyanî (38) in the South Kurdish dialect (Mukri), in 1925. Books in the Kurmanci dialect started getting published only in the 1930s.

After the Turkish Republic was established, some Kurdish intellectuals and politicians left the country and settled in Syria. One of them was the aforementioned Celadet Bedirxan, who started publishing the Hawar magazine in the Latin alphabet in Damascus in 1932 prior to publishing books in Kurdish. Although the magazine stopped coming out in 1935, it began to be published in 1941 during the II World War and was published until 1943.

Another magazine, Ronahî, was published by Celadet Bedirxan in Damascus between 1942 and 1945, and his brother Kamiran published two newspapers in Beirut – Roja Nû (1943–1946) and Stêr (1943–1945).

The books of the famous poet Cîgerxwîn were published in Syria in the 1940s for the first time.

During the World War II radio Levant in Beirut, which was under French rule, broadcasted in Kurdish but in 1946 these emissions were stopped (39).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE PAST AND THE PRESENT OF
BOOK PUBLISHING IN
KURDISH LANGUAGE IN SYRIA

This research had been commissioned by the
Next Page Foundation
and conducted by M. Malmisanij, 2006

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