Meryem Khan Life, Art and Songs

ILLUSTRATED

Kurdish culture is an oral culture, Kurds are good narrators, but without registration, it can be very difficult to access normal information. Born in 1904, even identifying the birthplace of one of Kurdistan's best voices requires almost as much effort and care as an archaeological excavation.
The life of Meryem Xan, one of the most original voices and interpreters of Kurdish music, is as mysterious as the stories in her songs. What we know about Meryem Khan, one of the most listened to and well-known female artists, is very limited. Journalist Hurşit Baran Mendeş followed the artist in Tur Abdin and Botan for a long time, saw the villages where he was born and where he got married and settled, chatted with his distant and close relatives and tried to clear the fog over his life.
Meryem Khan goes from Botan to Mosul on a raft on the Tigris. There she marries an Arab pilot, builds a happy life, and occasionally goes to visit her relatives. Her pilot husband later dies in a plane crash, so she goes to Baghdad, settles there and starts releasing records.
We hope that this book will encourage new studies on Meryem Khan and other artists.