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Document Details : Title: What Can the Songs of the Assyrian Mountaineers Tell Us about Their Composers? Author(s): LAMASSU, Nineb Journal: ARAM Periodical Volume: 24 Date: 2012 Pages: 57-71 DOI: 10.2143/ARAM.24.0.3009252 Abstract : Isolated in the rigorous mountains of Hakkari, the mountaineer Assyrians enjoyed a sort of semi-independence. Unlike their kith and kin in the regions of Barwar, the Nineveh plains, Urmiya and Tur-Abdin; these mountaineer Assyrians maintained and composed songs in their vernacular in various genres such as: Rawe, Diwani, Lilyana, Shiddule, Khizda, Kusha, and heroic epic poetry. The importance of these songs can not be emphasized enough when taking into consideration that these genres sang by these mountaineers are the only form of music and poetry that has survived outside the church and monastery walls. The study of these much neglected songs and music has increased in the recent years but most scholars restrict their research on the their linguistic aspects, thus ignoring what these genres can tell us about the life and culture of the very people that composed them. This paper will use the genre of heroic poetry and songs as a case study, by putting them in their social context it will attempt to portray a picture of the culture and life of the mountain Assyrians of Hakkari, with a brief analyses of the language employed by their composers. |
