94th Anniversary of the Publication of “Hawar” Magazine in Kurdish Using the Latin Alphabet

ARK News.. Today, Friday, May 15, 2026, marks the 94th anniversary of the publication of Hawar magazine in the Kurdish language using the Latin alphabet by Prince Jaladat Badirkhan in 1932.

Prince Jaladat Ali Badirkhan, born in 1893, was the grandson of the Badirkhan family, rulers of the Emirate of Botan — a principality that established a semi-state entity in Kurdish history. Members of the Badirkhan family consistently faced imprisonment and exile due to their continuous struggle and demands for Kurdish rights.

One of his earliest notable activities was his tour in 1919 alongside the British orientalist Major Noel among Kurdish tribes to collect their oral heritage. Major Noel transcribed what he heard using Latin letters, while Jaladat wrote it in Arabic script. The Latin characters drew his attention and inspired him to adopt them in writing Kurdish.

In 1922, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk issued a decree ordering the exile and killing of Kurdish nationalists. Prince Jaladat was among those listed, forcing him and his brother to flee Turkey and continue their higher education abroad. They settled in Germany, where Jaladat enrolled at Leipzig University’s Faculty of Law and graduated in 1925. During his stay in Germany, he devoted himself to developing a Kurdish alphabet based on Latin letters.

After graduating, he traveled to Egypt before moving to Lebanon and later Damascus. He subsequently toured the Jazira region in Syrian Kurdistan. Upon hearing of the Agrı uprising, he secretly entered Turkey with his brother Kamiran. After the uprising failed, he fled alongside revolutionary leader Ihsan Nuri Pasha to Iran, then sought refuge in Iraq before returning to Damascus and settling there permanently. In Damascus, Jaladat finalized his alphabet, consisting of 31 letters, and published it in the first six issues of Hawar magazine.

In 1935, he married Princess Roshen Badirkhan, daughter of Prince Salih Badirkhan, with whom he had two children, Sinam and Jamshid.

Jaladat wrote nearly all the articles for his magazines and signed them under various pseudonyms, including: Harakal Azizan, Hawar, Ronahi, Sahib Hawar, Sahib Ronahi, Bavi Jamshid, “Farhangvan”, “Chirokvan”, and Stranvan.

As the creator of the Kurdish Latin alphabet, Jaladat Badirkhan is widely regarded as a pioneer of Kurdish journalism in exile. He launched Hawar on May 15, 1932, publishing 57 issues in total. He later supplemented it with an illustrated magazine titled Ronahi (“Light”), whose first issue was printed in April 1942 and continued until September 1944 before reappearing on March 15, 1945, and eventually ceasing publication permanently.

In addition to his native Kurdish, Jaladat mastered several languages, including Turkish, German, Arabic, Persian, French, Greek, English, and Russian.

On July 15, 1951, while supervising workers near a well, the wall of the well suddenly collapsed beneath him, resulting in his death. His funeral procession was attended by a large crowd led by dozens of wreaths, alongside ministers, former ministers, senior military officers, politicians, and notable figures from Damascus. He was buried beside his grandfather, “Badirkhan the Great,” at Sheikh Khalid al-Naqshbandi Cemetery in the Kurdish neighborhood of Rukn al-Din in Damascus.

Among his most notable works are:

Rules of the Kurdish Alphabet (Damascus, 1932)
Pages from the Alphabet (Damascus, 1932)
Introduction to the Prophet’s Mawlid
Yazidi Prayers
A Letter to Mustafa Kemal Pasha (printed in Turkish in Damascus)
The Kurdish Question in French (1934)
Kurdish Grammar in French (1943)
Kurdish Grammar in Kurdish and French (Paris edition, 1990; the French section was translated into Arabic in 1990)
Kurdish-Kurdish Dictionary, a manuscript donated by Roshen Badirkhan to the Kurdish Academy in Baghdad in 1971
The play Havind
Sinem Khan, a grammar book for children
Know Yourself in Kurdish
A collection of poetry.

89