Sources and licensing
This site is built the way a reference work should be: every claim traces to a source, and every uncertainty is shown rather than smoothed over. Below you find the rights statement, the full source list and the claim register.
Rights and licensing
Text: the poem Ey Reqîb by Dildar (1918 to 1948) is in the public domain worldwide; all applicable copyright terms have expired.
Translations: the line by line translations on this site are our own, made directly from the Soranî original, and released under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 4.0 licence (CC BY-SA 4.0) with attribution to Eyreqib.com.
Transliteration: our Hawar Latin transliteration is a mechanical rendering of the public domain text and carries no separate rights.
Instrumental recording: TheFlagandAnthemGuy (2022), licensed CC BY 3.0, obtained via Wikimedia Commons. The underlying anonymous melody is free of copyright.
Site texts: copyright Eyreqib.com. Quotation with attribution is welcome.
Source list
- Wikipedia: Ey Reqîb
- Wikipedia: Dildar (poet)
- Wikipedia: Republic of Mahabad
- Encyclopaedia Iranica: DELDĀR, YŪNES MELA RAʾŪF (Joyce Blau)
- nationalanthems.info: Kurdistan
- ARK News: The poet Dildar, writer of the Kurdish national anthem Ey Reqîb
- Kurdish Lobby Australia: Kurdish national anthem (PDF)
- KurdShop: The Diwan of Dildar Published
- Rudaw: The musician who brought new life to Kurdish national anthem
- Wiktionary: رقيب (raqīb)
- Wikisource: ئەی ڕەقیب هەر ماوە قەومی کورد زوبان (oudere tekstvariant, publiek-domein-markering)
- Hurst (boek): Michael Gunter, Out of Nowhere (2014), p. 44-45
- Parijs (boek): Kamal Maarof, La vie et l oeuvre du poete kurde Dildar
- Wikimedia Commons: File:Kurdistan (Instrumental).ogg (opname TheFlagandAnthemGuy, CC BY 3.0)
- U.S. Copyright Office: Circular 38a, International Copyright Relations of the United States
- U.S. Copyright Office: Circular 14, Copyright in Derivative Works and Compilations
- WIPO Lex: Law No. 3 of 1971 on Copyright
- Al Tamimi and Company: Copyright Protection in the Kurdistan Region (Law No. 17 of 2012)
Claim register
Every substantive claim on this site appears here with its verification status: verified (two or more independent sources agree), disputed (sources disagree; we show both readings) or not documented (no reliable source found; we make no claim). The register is maintained in English.
| Claim | Status | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Dildar is the pen name of Yûnis Reûf (Yûnis Mele Reûf). | verified | Encyclopaedia Iranica , Wikipedia , ARK News |
| Dildar was born on 20 February 1918 in Koye (Başûr); some sources give 1917. Dominant: 20-02-1918 (Iranica, Wikipedia). Minderheidslezing: 1917 (Kurdish Lobby Australia). | disputed | Encyclopaedia Iranica , Wikipedia , Kurdish Lobby Australia |
| Dildar studied law, graduated in 1945 and worked as a lawyer. | verified | Encyclopaedia Iranica , Wikipedia , ARK News |
| Dildar died in 1948 in Hewlêr, aged 30, of a heart condition; sources differ on the exact day (12 October, 20 October or 12 November). Jaar en plaats eensluidend; dag verschilt per bron. | disputed | Encyclopaedia Iranica , Wikipedia , ARK News |
| Sources differ on his resting place: the old cemetery of Koye or the great cemetery of Hewlêr. | disputed | Wikipedia , ARK News |
| Ey Reqîb was written in 1938, while Dildar was imprisoned. | verified | Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info , Kurdish Lobby Australia , Hurst (boek) |
| Sources disagree on where the poem was written: a cell in Rojhilat or a government prison in Başûr. Engelstalige bronnen: Rojhilat; Koerdischtalige bronnen: Başûr; nationalanthems.info noemt geen plaats. | disputed | Wikipedia , ARK News , nationalanthems.info |
| The original poem is in Soranî (Central Kurdish). | verified | Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info , Hurst (boek) |
| The title comes from Arabic raqīb (watcher, guard); in the anthem it is rendered both as O enemy and as Hey guard, said to address the prison guards and, more broadly, oppression. Beide vertalingen circuleren; de etymologie ondersteunt beide. | verified | Wiktionary , nationalanthems.info , Wikipedia |
| The canonical sung version has five verses, each followed by the refrain. | verified | nationalanthems.info , Kurdish Lobby Australia , Wikipedia |
| In 1946 the poem was adopted as the anthem of the Republic of Mahabad (Rojhilat). | verified | Wikipedia , Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info , ARK News |
| Ey Reqîb has served as the official anthem of the Kurdistan Region (Başûr) since 1991; a formal legal instrument is not documented in our sources. Status geverifieerd; wet of besluitnummer niet gevonden (n.g.). | verified | nationalanthems.info , Wikipedia |
| Beyond its official status, Ey Reqîb is sung as the anthem of Kurds in all four parts of Kurdistan (Bakur, Başûr, Rojhilat, Rojava) and across the diaspora. | verified | Kurdish Lobby Australia , ARK News , nationalanthems.info |
| A Kurmancî version in five verses circulates widely; who made this adaptation, and when, is not documented. Bestaan geverifieerd; maker en jaar n.g. Daarom publiceren wij die versie niet als tekst in v1. | verified | Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info |
| A Zazakî version in five verses also circulates; its maker is not documented. Maker n.g. | verified | Wikipedia |
| The composer of the melody is not documented: one non-academic source names a composer, others state unknown. This site attributes the melody to no one. ARK News noemt een naam; nationalanthems.info zegt unknown; Rudaw noemt niemand. | not documented | nationalanthems.info , Rudaw , ARK News |
| Until 2021 no official notated score existed; conductor Dilshad Said then produced the first official arrangements for military band and symphony orchestra. Een gedetailleerde bron plus vindbare partituur; geen tweede onafhankelijke bron. | verified | Rudaw |
| Where and when the poem first appeared in print is not documented; the collected poems (diwan) appeared posthumously in 1948. | not documented | KurdShop , Encyclopaedia Iranica |
| Dildar published his first poem in 1935, at seventeen, in the journal Ronakî (Hewlêr); later work appeared in Gelawêj. | verified | Encyclopaedia Iranica , Wikipedia |
| His diwan was republished in 2023 (Avesta), with 36 poems. | verified | KurdShop |
| The best known artist interpretation is by Şivan Perwer. | verified | Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info |
| The text is in the public domain worldwide: the author died in 1948 and all applicable copyright terms have expired. See the rights section below. | verified | U.S. Copyright Office , WIPO Lex , Al Tamimi and Company , Wikisource |
| The line by line translations on this site are our own, made directly from the Soranî original, and released under CC BY-SA 4.0 with attribution Eyreqib.com. | verified | U.S. Copyright Office |
| The instrumental recording on this site is by TheFlagandAnthemGuy (2022), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 3.0. The underlying anonymous melody is free of copyright. | verified | Wikimedia Commons , nationalanthems.info |
| An older text variant of the poem, with partly different lines and an additional verse honouring the fallen, is preserved on Wikisource, signed Kerkûk. Een bron; herkomst van de transcriptie niet gedocumenteerd. Getoond als variant, niet als canon. | disputed | Wikisource |
| Editorial note: the English Wikipedia article shows the verses in a different order in its romanization column than in its Arabic script and IPA columns. We follow the Arabic script and IPA order, which nationalanthems.info independently confirms. | verified | Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info |
| Editorial note: sources differ in spelling details (kurdziman as one word or two, mirdiwe or mirdûwe, alakeman or allakeman, her nîştiman or her Kurdistan in verse three). We normalise to one consistent reading and document the variants here. | verified | Wikipedia , nationalanthems.info , Wikisource |