Nisane Ergün’s “Autobiography” (Audio)

This audiofile contains an “autobiography” of Nisane Ergün, a peasant from Ṭur Abdin. She was born in 1933 in Beqŭsyone (Turk. Alagöz). She is a native and fluent speaker of Ṭuroyo, a contemporary form of Eastern Aramaic. Although never formally educated, she is a gifted story‑teller. Her entire life, she has been engaged in subsistence farming and animal husbandry, in much the same manner as her Kurdish neighbours and other rural populations throughout northern Mesopotamia. Her life story, here related in her own words, is thus an exercise in narrating history ‘from below’. She is an eyewitness to various dramatic periods in the recent history of Ṭur Abdin.

Published here by Prof. Sergey Loesov, IOCS HSE.

Sergey Loesov

Professor, Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies