Arab Shamilov (1897-1978), was a Kurdish

Kurdish people

The Kurdish people, or Kurds , are an Iranian people native to the Middle East, mostly inhabiting a region known as Kurdistan, which includes adjacent parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey...

 novelist. He was born in the city of Kars

Kars

Kars is a city in northeast Turkey and the capital of Kars Province. The population of the city is 73,826 as of 2010.-Etymology:As Chorzene, the town appears in Roman historiography as part of ancient Armenia...

 in a Yazidi

Yazidi

The Yazidi are members of a Kurdish religion with ancient Indo-Iranian roots. They are primarily a Kurdish-speaking people living in the Mosul region of northern Iraq, with additional communities in Transcaucasia, Armenia, Turkey, and Syria in decline since the 1990s – their members emigrating to...

 family in present-day north-eastern Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

. During the World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, from 1914 to 1917, he served as an interpreter for the Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n army. Later on, he became a member of the central committee of the Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

's communist party. In 1931, he began working on the Kurdish

Kurdish language

Kurdish is a dialect continuum spoken by the Kurds in western Asia. It is part of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian group of Indo-European languages....

 literature at the Oriental Institute of Leningrad

Saint Petersburg

Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...

. He assisted in developing a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 alphabet for the Kurdish language and became a member of the editorial board of the Kurdish newspaper Riya Teze(The New Path), published in Yerevan

Yerevan

Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...

 from 1930 to 1937. In Lenningrad, he also met Qenatê Kurdo

Qanate Kurdo

Qanate Kurdo or Kanat Kalashevich Kurdoev, , was a Kurdish writer, linguist and academic. He was born in the village of Sûsiz near Kars in north-eastern Turkey. He attended a Kurdish school in Tbilisi. Many other Kurdish writers Qanate Kurdo or Kanat Kalashevich Kurdoev, (Russian: Курдоев, Канат...

 and published his work as a document about Kurdish language in Armenia. His first and most celebrated novel, Kurdish Shepherd (Şivanê Kurd), was published in 1935 (in Russian only after serious censorial edits). In 1937, he was exiled by Joseph Stalin

Joseph Stalin

Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...

 and was allowed to return to Armenia only after 19 years in 1956 following Stalin's death. In 1959, he published his first Kurdish novel titled Jiyana Bextewer. In 1966, he published a historical novel called "Dimdim" inspired by the old Kurdish folk tale of Kela Dimdimê (Dimdim Castle) which has been translated into Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 as well. Two operas have been written in Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 based on his novels, Il pastore curdo and Il castello di Dimdim.
In 1967, he published a collection of Kurdish folk stories in Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

.

Books

1. Şivanê Kurmanca
2. Barbang (1958) (Haypetrat, Yerevan)
3. Jiyana Bextewar (1959) (New edition, Roja Nû Publishers, 1990, 253 p.)
4. Dimdim (1966) (New edition, Roja Nû Publishers, 1983, 205 p.)
5. Hopo (1969) (New edition, Roja Nû Publishers, 1990, 208 p.)