In the tea houses of Sulaymaniyah, a few faces look down from the walls: poets, singers, the heroes of the city's long story. One of them is Hama Jaza. For a generation of Kurds in Iraq, his voice was the sound of the resistance. He sang for the Peshmerga because he was one, and songs like Ho Kakî Pêşmerge ("Hey, Brother Peshmerga") and Sêdare ("The Gallows") became part of the memory of that struggle.
Yet Hama Jaza was more than a political singer. He was also a master of the Sulaymaniyah maqam and of lawanewe, the slow, unmetered lament of Sorani song, and he wrote love songs that people still sing at gatherings. This Hama Jaza biography follows his life from Sulaymaniyah to the mountains, into exile in Denmark and home again, then lists his best songs and explains how to listen to his maqam.
Hama Jaza: quick facts
- Name: Mihemed Jeza, known as Hama Jaza (حەمە جەزا)
- Born: 1949, Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq
- Died: 2010, Sulaymaniyah, aged 61, after an illness (Sorani Wikipedia gives 1 October)
- Buried: Saywan hill cemetery, Sulaymaniyah
- Genre: patriotic and revolutionary song, Kurdish maqam, lawanewe, love songs
- Accompaniment: violin, accordion, santur, joze, tar, daf and orchestra
- Peshmerga: in the Kurdish liberation movement from 1969
- Exile: Denmark; returned to Sulaymaniyah in 1991
- Known for: Sêdare, Ho Kakî Pêşmerge, Mero Mero, Hanê Gul
Early life in Sulaymaniyah
Hama Jaza was born in 1949 in Sulaymaniyah, the city that has long seen itself as the cultural capital of Sorani Kurdish. His talent for music showed early. He married young, at around nineteen, and later raised a large family.
Sulaymaniyah in the 1960s was a fine place to grow up as a singer. The city had a strong tradition of maqam singing and of poetry, and Kurdish radio carried the voices of the older masters. Hama Jaza absorbed both the classical maqam and the folk songs of the region, and he would draw on both for the rest of his life.
Career: songs for the resistance
In 1969 he joined the Kurdish liberation movement. For many years he lived as a Peshmerga in the mountains of Kurdistan, fighting against the Ba'athist government while writing and singing songs for his comrades.
He became famous in the 1970s for his patriotic songs. Written for the fighters and the people who sheltered them, they spoke plainly about sacrifice, loss and hope. Titles like Ho Kakî Pêşmerge, Metrêzî Şeref ("The Trench of Honour") and Şehîd ("Martyr") tell you their subject at once. His song Sêdare, also known as Jûrî Sêdare ("The Room of the Gallows"), became one of the defining songs of the era.
He also recorded with musicians and ensembles in the region. According to Rojnews, one of his early recordings, from 1971, was the song Bîbî Xanim, which still appears in collections of his work today.
Much of this music belonged to a wider wave of Kurdish revolutionary song in the 1970s and 1980s, which we discuss in music and revolutionary movements. Under the Ba'athist government, recording and distributing such songs was dangerous. The wider story of state pressure on Kurdish song is told in how Kurdish music was banned.
Exile in Denmark
Like many Kurdish fighters and artists, Hama Jaza eventually left Iraq with his family and became a refugee in Denmark. Exile did not end his career. He performed for Kurdish communities across Europe, in Canada and in the United States, where his patriotic songs had a special meaning for people who had fled the same war. He also recorded duets with the singer Naser Razazi, among them Berhellbêne and Zemane.
Return to Sulaymaniyah
After the Kurdish uprising of 1991, Hama Jaza returned home and settled again in Sulaymaniyah. He lived there for the last two decades of his life, a respected figure in the city's musical life.
He died in Sulaymaniyah in 2010, aged 61, after an illness. Sources describe the illness differently: Ed Emery of SOAS writes that it was cancer, while Rojnews speaks of heart failure, so we leave the cause open. He was buried the same day at the cemetery on Saywan hill. His funeral was one of the largest the city had seen, with thousands of people lining the streets.
Signature works
Hama Jaza's work falls into three main groups:
- Songs of the Peshmerga: Ho Kakî Pêşmerge, Metrêzî Şeref, Şehîd, Sêdare.
- **Maqam and *lawanewe***: long, free-rhythm pieces such as Gerdelûlî Spî and his maqam performance of Kurrî Babe Gurrgurr.
- Love and folk songs: Hanê Gul, Ey Perî, Mero Mero Babe Mero, Bîbî Xanim.
He also wrote poetry. The magazine Words Without Borders has published his poem "Sudden Sorrow" in English translation. According to Ed Emery, his song Le Dostim Dî uses verses by the poet Abdulla Pashew.
Hama Jaza's best songs
These are the titles people search for most, in Sorani and in English, with the Sorani script in brackets.
- Sêdare (سێدارە), also Jûrî Sêdare. "The Gallows", his most searched song.
- Hanê Gul (هانێ گوڵ). "Here, a Flower." One of his most loved love songs.
- Ey Perî (ئەی پەری). "O Perî", a song of heartbreak and separation.
- Mero Mero Babe Mero (مەڕۆ مەڕۆ بابە مەڕۆ). "Don't Go, Don't Go."
- Eşq û Azadî: Eger Çî Şew Dirrenge (عیشق و ئازادی: ئەگەرچی شەو درەنگە). "Love and Freedom: Although the Night Is Late."
- Ho Kakî Pêşmerge (هۆ کاکی پێشمەرگە). "Hey, Brother Peshmerga."
- Laye Laye (لایە لایە). A lullaby. For more on this tradition, see our guide to Kurdish lullabies, lawk and heyran.
- Yad (یاد). "Memory."
- Hewall (هەواڵ). "News."
- Gerdelûlî Spî (گەردەلوولی سپی). A maqam performance, for those searching "Hama Jaza maqam".
How to listen to his maqam and lawanewe
If you know Hama Jaza only from his marching Peshmerga songs, his maqam recordings can come as a surprise. They work very differently, and a little background helps.
- No fixed beat. A lawanewe or maqam performance usually has no regular rhythm in the voice. The singer stretches each line, holding some syllables for a long time and moving quickly through others. Do not wait for a beat; follow the breath.
- The instruments answer. In Iraqi Kurdish practice the ensemble often plays short phrases between the sung lines, repeating or echoing what the singer has just done. Listen for this call and answer between voice and instruments.
- The mode tells the mood. Each maqam has its own set of intervals and its own typical phrases, and singers move from one to another to change the emotional colour. You do not need to name them to feel the shifts.
- Words matter. The texts are often classical Kurdish poetry. Even if you do not follow every word, knowing the subject of the poem changes how you hear it.
- Then go back to the songs. After a maqam, listen again to Sêdare or Hanê Gul. You will hear the same ornaments and turns of phrase inside his shorter, metered songs.
Legacy
Hama Jaza's legacy is tied to Sulaymaniyah. According to Ed Emery, his portrait hangs in the city's famous old tea house, the Çayxaney Şe'b (People's Tea House), among the poets and singers the city honours. His songs are still sung at commemorations, and concerts are held on the anniversary of his death.
His place in Kurdish music is also larger than one city. He is one of the singers who gave the Kurdish resistance in Iraq its soundtrack, alongside poets whose words became songs. At the same time, he kept the Sulaymaniyah maqam and lawanewe tradition alive through decades when many singers moved towards lighter styles. For listeners who want to understand both sides of Sorani song, political and classical, he is essential.
The Kurdish connection
Here is where Hama Jaza sits in the wider Kurdish tradition:
- Sorani maqam. He belongs to the Sulaymaniyah line of maqam singers. To understand the modal system behind this music, read our guide what is a maqam?, or start with the page on maqam Bayati, one of the most common modes in the region.
- Instruments. His recordings use the classic Iraqi Kurdish ensemble: violin, santur, joze, tar and daf, with orchestral arrangements in some later songs. Our guide to Kurdish musical instruments introduces them.
- Singer and fighter. Like other Kurdish musicians of his generation, he joined the struggle directly.
- Exile and return. His path, from the mountains to Denmark and back to Sulaymaniyah in 1991, mirrors the story of thousands of Iraqi Kurds.
Where to start listening
- First song: Sêdare.
- For his gentle side: Hanê Gul, then Ey Perî.
- For the Peshmerga songs: Ho Kakî Pêşmerge and Metrêzî Şeref.
- For maqam: Gerdelûlî Spî.
- For a younger voice who also sings for the Peshmerga: Chopy Fatah, born in Kirkuk and raised in the diaspora; read her full biography.
Hama Jaza's songs carry the memory of a whole era of Kurdish history. Visit his artist page for a short profile, then explore the Sorani notation in our library and learn some of the songs of the tradition he kept alive.