Purpose and Scope
2. International Zap Basin Symposium
"Cultural Heritage and Oral Tradition"
Purpose and Scope
Zap Basin, one of the oldest settlements of humanity, has been home to many important cultures and civilizations such as Assyrian, Urartu, Med, Persian, Roman, Seljuk and Ottoman throughout history. The basin, which hosts Christianity/Nestorianism institutionalized in these lands, Islam that embraced the region with the period of Hz. Omar (634-644), on the other hand, Zoroastrianism and Judaism, has emerged as one of the important centers of peace, brotherhood and tolerance until recently. The region, which made significant improvements in the field of culture and civilization during the period of Umayyad, Abbasi, Seljuk, Zengi, Eyyubi and Ottoman Empires, carried out the construction of its cultural identity during the period of Hakkari, Bahdinan, Mahmudi, Soran and Şemdinan Principalities, which have been active in this basin since the XII century. Close proximity to important Islamic cultural and civilization centers, support of local authorities in the region for the establishment and development of educational and cultural institutions such as mosques, madrasahs, islamic monastery, dervish lodge, zawiya, ribat, hankah, etc.; has played an active role in recording important developments in the field of science, islamicphilosophy and literature in the region. These institutions have led to the training of a significant number of ulema, udeba, fuzela and mystic who have influenced both the basin and the Islamic world. The region has also been an important center for development in the fields of culture, art and literature in terms of Zoroastrianism, Judaism and especially Christianity/Nestorianism.
With the "International Zap Basin Symposium" held in April 2018, the cultural and civilizational institutions created in the basin throughout history, the important figures who have grown up in these institutions, their works and the heritage they left us and their contributions and influences to our tradition and thought world became open to discussion. The second symposium that will be held on 21-23 October 2022; from folklore to traditional handicrafts, faith culture to mythology, urban formation and architecture to culinary and nutritional culture, cultural memory to dengbej, literature to art, etc., "Cultural Heritage and Oral Tradition" elements will be discussed and cultural traces of human history that have lived in the basin from history to the present day will be tried to be traced.
