Křikavová, Adéla

 

Křikavová, Adéla (b. Prague, 9 August, 1938; d. Prague, 3 August, 2002; FIGURE 1) Czech scholar of Iranian and particularly Kurdish studies. Having studied Near Eastern history and languages (Georgian, Persian and Arabic), and after graduating from Charles University in Prague, she began working from 1962 as a research fellow in the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where she was mainly occupied with Iranian and Islamic studies and made particularly valuable contributions to Kurdish studies. She delved deep into the archives for her study on Professor Josef Wunsch’s journey to Mesopotamia and studied Persian manuscripts from three private Ottoman libraries. She also presented scientific essays on ecology in the Islamic world and wrote on nature and its influence on Islam. Overall, she aimed at depicting the many-faceted aspects of the Islamic world in order to counterbalance the distortions and prejudices inherent in the more monolithic and excessively schematic approaches that can produce a warped and prejudiced view of the culture. Her numerous papers and articles (including the unpublished ones) discuss Kurdish literature, shapes of Islamic gardens, man and nature in the Islamic world, geometry and mass in Islamic art. Regrettably she passed away at precisely the time when she was in the midst of her most promising and mature research.

 

Bibliography:

Published works by Adéla Křikavová: “A Contribution to the Question of the Formation of the Kurdish Nation,” Archiv orientálni (henceforth ArOr) 47, Prague 1979, pp. 145-60.

“Kurdische Bibliographien,” ArOr 41, 1973, pp. 71-73.

With Ludĕk Hřebíček, “The Educational Reform in Iran,” ArOr 49, 1981, pp. 221-39.

“Professor Josef Wunsch, his Journey and Exploration of the Tigris Sources 1881-1883,” ArOr 50, 1982, pp. 122-36.

With V. Černy, “Národní problematika v zemích západní Asie. Kurdové, Čerkesové,” (National Problems in the Near East. Kurds, Circassians), Orientální ústav, Prague, 1984, pp. 1-56.

“Der Bericht über persische Handschriften aus der Hinterlassenschaft von Ahmad Vefik Pasa und aus zwei weiteren türkischen Bibliotheken,” Rapports, Corraports, communications tchécoslovaques pour le Ve congrès de l’Assiocation internatonale d’études du Sud-est Européen, Prague, 1984, pp. 221-32.

Podoby islámských zahrad .Drobná architektura a vcýtvarní dílo v sadovnické tvorbĕ (Shapes of Islamic Gardens. Minor Architecture and Art in the Design of Orchards). České Budĕjovice ,1989, pp. 26-37.

Šíitsky islám a politický vyvoj v I´ránu, Islám a šíitské duchovenstvo v I´ránu. Zápas o novodobý stát (Shiʿite Islam and Iran’s Political Development. Islam and the Shiʿite Clergy in Iran. Struggle for a Modern State). Academia, Prague, 1989, pp. 101-112, 137-42.

The Golden-Handed Khan (The Kurdish uprising against Shah ʿAbbās the Great, 1608-1610). Ex pede pontis, Prague, 1992, pp. 121-130.

With L. Hr¡ebíček, “Wind an Invisible Element Between the Heaven and Man,” in A. Křikavová and L. Hr¡ebíček, eds., Ex Orient. Collected Papers in Honour of Jiří Bečka, Prague, 1995, pp. 75-79.

“Perská poselstva u dvora císaře Rudolfa II,” Nový Orient 52, Prague, 1997, pp. 182-85.

Poselstvo císaře Rudolfa II. ke dvoru perského šáha Abbáse I. (The Deputation Sent by Emperor Rudolph II to the Court of the Persian Shah ʿAbbās the Great). Nový Orient 52, 1997, pp. 223-25.

 

13 November 2003

(Jiri Bečka)

Originally Published: July 20, 2003

Last Updated: July 20, 2003