Two Old Testament books – Psalms and Proverbs – have recently been published in the Kurmanji dialect of the Kurdish language. Kurds speaking this dialect live primarily in Armenia, Georgia, the Central Asian republics, and several regions of the Russian Federation. Literacy in this dialect of Kurdish was introduced in 1946 on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet with additional letters.

Work on translating the Bible into Kurmanji-Kurdish was begun by IBT in 1993. The translation of the New Testament was published in 2000 and was well-received by Kurdish Christians. A revised version of the New Testament (in both Cyrillic script and Roman script) was published in 2011.

Since these publications were in great demand, a translation of the Old Testament was started as well. The books of Ruth, Esther, and Jonah (2009) and the Pentateuch (2010) roused great interest among the Kurmanji-Kurds, even in the hearts of non-Christians. In these Old Testament books, Kurds find a history similar to what they know from their folklore. And in Ruth and Daniel they encounter heroes similar to those in ancient Kurdish legends and tales.

Psalms and Proverbs is the third, long-awaited, trial edition of Old Testament books in Cyrillic Kurmanji-Kurdish. Because Kurdish culture is basically an oral one, IBT has also recorded an audio version of the Psalms in Kurmanji-Kurdish, and more books of the Bible will be audio recorded in the near future.

PDF versions of these Kurdish translations may be found on the Electronic Books page of the IBT website.