Barakat's main protagonist is a Kurdish Sufi Mullah, a protector of his rural community in al-Qamishli, Jazira in Ottoman times. ResearchGate Salim Barakat's novel, Sages of Darkness - EBSCOhost

The Kurdish people, spread across Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, have a distinct cultural and social identity shaped by their history, language, and traditions. The concept of crime and punishment in Kurdish society is influenced by a combination of traditional and modern factors, including Islamic law, customary law, and state-based laws. The Kurdistan Region, in particular, has undergone significant changes in recent years, with the emergence of new institutions and laws aimed at maintaining law and order.

Several translations exist in Kurmanji, which is spoken in Turkey, Syria, and parts of Iran. These versions help integrate Dostoevsky's psychological realism into the Northern Kurdish literary canon.

The official state systems, imposed from Ankara, Tehran, Baghdad, and Damascus, have historically failed to replace Tore . For decades, the host nations pursued assimilationist policies, treating Kurdish customs as backward. Their penal codes—based on French, Swiss, or Islamic models—are designed for individual citizens, not collective tribes. In remote mountainous regions, the state’s courts are seen as distant, corrupt, and linguistically inaccessible (often operating only in Turkish, Persian, or Arabic). Consequently, many Kurds have engaged in legal dualism: using state courts for property disputes or traffic violations, while resorting to Tore for violent crimes or family honor. The state, in turn, has often co-opted tribal leaders as informal magistrates to maintain order, tacitly recognizing customary law as long as it does not openly challenge state sovereignty.

: Many Kurdish writers use the framework of guilt and punishment as an allegory for the treatment of Kurds in the Middle East. The "crime" is often portrayed as the mere existence of Kurdish identity, while the "punishment" is systemic marginalization.