In the first quarter of the 20th century, Kurdish society in general and Sulaymaniyah in particular had a kind of encounter with the modern world only through the imagination of poets and the utopia they created in their minds. Sheikh Nuri (Mohammed Nuri) son of Sheikh Salih, son of Sheikh Ghani, son of Sayyid Abdul Qadir, son of Sayyid Hassan, son of Sayyid Ali, son of Sayyid Mohammed, son of Sayyid Mustafa, son of Sayyid Isaaq, son of Baba Rasul the Great. He was born in 1896 in Sulaymaniyah in Dargazen neighbourhood. As a child, he studied grammar, spelling and prose with Khawaja Effendi, Mullah Saeed Zalzalayi and Sheikh Baba Ali Sheikh Abdullah. He then completed primary school, went to the military school in Sulaymaniyah and later left.
When his father retired from business in 1914, Sheikh Nouri and his brother Sheikh Brahim continued to do his work, transporting goods from East Kurdistan to Baghdad and Basra.
He knew how to speak and write Turkish, Arabic and Persian. He had a pure, moral, honest and Kurdish personality and had a great talent in poetry, political speeches, translation, opera writing and literary research.
He was imprisoned for three months during the first direct round of the British in Sulaymaniyah. Major Soane was very impressed and even said, I wish I was a cage and Nour was a bird, I wish I could live with him, or I could know how it happened in his mind.
In 1923, he was arrested again by the British for being the editor-in-chief of Roji Kurdistan. In 1926, he was imprisoned again for his writings and defending Kurdistan.
On 15 January 1921 he was appointed as the second clerk of the municipality of Sulaymaniyah. On 01-09-1921 he became the first clerk.
He died on 20-12-1958.[1]