Dilzar, whose real name is Ahmad Mustafa Muhammad Agha Hawezi, was born in Koya district on January 8, 1920 to a poor family.

On January 8, he celebrated his 101th birthday with a ceremony in #Erbil#.

Dilzar admired the Persian poems and epics his father translated and read to him, including Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh.

His father sent him to a mosque at age seven to learn to read and write, before starting primary school two years later. He continued his education, before leaving school in 1943 to and enlisting in the Iraqi Army.

He began writing poetry in 1940, with much of his work later published as a printed diwan or collection.

His poems largely deal with the themes of love, emotion, and patriotism.

In recognition of his work, he was elected as a member of the Iraqi Academics Union in 1959 and the Kurdish Authors Union in 1970.

Also involved in politics in later life, he was the representative of the National Progressive Front in Erbil between 1974 and 1979 and a member of the first term of the Kurdistan Region’s Legislative Council.[1]