In memoriam Kamal Mazhar Ahmad (1937-2021), doyen of Kurdish historians.
Magazine: Kurdish Studies, 9(2), 233-241, 2021.
Martin van Bruinessen.
The Iraqi Kurdish historian Kamal Mazhar Ahmad (1937-2021) was probably the best-known and most productive historian of the Kurds. He belonged to the first generation of Iraqis to pursue postgraduate studies in the Soviet Union after 1958, and when he was allowed to return to Iraq in 1970, he played a crucial role in the institutionalization of academic institutions and disciplines there and acted as an intermediary between Iraqi Kurdish and Soviet academic circles. As a lecturer and later professor at Baghdad University, he trained thousands of (Arab and Kurdish) students. [1]