The Qaftan family is one of the most prominent families in Sulaymaniyah. There are many political, cultural, social and scientific personalities in this family, each of whom has served the people and the country in his field.
Muhammed Aziz Qaftan is considered to be the leader of this noble family. He has done a lot of service in the field of printing. In 1957 he founded Kamaran Printing House in Sulaymaniyah (which was renamed Kamarani Printing House in 1970.
Through this printing house, the Kurdish language was served for more than half a century. Many books, pamphlets, magazines, newspapers and calendars appeared from the heart of this printing house and enriched the Kurdish literary and intellectual heritage.
Mohammed Aziz Qaftan instilled the love of printing in the hearts and minds of his children. Therefore, his sons kept the torch high and continued to work in printing and made the field more enriched.
Dr. Mohammed Fazil Mohammed Aziz Qaftan is one of the brightest stars of this family.
He was born in 1943 in Sulaimani. He completed his primary education in Khalidiya School in Sulaymaniyah and secondary and high school in Sulaymaniyah. He then graduated from the College of Management and Economics in Baghdad University.
In 1975, he received his PhD in Industrial Economics from Bucharest, Romania.
In 1976, he became a lecturer at Sulaymaniyah University. He played a significant role in the development of the university. In addition to teaching, he was the secretary of the public library of the university.
After the transfer of Sulaymaniyah University to Erbil, he was briefly expelled from the university as a political punishment for supporting the student demonstrations.
Later, he was reinstated to his job at Salahaddin University as a lecturer in the College of Management and Economics.
In 1993, he became the director of the printing house of Salahaddin University. He published 12 issues of the economic newspaper in that year.
Apart from his academic work, he was a prominent calligrapher and a prominent writer in the literary and intellectual fields. He has written and translated several books and pamphlets. These include: economic regimes, transformation of language of science to Kurdish, and higher education projects. He has two books in Arabic: (Gold, Economic Development). In 1992, he was elected as a member of the Kurdistan Parliament on the PUK List.
Because of his positions, he was twice attempted to be assassinated. In 1994, Dr. Fazil Qaftan was forced to leave Kurdistan and settled in Germany as a refugee. He died on May 15, 1996 in Germany and was buried on May 21, 1996 in Darmstadt, Germany.[1]