His full name is Mullah Ma’ssoum son of Mullah Khidir. He was born in 1900 in Koya and completed his primary education there.
After his father's death and the outbreak of the first World War, his family decided to move to Kirkuk, where he graduated from Dar al-Khilafah School, which is at the level of secondary schools of today’s educational system.
After he completed his studies, he worked in business, and as a freelancer for a while.
In 1925, he began his religious studies and at the end of that study he received a license from Mullah Mohammad Jalizadeh (the great mullah), to become a mullah himself.
Mullah Ma’ssoum was one of the most famous scholars of his time and a very talented Arabic scholar. He was also fluent in the Turkish and Persian languages.
In 1955, this intellectual religious man was appointed successor to the Grand Mullah of Koya. Mullah Ma’ssoum was a patriotic personality and a Kurd with his own position.
When the September Revolution broke out in 1961, Mullah Ma'ssoum fully supported the revolution and ignored the pressure of the Baghdad government, which asked him to support the government's policy against the revolution. The regime in Baghdad issued an arrest warrant for him and he was imprisoned for one year in Fachiliya prison.
He joined the revolution in 1963 and he passed away on 16-12-1964.
He left behind a valuable library and many important manuscripts and margins, but unfortunately this valuable wealth was looted in the events of 31-08-1996 in Erbil, South Kurdistan.[1]