Leading Kurdish statesman and politician Taufiq Wahby was born into a family that loved writing and language. His maternal grandfather, Rasul Masti (Katib Al-Arshif), was a writer for literary and cultural magazines of the Ottoman Empire’s Covenant of Union. Born in the fourth district of Sulaymaniyah on December 31, 1890, Wahby completed his preparatory studies in the military school in Sulaymaniyah and his preparatory studies in the military preparatory school in Baghdad Province. In 1905, he traveled to Istanbul and completed school there.
After his schooling, Wahby fought in the Ottoman army in 1908, before becoming an officer in 1911 and moving to Albania, where he fought against Italy. In 1913, he returned to the military staff college, but was again called into public service during World War I from 1914 to 1918, during which he served as chief of staff of a division and was ranked chief of the battlefields in the Dardanelles, Iraq, and Palestine. In 1918, he received the Military Staff Certificate in Istanbul. In June 1919, he left Istanbul and returned to Iraq, where he became governor of the Ranya district.
Statesman and linguist
Wahby’s return to Iraq and Kurdistan marked the beginning of what would be a long political conflict. In April 1920, he was elected as a member of the Sulaymaniyah Municipality Board of Directors, a position he remained in until 1921. Later, he went to Baghdad and was appointed to the military staff – the nucleus of the new Iraqi army – and participated in the Movements Division to head the army’s staff. In 1922, he became a Major in the Iraqi army. In September of that year, he became one of the Kurdish officers who joined Sheikh Mahmoud al-Hafid Barzinji on the journey from Baghdad to Kifri and then Sulaymaniyah, where he was appointed as an assistant to Sheikh Mahmoud in the second term of the Sheikh’s administration.
Throughout his military and early political career, Wahby was always thinking about language. Fluent in Turkish, Arabic, Persian, English, German, and French, Wahby was also familiar with the Old and Middle Persian dialects, Avestan, and Sanskrit. This depth of linguistic knowledge prompted him, in 1923, to begin laying down rules for the Kurdish language at the Ministry of Education’s request. However, the government ultimately disapproved of his efforts because the Director General of Education Sati’ al-Husri, who held prejudiced views about Kurds, opposed him.
Forming the Iraqi army and public service
Wahby was one of the founders of the Ottoman Sulaymaniyah Military School and served as its director from 1925 to 1929. In August 1929, he was promoted from the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to the rank of Colonel by Royal Decree No. 156. He was then sent to the Senior Officers College in the city of Kent in the UK by Royal Decree No. 105 in April 1930.
In August 1930, Wahby was dismissed from his position by the Ministry of Interior. This was due to his role in establishing the National Authority, which supervised the civil movement demanding Kurdish rights in Iraq. His relationship with the brigade severed, he traveled to Beirut, where he issued a statement on the Kurdish issue in 1932, and remained there until 1935.
Back in Iraq in 1936, he was appointed the Director of Public Works. In March 1938, he began serving as the Director General of Public Surveying. He resigned from that post in 1941. Later, in 1944, he joined Hamdi al-Pachachi’s administration as Minister of Finance. In June of the same year, he was also assigned as the representative of Mosul but resigned two years later. He then joined Salih Jabr’s administration as Minister of Education in 1947 and became a representative of the Sulaymaniyah Brigade once again. In 1948, he resigned from the post. In the years 1948-1950, he was appointed a member of the Iraqi Council of Senates. In May 1949, he was awarded the Civil Order of the British Empire with the rank of Leader, by Royal Decree No. 1587.
After this, he became Minister of Social Affairs in Tawfiq Al-Suwaidi’s administration in May 1950 and left in September the same year. Wahby was therefore in Turkiye when the July 14, 1958 Revolution occurred in Iraq; instead of returning to Iraq, he went to London. He stayed there until January 15, 1984, when he passed away. According to his wishes, his remains were interred in Mount Pirmagrun west of Sulaymaniyah.
Publications and writings
Wahby’s scholarly interests include Sufism and Indo-European and Indo-Iranian history, languages, religions, and customs, among other topics, which he explored through numerous written works.
He penned articles for a variety of periodicals and journals, including Sulaimani, Diyari Kurdistan, Jin, Jiyan, Galawej, Dingi Geti Taza, Sumer - Journal of the Iraqi Scientific Academy, Al-Katib, Journal of the Iraqi Women’s Union, and Peshkawtin. In addition to the Fraternity newspaper, Kori Zaniyari Kurd (Kurdish Scientific Academy), Shafak, Al-Irfan Al-Saydawiyya, Perwarda w Zanst (Education and Knowledge), and Altaakhi newspaper, he also published articles outside of Kurdistan in magazines like Kurdistan 1965, Kurdika 1968, and the magazine affiliated to Taqadum Kurdistan Center. Moreover, he published a handful of stories in 1939 and served as a linguistic supervisor for the Kurdish Radio in Baghdad, which he and Muhammad Amin Zaki founded. In 1943, he also founded the magazine Dengi Geti Taza and served as its proofreader.
Wahby was elected the Kurdish Advancement Club’s honorary president in 1956. However, he was unable to hold onto his position as the first president of the Higher Education Council in Iraq, which ultimately laid the groundwork for the country’s first university. The magazine Al-Katib was published by the Iraqi Authorship, Translation and Publication Society, of which he was elected president in 1958. He had also previously been a founding member of the Iraqi Scientific Academy, having been elected as its first vice president and active member in January 1948. Wahby was also a member of the British Geographical Academy at the time and was elected as an honorary member of the Kurdish Scientific Academy upon its establishment.
Taufiq Wahby was a brilliant scholar. He frequently visited the late Mustafa Jawad in his Baghdad library to absorb his extensive knowledge of theology and ancient history. He was selected to serve as the first president of the Higher Education Council and to establish the first university in Iraq because of his extensive knowledge of teaching and educational methodologies.
Wahby was affiliated with the following communities throughout his lifetime:
His medals and decorations included:
Rafiq Salih is Director General of Zheen Center Publication.
