The Modern Novel

Biography

Ibrahim Ahmad (also spelled Ibrahim Ahmed or Ibrahîm Ehmed) was born in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1914. He studied law at the University of Baghdad. He worked as a lawyer and a judge. He founded and edited the Kurdish literary periodical Gelawêj. At this time, he became involved in politics, joining the party that would become the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He also wrote his best-known work, ژانی گەل [Suffering of the People], but lost the manuscript. He rewrote the book from memory but found the manuscript and combined the two, though he had to wait till 1972 till it was published in Kurdish. It has never been published in English or Arabic and was almost forgotten till a French publisher published it in 1994. After fighting for Kurdish independence, he retired from politics in 1975 and went into exile to London. He died in 2000.

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Ibrahim Ahmad