Background
He was born into an intellectual family in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He was born into an intellectual family in Sulaimaniya in Iraqi Kurdistan.
He possessed a deep knowledge of classical Kurdish, Arabic and Persian poetry and has had an enduring influence on the modern Kurdish poetry. He was a leading figure in the Kurdish liberation movement. After the Algiers Accord, he moved to Iran in 1975 and later to United Kingdom in 1993.
His first collection of poems was first published in 1957 and has been re-published several times since then