1863 - 1936
Prominent Iraqi poet, philosopher, and educator, known for his defense of women's rights.
Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi was born in Baghdad. During the Ottoman era, he held numerous positions: as a member of the Baghdad education council, where he championed education for women; as editor of the only newspaper in Baghdad, al-Zawra; as a member of the Supreme Court in Yemen and in Istanbul; as a professor of Islamic philosophy at the Royal University; and as a professor of literature at the College of Arts in Istanbul. After Iraq's independence in 1921, he was elected to parliament twice and appointed to the upper chamber for one term.
He was one of the leading writers in the Arab world, publishing in the major newspapers and journals of Beirut, Cairo, and Baghdad. Describing his life in a collection of his poems, he wrote, "In my childhood I was thought of as eccentric because of my unusual gestures; in my youth, as feckless because of my ebullient nature, lack of seriousness, and excessive playfulness; in my middle age as courageous for my resistance to tyranny; and in my old age as an apostate because I propounded my philosophical views" (Najim, p. 173, translated by author). In the 1930s, because of his political views, he was marginalized by the political establishment.
Bibliography
Najim, Mohammed Yusif, editor. Diwan Jamil Sidqi alZahawi, Vol. 1. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi, 1971.
— JACQUELINE ISMAEL
