Marif Khaznadar was a distinguished Kurdish writer and intellectual whose works have profoundly influenced readers, writers, and researchers across Kurdish literary and cultural circles.
Born in 1930 in Erbil to the Khaznadar family, he completed his primary, secondary, and university education in the city before studying Arabic language at Baghdad University. In 1968, he traveled to the Soviet Union, where he earned a doctorate in Kurdish literature. Upon returning, he became a professor in the Kurdish department at Baghdad University and also taught at Annaba University in Algeria and Salahaddin University in Erbil. Khaznadar was a member of the Kurdish Scientific Council and supervised numerous master’s and doctoral theses.
From the age of twenty, Khaznadar began writing and publishing articles. He authored his memoirs covering 1930 to 1991 in seven volumes under the title Dijla-i Hizrim (The Tigris of My Thought). His final major work was History of Kurdish Literature, published in seven volumes. Over his lifetime, he authored nearly thirty books and numerous articles.
A founder of the Kurdish Writers Union, Khaznadar served as editor-in-chief of the magazine Kurdish Writer (Nuseri Kurd) and published several issues of Kurdish Notebook (Daftari Kurdewari). He was also on the editorial board of Kurdistan Sun (Roji Kurdistan – Shams Kurdistan) and acted as a literary and cultural advisor for Karwan magazine. Notably, in 1968, he declared April 22, 1898, the publication date of the first issue of Kurdistan newspaper, as Kurdish Journalism Day.
Driven by a passion for Kurdish intellectual and cultural life, Khaznadar transformed his home into a sanctuary for preserving Kurdish literary texts, manuscripts, and archives. He welcomed students and scholars to benefit from his extensive library. Beyond Kurdish, he published seven books in Arabic and two in Russian, filling a significant gap in Kurdish literary resources.
His major works include The Glass Bride (1969), Kurdish Language Stories and Kurdish Literature (1971), Nali’s Divan and Nali’s Dictionary (1977), On the History of Kurdish Literature (1984), and Kurdish Literature and Pasternak’s Problem (1995), among dozens of other influential publications.
Marif Khaznadar passed away at the age of 80 on the night of October 25, 2010, at Shifa Hospital in Erbil, leaving a lasting legacy on Kurdish literature and intellectual life.
