New Baghdad
An ethnic Kurd and a native of Diyala Governorate, he began studying calligraphy in 1959, and moved to Baghdad in 1963, where he gave his first exhibition in 1965. He later graduated from the Fine Arts Institute of Baghdad, and proceeded to work for the State Directorate for the Plastic Arts in the 1980s. Eventually, he found work as a lecturer at Baghdad University. He lived in eastern Baghdad's Na'eriyah neighbourhood, a predominantly Shi'a area and part of the New Baghdad administrative district. He had received threats before his death, and had been preparing to leave Baghdad for Irbil.