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Taufiq Wahby (1891-1984)

Dr. Tewfíq Wehbí in 80's

Mr. Taufiq Wahby (Kurdish: Tewfíq Wehbí, ته‌وفیق وه‌هبی), was born in 1891 in Cuwar Ta village of Silemaní district in Baban province/Kurdistan. Wehby was the champion of the codification of the central dialect of Kurdish language in 1920's. He was the Kurdish philologist and army officer. Colonel Tofiq Wahby served as a colonel of the army in the Ottoman Empire. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and creation of the new state of Iraq under British supervision, Wahby become an influential member of the new Iraqi army. His scientific and highly remarkable efforts were met with refusal when confronted with the Arab rule nationalistically oriented Iraqi Ministry of Culture. The reason given was that no 'foreign accents' or Kurdish "caps" could be placed on the 'holy Arabic letters', the letters in which the Qur'an (Koran) is written.


There was something else the abovementioned Wahby at his time heal endeavored to do. It was in the early 1920’s when he enlisted the Latin alphabet for the use of Kurdish in a form that leaned heavily an English linguistic usage. His efforts then were also unsuccessful, because the Iraqi government, using Islamic religious arguments likewise forbade the dissemination of a "European-Christian" script in Muslim Iraq. ln connection with this, it should be pointed out that Wahby held eight ministerial posts in the Iraqi government. It should be noted that Wahby's Latin alphabet, like that of J. Bedir Khan (whose alphabet relied less on English linguistic use than on that of the French and Turkish alphabets), displayed several flaws. Had these two scholars collaborated, the Kurdish people today would in all probability have a better Latin alphabet.

Regarding to this J. Bedir Khan reply to a reader's enquires about unification of Kurdish alphabet and cooperation with T. Wahby in HAWAR issues 9, 30 Sep 1932 --the first Kurdish paper written in adapted Latin (French and Turkish) based alphabet by J. Bedir Khan in French Syria-- that


T. Wahbi was a gifted linguist personality who promoted the Kurdish language and culture. T. Wahby continued his linguistic ambitions in many years to come and he published several books and article in this line. Some of his best known publications are the Kurdish Grammar (Baghdad 1929) and the Kurdish-English Dictionary (Oxford press 1966) which he co-published with C.J. Edmonds.

T. Wahbi held several government posts, including director-general of irrigation and director of land survey (1942). He was appointed minister of the economy in 1944. He later become become a member of the Iraqi Senate. At the time of the Iraqi revolution of 1958 Wahbi was in the UK and remained in London until his death in 1982.  He was an active member of Baghdad PEN Club. T. Whabi will always remembered among the first pioneers of Kurdish codification and orthography. Wahby died in 1984 at age of 93.


  1. 1925 - "Kurdiyekeman be con hirúfék ú con binúsín?" (In what character and how should we write our Kurdish?), Diyarí Kurdistan, No. 5, pp. 5-6, No. 6, pp. 5-6.
  2. 1929 - "Destúrí Zimaní Kurdí"(Grammar of the Kurdish language). Baghdad: Dar al-Tiba'a al-Haditha.
  3. 1933 - "Xiwéndewariy Baw", Baghdad: Dar al-Tiba'a al-Haditha.
  4. 1965 - "The origins of the Kurds and their language," Kurdistan (KSSE), No. IX and X, July, pp. 23-28.
  5. 1966 -  "A Kurdish-English dictionary", [T. Wahby and Cecil John Edmonds], Oxford Press
  6. 1973 - "Esllí píte qalibí "e":y ú shéwey Silémaní" (Origins of the inflectional "e" in Sulaymani dialect), GKZK (Govarí Korrí Zanyarí Kurd), 1973, Vol. 1, Part I, pp. 9-34.
  7. 1973 - "Haul Maqal 'Mas'uliyya al-Adib al-Kurdi al-Kubra' lil-Ustad 'Abd al-Majid Lutfi " (On the article "The Great Responsibility of the Kurdish Literary Men" by Professor Abd al-Majid Lufti), Reprinted from al-Ta'akhi, No. 1278, (Baghdad: al-Ta'akhi Press), 15 pp.

This biography is prepared by Dr Dilan Roshani


  • Hawar, Kurdish magazine published in Damascus, Syria, 1932-35 and 1941-43


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