Saad Eskander (; born 1962) is a contemporary

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

i Kurdish academic and researcher. He was born in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, joined the Kurdish

Peshmerga The Peshmerga () are the internal security forces of Kurdistan Region. According to the Constitution of Iraq, regional governments are responsible for "the establishment and organization of the internal security forces for the region such as p ...

in 1981 and lived in the mountains of

Iraqi Kurdistan Iraqi Kurdistan or Southern Kurdistan () refers to the Kurds, Kurdish-populated part of northern Iraq. It is considered one of the four parts of Greater Kurdistan in West Asia, which also includes parts of southeastern Turkey (Northern Kurdist ...

for four years, then moved to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. He received his B.A. in modern history from the

University of North London The University of North London (UNL) was a university in London, England, formed from the Polytechnic of North London (PNL) in 1992 when that institution was granted university status. PNL, in turn, had been formed by the amalgamation of the No ...

and his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in international relations and history from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

. His thesis was title
''Britain's Policy Towards the Kurdish Question, 1915–1923''.
He returned to

in 2003 after the

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory (country subdivision), territory controlled by another similar entity, ...

and since then has served as the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive until 2015. As of 2023, Eskander was serving in two roles: Cultural Heritage Advisor to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities, and as the Technical Supervisor of the Iraq National Archive. During the height of civil war in Iraq, he wrote a

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

diary about the harrowing experience of living in Baghdad, which was subsequently published on the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

's website. The diary was written between November 2006 and July 2007.

Awards and honours

He was awarded Archivist of the Year Award by New York's Scone Foundation at a ceremony at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

in New York on 12 November 2007. He also won the MESA Academic Freedom Award of the Middle East Studies Association in 2007. He was awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) in recognition of his distinguished service at a ceremony hosted at the British Library in December 2008.British Library Website: http://www.bl.uk/iraqdiary/cilip.html In 2010, Dr. Eskander was elected as Iraq's representative at the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for promoting the Return of Cultural Property to the Country of their Origins.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eskander, Saad 1962 births Living people Iraqi Kurdish people People from Baghdad Iraqi librarians Kurdish scholars Kurdish historians 20th-century Kurdish writers 21st-century Kurdish writers

Awards and honours

See also

Notes