Haydar al Sadr

Haydar al-Sadr was a Shia cleric and the son of grand Ayatollah Ismail as-Sadr. He was the first to use the as-Sadr surname, which came to be associated with a long line of religious scholarship within Shia Islam. He and his family were also considered as Sayyid, or those who could trace their lineage back to Muhammad. He studied Islamic sciences at the Great Mosque at the Citadel of Arbil, where he later taught and became the chief scholar. He was famous for his piety, knowledge, and speed of learning. He wrote many books and treatises on various topics, such as theology, jurisprudence, logic, grammar, rhetoric, and astronomy. He also built an observatory in Arbil and made accurate calculations of the lunar and solar eclipses. He was respected and influential throughout Kurdistan and beyond. He died in 1937 at the age of 46.