His biography
Early Life
and
Education
Nouri Jaffar was born in Al-Qurna in Al-Basra governorate, in 1914. His father, Jaffar Ali, and his mother Halima Al-Chalabi, were cousins.
Nouri Jaffar referred to his parents as such:
My father was a simple farmer and my mother was his cousin except that the people of their town considered her father more prestigious than mine. In fact, she had an exceeding influence upon my formation. She was a tranquil, tolerant and literate person who always recited Quran, and that was in 1920. A primary school opened in Al-Qurna, the name of which I do not remember, in the 1926. My mother insisted that my father takes me and my brother Radhi and register us in it. My father refused completely at the beginning, only to be convinced to take me to that school as if to punish me for being mischievous child sometime; a fact that made him uncomfortable when I am around. While my brother was a more peaceful child. My father said: “I will take this one only” and he pointed to me. My mother said: “take him”. He took me to school. My mother gave me the Quran, of which I memorized many short verses. We entered the school to see the headmaster, the well reputed Master Yaseen Almulla Huaish. My father said: “this is my son. I want to register him. He can recite al Quran”. The headmaster asked me to recite, I shivered unbearably that the Quran fell from hand, I picked it up, kissed it and opened it randomly. I did not look at it for I was shivering, and I started amazingly reciting the verses of the Quran that I had memorized: “Alhamdulilah([(All Praise is for Allah) AlFateha], Tabbat Yada [(May The Hands be Ruined) AlMasad]… etc. The headmaster became alert and said: “come near me”. He looked at me and discovered that I held the Quran up side down; yet he encouraged me and said: “son, I will register you in the level two”.
I loved school exceptionally, and I was hugely interested in mathematics, Arabic and history, and I was bothered with drawing and handy crafts, and bothered too, in fact hated geography. My grades in mathematics were excellent, likewise in history and Arabic.
Higher Education
Nouri Jaffar continued his education and he acquired his baccalaureate degree with a high average; thus he went to the capital, Baghdad, with his papers to School of Medicine to make his childhood dream and desire come true.
Nouri Jaffar relates about this phase saying:
I was willing to go to School of Medicine but for the financial circumstances. I did apply for it but then I withdrew. I think they charged fees from the students for food, lodgings and foreign books, all of which I could not possibly pay. If I had been given the choice, after getting to know my specialization, I would never have chosen other than the Collage of Education, by which I mean High Teachers Collage. If they asked me to specialize, I would not choose other than education and psychology because they have become part of me.
I went to High Teachers College, which was located at Bab Almu’adham, and my baccalaureate degrees were high. I asked the door keeper to see the dean. He said that the dean was at the third floor. The dean was Dr. Matti Aqrawi. I went in with the looks of a villager in a messy appearance that made the dean think that I had probably been a worker. He said: “what do you want?”, I answered: “ Sir, I have come to admit my papers to your college”. He asked what my name was.
I mentioned my name. he said:” application is over. We took all the files to ministry (of education), there is no time”. I withdrew back but when he looked at my high degrees, he accepted me and offered me great guardianship until I graduated from college and I came in first. We were the first class to graduate.
I went abroad and my passion for education grew with the influence of dean Dr. Matti Aqrawi and the influence of Dr. Ahmed Izzat Rajeh, who was a deputed exclusive professor.
I went to Cairo to High Education Institute, whose dean was a well-known respected man, known as professor Ismail Qabbani, of whom I made great benefit, and I also benefited a lot of a psychology professor called Abdul Aziz Alqawsi, who was well known.
I finished my studies there and went to the United States of America afterwards. Obviously, all my efforts were devoted to education and psychology; as for history and Arabic, these are studies that I personally pursued.
I forgot to mention that at High Teachers College, my fondness of Arabic was under the influence of Professor Taha AlRawi, who taught us Arabic.
I went to the United States and luckily I had a communication with the philosopher John Dewey, with whom I had a personal relationship.
My studies there continued for five years: two for my MA degree and three for Ph. D., revolving around the philosophy of education- The educational philosophy of John Dewey and their applications in Iraq.
I was one of the eminent students at the time, for I received an appreciation letter every three months from Iraqi embassy when they received our grades. That appreciation carried the signature of the Iraqi ambassador at the time, Ali Jawdat Al-Ayoubi.
Curriculum Vitae
– Bachelor’s degree in Education, College of Education, Baghdad – Higher Teachers College.
– Diploma in Psychology, Institute of Psychology and Higher Education, Cairo, 1944
– Master’s degree from The Ohio State University, USA, 1948
– Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Ohio State University, USA, 1949
Between the years 1950-1991, Dr. Nouri Jaffar was promoted to successive scientific positions:
Assistant professor, full professor and professor emeritus of education and psychology.
– 1950, Assistant Professor at the College of Education at University of Baghdad
– 1954 Dismissed from service via a decision of Prime Minister Arshad Al-Omari
(The reason behind that dismissal was Nouri Jaffar’s objection to Iraqi parliament election fraud at Al-Qurna)
– 1955 Headmaster of Al-Ja’afariyah School in Baghdad
– 1956 Assistant Professor in the College of Education – University of Baghdad
– 1959 – 1963 General Director of The Cultural Department at the Ministry of Planning in Baghdad
(Afterwards, he was dismissed from service with a group of professors and thinkers because of the military coup d’etat then, to get rid of the intelligentsia who opposed the dogmatic principles of the coup)
– 1964 Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology of the University of King Saud in Saudi Arabia
– 1965-1969 Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology at the College of Arts in Benghazi in Libya
– 1970-1973 Professor and Head of the Department of Psychology at the College of Arts in Arrabat in the Moroccan Kingdom.
– 1974 Visiting Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield- UK.
– 1975-1986 Professor Emeritus at the College of Education and the Collage of Arts at University of Baghdad
There were intervals within these last eleven years, during which he gave lectures somewhere else:
1977 Lecturing Professor at the College of Arts- the University of Kuwait
1983 Lecturing Professor Emeritus at the University of Montreal in Canada
1984 Lecturing Professor Emeritus at Purdue University in USA
– 1991 Professor Emeritus at Al-Fateh University in Libya
Since the 70s, Dr. Jaffar has been a member of several esteemed associations, including:
–The World Council for the Gifted – USA
-The British National Association of the Gifted – United Kingdom
-The British Psychological Society – United Kingdom
In the year 1959, Nouri Jaffar got married, but he was sadly bereaved of his wife in 1975. That is why he assumed the roles of both parents and took care of his family that included his three daughters Alia, Khuloud, Nijood, and his only son Ali.
He often described himself as the head of a family, a father, a mother, a friend, and a trusty guardian. He identified himself with these poetic lines:
A steadfast man can lose his stamina,
When the calamities of time try his firm will.
The difficult days come over him again,
His strength overcomes a matter and falls short of another.
In other words, life forms a semblance for a young man, while it forms another for an old man. Later on in life, the prospect is for our children, not for us.
His younger daughter, Nijood, says:
“My father became both mother and father at the same time. He made us feel his affection and cared for us uniquely in order to fill the gap of my mother’s decease in 1975 in an exceptional way. He embraced us with his devoted love and committed and scarified the remaining of his life to his knowledge and to us as he had recurrently told us: “Your mother entrusted you to me”.
Nouri Jaffar’s lamentation of his late wife:
It is worth mentioning here that the related episode, revolving around his death, that some websites and communication and mass media have circulated; which claimed that Nouri Jaffar was killed by a Libyan driver on his way to the airport leaving to London, is groundless. He died simply because of the complications of a severe cold.
His younger daughter, Nijood, says of this sad event:
“ My father died in Tripoli in Libya on the 7th of November, 1991, at the age of 77. He had a serve cold and we, myself, my sister, and my brother, kept him company. His condition was getting worse. My sister perceived that his breathing had stopped. Silence prevailed in the place; he was gone”.