We often encounter fortunate coincidences, some of which profoundly alter the course of our lives through a fundamental transformation in our awareness and intellectual formation. In most cases, such moments are shaped by educators and academics. Individuals who, without doubt, embody the noblest attributes of their profession. The majority of them are teachers devoted to education at its various levels. It is the teacher who must be honored, even with a modest gesture of gratitude expressed through the remembrance of their students. Yet, no matter the occasion, it can never truly match the magnitude of the dedication and generosity they have bestowed upon their students.
Here, in these pages, I attempt to offer a modest token of gratitude to a man of immense knowledge, exemplary character, and unwavering dedication: Dr. Nouri Jaffar (1914–1991). While he stands in no need of introduction, I strive to record what I believe must not go unmentioned; particularly those unwritten accounts made possible by my close association with him as a professor and mentor, and later, as a friend for over eight years. This period spanned his instruction during my master’s studies and his supervision of my thesis, entitled The Psychological Foundations of the Artistic Creative Process.
I have found no brief description of (Nouri Jaffar) that captures him better than “singularly exceptional and profoundly wronged”. In part, this injustice was deliberate, but in another, it was the consequence of his presence in an unfavorable historical and geopolitical context. Like most Arab or Iraqi, whether by choice or by circumstance, he was framed within socio-political frameworks defined by entrenched underdevelopment and authoritarianism.
Writing about a scholar distinguished by exceptional breadth and diversity must inevitably strive for objectivity, even in the face of the deep emotions he naturally evokes in those around him, emotions that stir the heart and awaken the senses. I, for one, was the recipient of his generous emotional guidance, which revealed itself in the careful, methodical manner of a father tending to his child, yet always within the disciplined framework of knowledge.
In my reading of his life, I encountered it through eight steps of evolution: the first being the relationship between his life and the intellectual affiliations he embraced. The second, his dynamic intellectual evolutions, rooted in his exploration of diverse fields of inquiry; and the third, his deliberate synthesis of adjacent intellectual structures and methodologies, through which he crafted his distinctive, personal vision.
In light of the foregoing, I have chosen to focus on eight steps of evolution that, in my view, shaped his intellectual vision. These form the chapters of the book “Thus Is My Teacher: Nouri Jaffar , Endurances of Time and Space”.