Jamil Sidqi al-Zahawi (Arabic: جميل صدقي الزهاوي, ALA-LC: Jamīl Ṣidqī al-Zahāwī; 17 June 1863 – January 1936) was a prominent Iraqi poet and philosopher.

Born to a Baghdadi family of Kurdish origins, he was educated in various literature and grammar forms translated into Arabic, mastering various languages.

Described as a liberal thinker and an "agnostic", he was controversial for his advocation for the adaptation of Western sciences, thoughts, modernism, and national freedom, as well as his stance on women's rights.

He descended from a prominent family of Kurdish origin,[3][4] His father was the Mufti of Iraq and a member of the scholarly Baban clan.

These encounters exposed him to new ideas about modern poetry and its role in political debate, and would subsequently inform his work in terms of both its form and the choice of subject matter.

[12] In his spare time, he could be found in Baghdad's cultural cafés, where he actively participated in arguments with poets and literary figures.

Al-Zahawi was also known to tackle the topic of women's rights, criticizing the wearing of the veil, the practice of older men marrying adolescent girls, forced marriage without previous acquaintance, polygamy, and male privileges.

Describing his life in a collection of his poems, he wrote, "In my childhood I was thought of as eccentric because of my unusual gestures; in my youth, as feckless because of my ebullient nature, lack of seriousness, and excessive playfulness; in my middle age as courageous for my resistance to tyranny; and in my old age as an apostate because I propounded my philosophical views.

However, his work attracted literary criticism in the period following the first World War, when a wave of nationalism began to influence the arts.

[17] According to an anecdote, al-Zahawi was once invited by former Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Said to a simple coffeehouse that was named "al-Amin's café" due to lack of modest areas at the time.

This did not keep him away from his poetic career as he remained a poet whom many people came to listen to preferably due to his popular public persona, and his gifts as an orator.

Some of his works, such as The True Dawn in Refuting Those Who Deny the Seeking of Intercession and the Miracles of Saints (1905) have been translated into English, but he himself never learned any European language.

The English writer, Gertrude Bell, was present at a dinner in 1921, when al-Zahawi read an ode to Faisal ibn Hussein.

Bell writes:[25] "al-Zahawi stood up and recited a tremendous ode in which he repeatedly alluded to Faisal as King of Iraq and everyone clapped and cheered.

[26] He also published a number of works on the subject of astronomy including: The Universe, Gravitation and its Explanation, General Repulsion and Natural and Astronomical Phenomena, which expounded theories which were ultimately shown to be fundamentally flawed.