Sulaymaniyah
Kak Ahmad Sheikh, also known as Kak Ahmad al-Barzinji, was a scholar and shaykh of the Qadiri path from the Barzinji sayyids and the son of Shaykh Ma'ruf…
Kak Ahmad Sheikh, also known as Kak Ahmad al-Barzinji, was a scholar and shaykh of the Qadiri path from the Barzinji sayyids and the son of Shaykh Ma'ruf al-Nodehi. He is one of the most revered spiritual figures in the history of Sulaymaniyah and is remembered for his generosity; during a hard year in 1820 he opened a kitchen beside the Great Mosque to feed the poor, and it still serves meals today. He died in 1887. He is buried in a corner room of the Great Mosque of Sulaymaniyah, under an ornate zarih, and the room is a place of constant visitation. The mosque was the city's first, founded in 1784–85 by Ibrahim Pasha Baban when he established Sulaymaniyah, and it was rebuilt in brick in the twentieth century with two domes and two minarets. The mausoleum of the Baban rulers adjoins it.