Iskandar Osman Jambaz was a famous and talented Kurdish painter and artist who was born in 1938 in Erbil and was raised in a working class family.
He began his primary education in 1945 at Ibn Khalqan Primary School and then went to Erbil Secondary School, which was renamed the Republican Secondary School after the revolution of July 14, 1958. In 1958, he was admitted to the primary teachers' college in Erbil and became a teacher in the village of Sisawah in Harir region. After a year he was appointed as a teacher of painting in Erbil Exemplary School, which became the training center for the students at the Primary Teachers' College in Erbil.
Master Iskandar Jambaz was a well-built and decent boy who did not feel any illness until the early 1990s. However, after that year, he felt seriously ill and his health deteriorated day by day. No treatment was given until he died on 18-08-1994 in his sweet city of Erbil. His funeral was attended by many of Erbil’s artists, intellectuals, and teachers.
Although Iskandar seemingly disappeared from our sight, his paintings and sculptures will not disappear, and his personality will not be erased from the hearts of his friends and fans. They have not allowed the career of painting in his family to stop.
Iskandar Osman has been a talented painter since his primary school days and initially imitated Erbil artists such as Daniel Qasab and Jawad Rasul Naji.
However, when he reached the teachers' college, he benefited directly from the advice and guidance of the talented painting teacher Jawad Rasoul and turned to the original scenes of Kurdish life in the plains, especially nomadic life. He was still buying and selling cattle. Therefore, this aspect dominates his paintings, and he was very skilled in the art of portrait painting.[2]