Bachtyar Ali Muhammed, also spelled as Bakhtiyar Ali or Bakhtyar Ali, (Kurdish: Bextyar El卯 -亘蹠禺鬲蹖丕乇 毓蹠賱蹖) Ali was born in the city of Slemani (also spelt as Sulaimani or Sulaymaniy), in Iraqi Kurdistan (also referred to as southern Kurdistan) in 1960. He is a Kurdish novelist and intellectual. He is also a prolific literary critic, essayist and poet. Ali started out as a poet and essayist, but has established himself as an influential novelist from the mid-1990s. He has published six novels, several poetry collections as well as essay books. He has been living in Germany since the mid-1990s (Frankfurt, Cologne and most recently Bonn). In his academic essays, he has dealt with various subjects, such as the 1988 Saddam-era Anfal genocide campaign, the relationship between the power and intellectuals and other philosophical issues. He often employs western philosophical concepts to interpret an issue in Kurdish society, but often modifies or adapts them to his context.
Based on interviews with the writer, he wrote his first prominent piece of writing in 1983, a long poem called Nishtiman "The Homeland" (Kurdish; 賳蹖卮鬲賲丕賳). His first article, entitled "In the margin of silence; la parawezi bedangi da" in Pashkoy Iraq newspaper in 1989. But he only truly came to prominence and started to publish and hold seminars after the 1991 uprising against the Iraqi government, as the Kurds started to establish a de facto semi-autonomous region in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and enjoy a degree of freedom of speech. He could not have published most of his work before 1991 because of strict political censorship under Saddam. Along with several other writers of his generation - most notably Mariwan Wirya Qani, Rebin Hardi and Sherzad Hasan - they started a new intellectual movement in Kurdistan, mainly through holding seminars. The same group in 1991 started publishing a philosophical journal - Azadi "Freedom" [Kurdish:卅丕夭丕丿蹖] -, of which only five issues were published, and then Rahand "Dimension" [Kurdish:乇蹠賴蹠賳丿]. (). In 1992, he published his first book, a poetry collection entitled Gunah w Karnaval "Sin and the Carnival" [Kurdish:诏賵賳丕賴 賵 讴蹠跁賳蹠冥丕賱]. It contained several long poems, some which were written in the late 1980s. Prominent Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas immediately hailed him as a new powerful voice. His first novel, Margi Taqanay Dwam "The death of the second only child" [Kurdish:賲蹠乇诏蹖 鬲丕賯丕賳蹠蹖 丿賵賵蹠賲], was published in 1997, the first draft of which was written in the late 1980s.