Murad al-Daghistani was born in 1917 in Mosul, Iraq. His father was Abdul-Hamit Ajamat, a
Kumyk engineer who participated in building the Iraqi railroad. It is not clear how Dagestani was exposed to early photography. Mosul was a city that had an established photography and film-making industry dating to the late 19th century. Local men were using cameras to assist archeologists from around 1895. Following the
First World War, a photographer named Tartaran, set up a studio at the entrance to the Mosul Elementary School. It is possible that Dagestani observed the photographer at work during his school years. Even before he had graduated from high school, he had picked up the camera. By 1935, he had established himself as a talented photographer. His studio and photography shop, situated in Al-Dawasah Street, Mosul (opposite the Sinal Atlas) was simply called
Murad Photographer. For subject matter, he drew on the street life and industry in and around the city of Mosul, especially life along the Tigris river. He always carried his camera, ready to capture a moment or event. At sunrise, he could be found at the riverside, where he loved to watch fishing boats and attempted to capture the fisherman at work. In his studio, he produced more creative portraits of dervishes, tribal men and everyday people. He influenced a number of younger photographers, including Hadi Al Najjar (b. 1957) and Mahmoud Saeed. The artist and photographer, Mahmoud Saeed, recalled that, as a youth, he loved to watch gifted photographers, especially al-Daghistani, as he photographed every day scenes around Mosul and how he "immortalized a fishing net as it filled the air before falling to the river, or a cart travelling a muddy road, memorable faces of dervishes, of aged men and women, and of active children." He was a very heavy smoker and had one lung removed in the 1970s, after which he lived another ten years. He died on 27 July 1984. ==Work==