Zuhair Raouf Al-Bahrani was a distinguished professor of surgery in Baghdad. He was born in 1932 and qualified MB, ChB in 1955 in Iraq before travelling to the UK to study for his FRCS. After passing the LMSSA and the fellowship of the college in 1963, he spent some time as a surgical registrar at the Highlands General Hospital in Winchmore Hill, London. On his return to Iraq, he initially became a lecturer in the department of surgery at the College of Medicine which was attached to the University of Baghdad and was appointed professor in 1977. Firmly dedicated to medical education, he enjoyed expanding surgical training in his country. He published widely in the international medical literature from 1964 to 2014, largely relating to cancer and lymphoma in Iraq and the Middle East generally. A significant study, published in 2003, covered the increase in colorectal cancer in Iraq. As part of his commitment to the college, he donated pathological specimens of primary intestinal lymphoma to the Hunterian Museum and also to the Wellcome Trust. He died from a stroke on 8 September 2019 and was survived by two sons, a daughter and seven grandchildren. In 2021 his biography was published in Arabic titled *The genius of surgery in Iraq: biography of Professor Zuahir AlBahrani * (Aqam Academic Books, 2021).