From his birth in 1946, Masoud Barzani has been a symbol of Kurdistan's fight for independence. He has fought for it as a peshmerga fighter, led the KDP through some of the most difficult times for Kurdistan, and has been president of the region in the phases that led up to the independence of 2017. To understand his impact on Kurdistan and its fight for independence, this book seeks to explore the events that made him who he was, and the life of a man who has marked the transition from Kurdistan in rebellion to Kurdistan as a political entity. Masoud Barzani has been at the heart of Kurdistan, and this work explores what made him uniquely suited for that position.