Tuesday 27 January 2015

All About Saddam Hussein Books

By Ines Flores


Saddam Hussein is an Iraqi leader born in 1937 who became president in 1979. He is remembered for strengthening the oil industry in Iraq as well as its military. To maintain power, he often used brutal measures that eventually cost him his life at the hands of Iraqi government. In 2006, he was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity that he was executed for in Dec 2006. What most people do not know about him is that he was an author of several Saddam Hussein books.

In the list of books written by Saddam include four novels and a few poems. The novels include Men and City, Begone, Demons, Zabibah and the King and also The Fortified Castle. They were anonymously published using the pen name of the author. Some of these materials became part of the curriculum for schools in Iraq. Others became best sellers after his death.

The first novel is Zabibah and the King. Its a romance novel written by Saddam Hussein and published anonymously in 2000. It has several characters including the protagonist the Arab, Zabibah, her husband, Nuri, Shamil and Hezkel. Despite a romantic theme, the novel is largely an allegory and political metaphor. Arab the protagonist is Hussein while Zabibah the poor unloved woman represents the Iraq people.

The relationship between Zabibah and her husband is unloving and cruel. At one point he rapes her, which is believed to represent Iraqs invasion. As a result, the husband is an allegory to the United States. Hezkel, Nuri and Shemel represent other perceived enemies of Iraq such as Israel, Jews and merchants. The novel sold over a million copies and proceeds donated to charity.

Men and the City is another of his novels published in 2002. Its the third of his books to be published. This particular book is more of an autobiography that tells the story of how his grandfather battled the Ottoman Empire. Although it is rumored that the book was ghostwritten, there is evidence that Hussein might have written it.

The third novel by Hussein is the Fortified Castle. Like almost all the others, its an allegory as well as a political metaphor. It was published in the year 2001 and tells the story of a delayed wedding. The protagonist is an Iraq war hero called Sabah getting married to a Kurdish girl. The war hero participated in the significant Iran-Iraq war and was left wounded.

Begone, Demons, a basically a translation of Get out of here while Cursed You is the fourth but also last novel authored by Saddam. It was written in 2003 in anticipation of the Iraq war. It got published much later in 2006 in Tokyo by a Japanese-based publisher. Since then, it has only been translated into Turkish and no other translations exist.

Saddam Husseins books are significant in the historical period in Iraq during the time they were written. In addition, they are significant to the former leader and his country since they were written when his demise had already begun. They are an outpour of strength, hope and ignorance.




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