An unquenchable thirst

'Alam Saddam Hussein (Saddam Hussein's World), Mahdi Haidar, Cologne: Al-Kamel Verlag, 2003. pp414

Prior to its publication, this novel was promoted as being the work of a renowned Arab fiction writer whose identity would not be revealed until after the death of Saddam Hussein. It appeared two months ago under the pseudonym of Mahdi Haidar. Due to this atmosphere of mystery, and to the nature of the book's content, 'Alam Saddam Hussein has given rise to a sensation. Perhaps now that the Iraqi president's days are behind him, the name of the novel's author will no longer be kept a secret.

In his brief foreword the author writes, "This novel is not a historical text. Rather, it is a work of the imagination that makes use of reality in order to invent a world that lies parallel to it. That world is sometimes identical to reality; at other times it departs from it...The book also makes use of borrowings from Arab and foreign works written by novelists and poets, as well as by historians, politicians and journalists."

So much for the disclaimer. Without completely giving up on literary devices, the novel in fact reads like a biographical dramatisation of a large period of Saddam Hussein's life, starting with his childhood as an orphan in the village of Al-Auja near Tikrit, and ending with his successful plot to replace Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan Al-Bakr in 1979. This is a journey that takes the reader through an unhappy adolescence spent with his uncle in Baghdad, the process of joining the underground Ba'ath Party, the attempted assassination of Iraqi President Abdel-Karim Qassim in the early 1960s, the flight to Cairo by way of Syria and the two years spent there, the eventual return to Baghdad and imprisonment, the Ba'ath Party's successful coup in 1968 and the rise through the ranks of the party, becoming vice president, and then eventually president of Iraq.

Character names, dates and historical facts in this epic of maligned- orphan-turned-frightful-dictator coincide with reality, reproducing these turbulent episodes in the history of Iraq almost to the letter. This particular aspect of the book has led to speculation as to the identity of its author, with many readers contending that it must be someone who was very close to Hussein, perhaps a Ba'ath Party member of that time.

Since it was a pan-Arab organisation, the Ba'ath Party had members all over the Arab world, some of whom had an interest in literature. It would not be surprising, therefore, if the author of this novel turned out to be a well-known Arab author, whether Iraqi or not. Yet, irrespective of the nationality of its author, the wealth of information contained in the novel offers profound insight into the oppressive and conspiratorial ideology through which Hussein came to power. Many therefore feel that it could not have been written by a true Ba'athist.

Intrigues, conspiracies and assassinations abound. In one passage, to mention but a single example, Hussein's attempt to assassinate the Kurdish leader Moustafa Al-Barazani is depicted thus: "Mullah Moustafa Al- Barazani was drinking tea in his house in Arbil with seven sheikhs who had arrived from Karkouk, when two explosions rocked the house, and two of the sheikhs blew into pieces... Al-Barazani's guards began to fire their automatic rifles, killing four more sheikhs and injuring the last remaining one. Investigations revealed that Nazim Kazar [the head of the Iraqi secret intelligence] had provided them with tape recorders hidden underneath their gowns. The seven sheikhs had not realised that these had made them human bombs..."

"Moustafa Al-Barazani sustained a face injury, due not to shrapnel, but to the blow he received from an arm severed by the explosive device hidden in the tape recorder under the gown of one of the sheikhs flying across the room... Mullah Moustafa Al-Barazani put his astrakhan cloak over his shoulders, carried the pistol presented to him by Brezhnev, and left the blood-and- flesh-splattered room, the house, the neighbourhood, and the whole of Arbil. The war had started again. In the mountains, surrounded by peshmerge fighters, Al-Barazani told his son Masoud, 'This Saddam Hussein is sick and mad. His thirst for power will never be quenched. He has tried to do away with me, and he will do away with Bakr.'"

This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding the intricacies of a four-decade long chapter in the history of Iraq, concluding only now. Will the next chapter prove better for Iraq and its people? The present sad beginning notwithstanding, one can only hope that the history of Iraq will now take a happier turn.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 17 - 23 April 2003 (Issue No. 634)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/634/bsc19.htm