The reign of Saddam Hussein as the president of Iraq lasted for twenty four years between 1979 and 2003. It ended with the invasion of Iraq and his capture by US forces. His execution by hanging in 2006 December 30th marked the end of a dictatorial era. In his life, he is said to have penned down four novels and a collection of poems though he never signed off with his name. All purported Saddam Hussein Books were authored under He Who Wrote It.
Zabibah and the King is a novel published in 2000. The CIA believes that he wrote the novel though he could have been assisted by ghost writer. It is tells the story of a powerful ruler in medieval Iraq who fell in love with a common girl known as Zabibah.
Zabibah is married to a rapist and cruel husband. The setting is Tikrit somewhere in the 7th or 8th century. Saddam was interestingly born in Tikrit. A new edition of the book was released in 2004, having been edited by Lawrence Robert. There was a rumor that the movie where Sacha Baron Cohen starred was adapted from this story but it turned out not to be true.
The Fortified Castle is a 713 pages novel that was released in 2001. It is an allegory of a delayed wedding of a hero of the Iraq-Iran war. The hero is supposed to get married to a Kurdish girl. It features three main characters. Two of them are brothers named Mahmud and Sabah. They come from the rural western bank of Tigris River and are born of a farming family. The third character is Shatrin, a lady from Suleimaniya.
The meeting point for the three characters is University of Baghdad. This happens after Sabah has escaped from the Iran captives who held him and his friends as prisoners of the Iraq-Iran war. He was captured after getting wounded in the battle fields.
The Fortified Castle is considered a clarion call to Iraqis to unite. The mother of the war hero is confronted by pressure to divide their wealth. She does not bow to the pressure, insisting that the property is impossible to buy using money. In her words, the property can only be claimed by those who fought and shed their blood for it. A third book entitled Men and the City never got the attention given to the other titles.
Begone Demons is loosely translated as Get Out You Damned. The book is said to have been completed a day before US invasion. It captures the theory of Zionist-Christian conspiracy to fight and oppress Muslims and Arabs. The story appears to be a reference to the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11th. The naming of characters is suggestive of the Muslim-Christian tussle.
Tokuma Shoten Publishing of Japan edited and released the same book in 2006 under a different title Devils Dance. Humam Khalil released a Turkish translation years later. Raghad wanted to release the same book in Jordan by printing and circulating one hundred thousand copies. The government declined its publication which means that it was never translated and distributed in any other language.
Zabibah and the King is a novel published in 2000. The CIA believes that he wrote the novel though he could have been assisted by ghost writer. It is tells the story of a powerful ruler in medieval Iraq who fell in love with a common girl known as Zabibah.
Zabibah is married to a rapist and cruel husband. The setting is Tikrit somewhere in the 7th or 8th century. Saddam was interestingly born in Tikrit. A new edition of the book was released in 2004, having been edited by Lawrence Robert. There was a rumor that the movie where Sacha Baron Cohen starred was adapted from this story but it turned out not to be true.
The Fortified Castle is a 713 pages novel that was released in 2001. It is an allegory of a delayed wedding of a hero of the Iraq-Iran war. The hero is supposed to get married to a Kurdish girl. It features three main characters. Two of them are brothers named Mahmud and Sabah. They come from the rural western bank of Tigris River and are born of a farming family. The third character is Shatrin, a lady from Suleimaniya.
The meeting point for the three characters is University of Baghdad. This happens after Sabah has escaped from the Iran captives who held him and his friends as prisoners of the Iraq-Iran war. He was captured after getting wounded in the battle fields.
The Fortified Castle is considered a clarion call to Iraqis to unite. The mother of the war hero is confronted by pressure to divide their wealth. She does not bow to the pressure, insisting that the property is impossible to buy using money. In her words, the property can only be claimed by those who fought and shed their blood for it. A third book entitled Men and the City never got the attention given to the other titles.
Begone Demons is loosely translated as Get Out You Damned. The book is said to have been completed a day before US invasion. It captures the theory of Zionist-Christian conspiracy to fight and oppress Muslims and Arabs. The story appears to be a reference to the destruction of the Twin Towers on September 11th. The naming of characters is suggestive of the Muslim-Christian tussle.
Tokuma Shoten Publishing of Japan edited and released the same book in 2006 under a different title Devils Dance. Humam Khalil released a Turkish translation years later. Raghad wanted to release the same book in Jordan by printing and circulating one hundred thousand copies. The government declined its publication which means that it was never translated and distributed in any other language.
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