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A Disturbing Collection of History’s Most Brutal Rulers

Khalid Elhassan April 30, 2022 37 min

20. The Romantic Side of a Brutal Dictator

Brutal Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein liked to write erotic romance novels. Utne Reader

Saddam Hussein (1937 – 2006), also known as “The Butcher of Baghdad“, ruled Iraq from 1979 until his ouster in the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. His years in power were marked by extreme brutality, oppression, and corruption at home, plus costly and failed wars against his neighbors. In a variety of purges and genocides against domestic opponents, real or suspected, at least a quarter of a million Iraqis were exterminated by Saddam’s security services. Hundreds of thousands more Iraqis did not make it through Saddam’s invasions of Iran and Kuwait.

However, the brutal Iraqi tyrant seems to have had a maudlin streak. When not engaged in the wholesale extermination of his people or getting them into wars, Saddam liked to write steamy romance novels. During his years in power, Saddam wrote at least four novels, and a number of poems and poetry collections. Of his novels, Zabibah and the King is the best known, and the most widely lampooned – it was adapted by Sacha Baron Cohen’s in his 2012 comedy, The Dictator.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.