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Facts That Contradict the Perception of Famous Historic Figures and Events

Khalid Elhassan March 3, 2021 34 min

Mao Zedong proclaiming the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. China Org

20. Whatever Else it Was, Saddam’s Novel Was Not Subtle

Although Saddam had his maudlin side, it wasn’t a subtle kind of maudlin. The plot of Zabibah and the King is as unsubtle an allegory as it is possible to cram into a novel. Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The rapist husband represents America. The crime represents the United States’ ousting of Iraq from Kuwait in 1991 and is dated January 17^th – the same date as the commencement of Operation Desert Storm. The heroic King Hussein is Saddam Hussein.

Book cover of a French translation of Zabibah and the King. Bercodo Mundo

To nobody’s surprise, the Iraqi dictator’s novel did extremely well in Iraq. Knowing that they had better, Iraqi critics praised Zabibah as a literary masterpiece. It became a domestic best-seller, with over a million copies flying off the shelves, and a musical appeared in Iraqi theaters. Saddam’s sycophants in the Iraqi Ministry of Information turned the novel into a twenty-part television series, which aired on and was frequently rerun on Iraqi TV.

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.