Iraq’s Revolution: Bastille Day in Baghdad
The chain of events that led to the rule of Saddam Hussein began with the murder of the 23-year-old King Faisal during the 14 July Revolution.
"The sun shines in my city
The bells ring out for heroes
Awake my beloved we are free…"
So wrote Abdul Wahab Batati in a poem to commemorate the Iraq Revolution of July 1958, which occurred exactly 169 years after the storming of the Bastille in Paris. Apart from sharing the same birthday, the French and Iraqi revolutions were both regicidal and were both greeted with euphoria.
Baghdad in the spring of 1958 was a pleasant place to live. It was the headquarters of the Baghdad Pact, an alliance of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Britain, formed in 1955 with US support and designed to combat the Communist threat to the region. The staff of the pact included defence and economic experts, as well as diplomats who, together with cultivated Baghdad society, made up a convivial community. For those who enjoyed field sports there were wild fowl to shoot and giant perch to catch while the Iraqi Royal Family owned a pack of fox hounds that hunted jackals twice a week in season. Iraq also had much to offer the archaeologist and historian, including, within easy reach, the sites of Babylon and Ctesiphon. At a domestic level the Alwiyah Club provided a large swimming pool and other facilities, attractive to families with children. This club had been founded in 1924 by the Arabist Gertrude Bell who, as chief assistant to the British High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, had shown a deep sympathy and understanding for Iraq and its peoples.
It was hot by day but cooled down in the evening. The city looked beautiful as the sun set. Lights came on and were reflected in the Tigris, the fast-flowing, silty river that dominates the city. On the east side, twinkling with coloured lamps, was Abu Nuwas Street named after a libertine poet who, it was claimed, had accompanied the eighth-century Abbasid caliph, Harun, on nocturnal escapades during Baghdad’s glory days. There you could eat masgouf, a fresh-water fish cooked on a fire of twigs and straw. Some chose to wash it down with araq, a spirit distilled from dates that turned white when mixed with water, earning it the nickname ‘milk of tiger’. After eating you could watch belly dancing or listen to Arab singing.
British betrayal
Britain’s responsibility in Iraq was a consequence of the First World War, in which Turkey had sided with Germany. To safeguard her interests in the Gulf Britain sent an expeditionary force to Basra. Following an early defeat at Kut al-Amara a British force under Sir Stanley Maude succeeded in capturing Baghdad in 1917 and after the war Britain was given a mandate by the League of Nations to govern Iraq. To many Iraqis British rule was seen as a betrayal of the understanding whereby, in return for Arab support in the war against the Turks, they would obtain self-government after it.
A revolt broke out in 1920 that was put down with heavy losses on both sides. Britain, tired and poorer after the Great War, needed an exit strategy and found one in the form of Faisal, the Hashemite son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca. Faisal I became king in 1921 and in 1932 Iraq gained full independence for the first time since 1258. However, Britain maintained a military training role and a base at Habbanya, some 50 miles west of Baghdad. Faisal I died in 1933, followed by his son and successor Ghazi in 1939. This left Ghazi’s son, the infant Faisal II, as king. The British connection irked Iraqi nationalists and in 1941 a military coup deposed the regent Abd al-Ilah and his pro-British prime minister, Nuri al-Said. After the new regime appealed to the Germans for military help Britain sent forces from Jordan and the coup collapsed. The four generals responsible were executed. Britain’s interests had been protected but not without making more enemies.
By 1958 Britain’s influence and popularity had been further eroded, as a result of giving up the mandate in Palestine in 1948, thereby allowing the creation of Israel, followed in 1956 by what the Arab world saw as its collusion with Israel over Suez. The damage to Britain’s reputation extended to its friends, particularly Nuri al-Said, who in 1958 was still the leading political figure in Iraq, holding the office of prime minister of the newly formed Arab Federation of Jordan and Iraq. This union was designed to counter the United Arab Republic of Egypt and Syria, representing Arab nationalism and led by President Nasser, which was daily pumping out propaganda criticising the Iraqi government for its links with imperialism.
It was true that a close relationship still existed between Britain and the Iraqi government, including the presence of British economic advisers. However oil revenues were being wisely invested and, although a lot still needed to be done in the way of social and economic reform, conditions were not bad by the standards of a developing country at that time. The 22-year-old Harrow-educated king was popular, even though his uncle, Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah, who exercised considerable power, was not. As the summer advanced and the temperature rose, rumours circulated of an impending coup.
It came on the morning of Monday July 14th. The inhabitants of Mansur in western Baghdad woke to the rattle of automatic weapons. This did not unduly alarm them since there were ranges nearby and many assumed that the firing came from these. However, as soon as they turned on their radios they learned that there had been a military coup and that the royal house had been abolished.
False reports
For the next 24 hours there was conflicting news. Broadcasts from Turkey, Iran and Jordan reported that the Iraqi 2nd Army was loyal to the king and coming to Baghdad from Kirkuk and Arbil, likewise the 4th Army which was coming from Diwaniya in the south. There was a report, too, that the army in Amara was not taking orders from the new regime. None of this support claimed for the king materialised.
The BBC World Service quoted Baghdad Radio as saying that Abd al-Ilah had been assassinated but that Nuri al-Said had escaped and there was a reward of 10,000 dinars on his head. The US 6th Fleet had apparently left ports in France while British naval ships were under 24 hours’ notice to leave Malta.
Since 1958 knowledge of events on and leading up to July 14th in Baghdad has become clearer. Some younger army officers had begun to spread revolutionary ideas. They formed a small central organisation of 14 men, of whom Brigadier Abd al-Karim Qasim (born in 1913) was the most senior, and called themselves Free Officers. Their aim was to overthrow the regime and replace it with a republican government based on parliamentary democracy, with a non-aligned position in foreign policy. The knowledge that these aims were supported by some of the younger generation of civil officials no doubt strengthened the officers’ resolve.
The occasion for the revolution was a matter of opportunity and various dates were considered prior to July 14th. One factor in deciding was the need for Nuri al-Said, Abd al-Ilah and King Faisal to be together, or at least all in Baghdad, so that they could be assassinated simultaneously without one or more escaping to provide a focus for opposition or possible foreign intervention. The three were all known to be in Baghdad on the night of July 13th and 14th as they were scheduled to fly to Turkey the next day for a meeting connected with the Baghdad Pact.
A further factor affected the choice of date. A brigade had been ordered to proceed from Jalula, situated north-east of Baghdad, to Jordan via Baghdad on July 14th. The second in command was Colonel Abdul Salam Arif, a member of the Free Officers’ central organisation. Qasim was commanding another brigade based close to Baghdad. A problem arose over obtaining ammunition before setting out from Jalula but Arif managed to get around this. Then, instead of passing through Baghdad, he moved his brigade into the city at 4am, occupying the radio station an hour later, whence he announced the overthrow of the royal house, proclaimed a republic and issued an appeal to the people to come out and support the revolution.
A small detachment was sent to the Rihab Palace in Mansur, where the king and crown prince resided. It initially encountered some resistance and reinforcements were sent for. When the king and crown prince first heard firing they apparently thought that troops must be engaged in weapon training at Washash, an army camp nearby.
It is not precisely clear what events led up to the killing of the royal family but it seems likely that they came out into the front courtyard, having offered to surrender and, believing that their lives would be spared, were shot in cold blood. Those killed included the Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah, his mother Queen Nafisa, his sister Princess Abdiya and Faisal II. It appears that the majority of the Free Officers had not been in favour of killing the young king and that subsequently there was ‘evidence of widespread shame and grief over the fact and manner of his death’.
Lucky to escape were the sister of the crown prince Princess Badiya, her husband, Sherif Hussein, their three boys and Mrs Hazeldine, their English nanny, who lived very close to the palace. They received a warning from a loyal officer that the king had been killed and that they should flee. The princess gave Mrs Hazeldine her veil as a disguise and by stages over the next day and a half they managed to reach the Saudi Arabian Embassy where they were given shelter. They were allowed to leave Iraq a month later.
Even luckier was the crown prince’s wife, Hayam, who reached the top of the steps leading out into the courtyard wearing only a nightdress beneath her coat and went back inside to get something more substantial. When she emerged again she was met by a burst of fire and collapsed slightly wounded. According to the 1961 account of the British diplomat, Gerald de Gaury, she was saved by an NCO who knew her family and threw a covering over her, telling her to lie quite still. When an officer rushing past told him to ‘shoot at that one’, he replied: ‘She is dead but there are others inside’. Afterwards he carried her, ‘as if she were a corpse for disposal’, to a neighbour’s house.
Imperialist stooges
Meanwhile Colonel Arif in a broadcast called on people to take part in the arrest of ‘traitors’ and ‘imperialist stooges’. By 8am the main streets were crowded with people, including both peasants and poor city dwellers, who were becoming excited and angry. Supporters of the old regime were a target for the mob, which proceeded to sack the royal palace. Staff of the British embassy who lived in the area were prevented from going to work and one was badly beaten.
Soldiers had been sent to arrest Nuri al-Said at around 5am and surrounded his house on the west bank of the Tigris. However Nuri escaped in the nick of time. Hearing firing, he slipped out of the back door into his garden, which extended about 40 yards down to the river and, still in his pyjamas, caught a ferry to the east bank. He found people milling around in a state of excitement and immediately re-crossed to the west bank but further north, eventually reaching the house of an old friend, Mahmud al-Istrabadi, where he remained until the early hours of the following day. He left it, disguised as a woman in the company of Mrs Istrabadi, as his pursuers got closer. Subsequently the two ‘women’ were walking together when a passer-by noticed that pyjamas were showing underneath one of their gowns. Nuri was then challenged and both he and Mrs Istrabadi were shot dead.
Having got on to the river, it seems odd that Nuri did not get right away from Baghdad. It is possible that he stayed in Baghdad out of loyalty to the young king, whose death had not yet been announced. Nuri had a devotion to the Hashemite dynasty going back four generations to Sherif Hussein and the Arab Revolt of 1916-18. At Versailles in 1919 he had talked to Lord Grey, listened to Curzon and met Lloyd George and President Wilson. His death removed one of the remaining links back to that seismic time for the Middle East when Ottoman rule ended and new nations were formed.
Nuri was buried secretly on the orders of Qasim but on July 17th the mob discovered his grave, disinterred his body and burnt it in front of the Egyptian embassy. The army had buried the king in the royal mausoleum but the body of Abd al-Ilah was given to the crowd who first mutilated it and then dragged it through the streets to the gates of the ministry of defence where it was hanged. This was payback time, since the crown prince was held responsible for the hanging of the four generals during the military rebellion of 1941, one of them outside the ministry.
Symbol of the past
The British embassy was seen as a supporter of the old regime, as well as a symbol of Iraq’s past imperialist humiliation, having been the secretariat of the British High Commissioner Sir Percy Cox during the mandate. As such it was a target for attack. A fine yellow-brick building in Ottoman style on two floors with a central courtyard, the embassy was located in Kark, a poorer part of the city, and backed on to the Tigris. A mob soon gathered at the gates and was faced by General Maude’s statue. Only a few weeks before, during a security review, it had been suggested that the statue be moved into a less vulnerable position in the embassy garden. This had led to some irreverent invitations to ‘come into the garden Maude’, but no more. He was duly toppled.
The mob then turned on the embassy itself, breaking glass and pulling out the bars of the windows in the exterior wall and firing through the gaps. Whether by accident or design, a bullet hit and killed Colonel Ludo Graham, the ambassador’s financial comptroller, who was on the upper balcony of the inner courtyard. Meanwhile most of the rest of the staff took refuge in the registry which was down a short flight of steps and protected by a steel grille. However a wireless operator remained outside transmitting until the Iraqis physically stopped him. By this time the mob was rampaging through the building, throwing out files into the courtyard.
After some worrying hours in the registry, during which the staff could not be sure they would not be lynched or the building set alight (the fate of the ambassador’s residence nearby), an agreement was reached whereby they would be given a safe passage to the lawn behind the embassy. Some of the Arab-speaking staff who walked on the outside of the group were roughed up by the mob and had their watches stolen. Once on the lawn they were surrounded by tanks which alarmingly turned their guns inwards.
This was a nervous time for the substantial British community in Baghdad. People wanted to know what was happening. Many listened to the BBC News around the clock. It was reassuring to hear that the key players at that time – President Eisenhower, the American secretary of state, John Foster Dulles and the British Foreign Secretary John Selwyn Lloyd – were concerned about events in Baghdad. Actually their main worry seemed to be to see that the same thing did not happen in Jordan and Lebanon. Protective forces were dispatched at the request of these governments, US troops arriving in Beirut on July 15th and British in Amman two days later. The Soviet government described the US landings in Beirut as an act of war and announced that Russian troops were carrying out manoeuvres on its borders with Turkey and Iran. Perhaps this move was intended to discourage the Americans from intervening. Brigadier Qasim gave the US ambassador the impression that he was worried they might do so.
Meanwhile the BBC described events in Iraq as shocking but added that the Iraq Petroleum Company was operating as usual, Basra was quiet and no damage had been done at Habbaniya. Both Britain and Iraq had an interest in easing tension. A few days later David Ormsby-Gore, the minister of state at the Foreign Office, announced in Parliament that Britain had no intention of interfering in Iraq’s internal affairs. In turn Qasim, who wished to consolidate his position, made it clear to the British government that he would meet Iraq’s international obligations and pay compensation for damage. Britain recognised the new regime on August 1st.
Two days before, a few personal friends had organised a service in London in memory of Nuri, King Faisal and the crown prince, at the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy (the Chapel of the Royal Victorian Order, of which all three were members). Nuri had been a good and loyal friend to Britain for 40 years and in his memoirs Anthony Eden commented: ‘This did not seem enough to mark our country’s respect and gratitude’. Majed Khadduri in his book Republican Iraq wrote:
It is an irony of history that the funeral prayers for the great grandsons [i.e. descendants] of the Prophet Muhammad, killed by the followers of the Prophet, should be given not in a mosque in Islamic lands but in a church in infidel lands.
Apart from the deaths of the Iraqi royals, three US businessmen and a visiting Jordanian minister were murdered on July 14th. An RAF wing-commander visiting Baghdad from Habbanya was also dragged out of his car and stabbed in the shoulder outside the YWCA, one of whose residents, a Lebanese girl, bravely intervened, telling his attackers they must respect foreigners, taking him inside the hostel. The mob that Arif had rallied had got out of control. Qasim quickly recognised the danger of this for the new regime and sought to contain the violence by imposing a curfew, barring gatherings of five or more, restricting travel outside Baghdad and setting up road blocks at key points around the city. Nevertheless the atmosphere remained tense.
Staff returning to the British embassy after a few days were presented with a scene of devastation, the central courtyard awash with paper. All was silent bar the occasional yowl of a cat and the soft cooing of turtle doves. A smell of blocked drains added to the air of decay. As Sir Humphrey Trevelyan, the next British ambassador to Iraq, later wrote:
The romance of early Anglo-Arabism, the special relationship born in archaeology and the coincidence of war-time interests … incarnate in those more than life-size figures of the romantic period, Lawrence, Gertrude Bell, Percy Cox, was finally shattered in the ruins of the British Embassy in Baghdad.
Meanwhile the current British ambassador, Sir Michael Wright, having lost his residence and all his possessions, had opened a temporary embassy on the third floor of the Baghdad Hotel. Bizarrely the Russians had opened a new embassy on the floor below. This led to some confusion and over the next few days junior diplomats from both countries found themselves popping up and down stairs, politely re-delivering letters intended for the other.
The aftermath of July 14th saw a shift in Cold War relationships. It affected the Iraqis in the sense of the Arab saying: ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend.’ Since the coup had been anti-British as well as anti-Hashemite, it was natural that Qasim should look to the Russians. For their part the Russians welcomed the fall of a regime that had made Iraq a member of the anti-Communist Baghdad Pact and recognised the new regime at once. Commercial and development co-operation agreements between the Soviet Union and Iraq soon followed.
Britain was concerned at the prospect of a country of strategic importance coming under Soviet influence and, with commercial interests at stake, needed to salvage what it could from the situation and avoid alienating the new regime unnecessarily. It therefore recognised it sooner than it would have liked, given its responsibility for the murder of the royal family.
Other international effects of July 14th were the immediate dissolving of the brief union with Jordan and the improvement of relations between Iraq and Egypt, whose leader, President Nasser, welcomed the new regime and offered it military support. The honeymoon was in fact short-lived and the movement towards Arab unity, then seen as an ‘unstoppable force’, soon ground to a halt. It was inevitable that Iraq would withdraw from the Baghdad Pact but it did not formally do so until March 1959.
Grim parallels
Within Iraq, as Abdul Wahab Batati’s poem suggests, the events of July 14th were initially greeted with jubilation by many who looked forward to a new-found freedom. And the regime did announce at once that ‘all restrictions on personal liberty were lifted, discriminating measures abolished and steps would be taken to repair past errors’. However, the repairing of ‘past errors’ turned out to involve the sacking and subsequent trial of some senior army officers and civil servants. To this end Qasim created a people’s court that had extensive powers allowing it in effect to prosecute anyone who was considered to be an enemy of the revolution.
Here, perhaps, more than anywhere else, there was an echo of the French Revolution, for Colonel Fadil Abbas al-Mahdawi, president of the court, and Colonel Majid Muhammad Amin, the prosecutor-general, were, like Fouquier-Tinville, the famous prosecutor of the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris, great showmen who could be comical and satirical as well as abusive. They soon had a popular following and acted both as publicisers and as a safety valve for the revolution. Sam Falle, counsellor at the British embassy, who sat in on some of the trials, described them as ‘a horrifying and terrifying experience’. At one point someone objecting to his presence shouted at Mahdawi: ‘An imperialist is sitting here defiling our Court, see that he is expelled forthwith’. Mahdawi replied: ‘No, let the imperialist stay and see how the people wreak vengeance on their enemies, the lackeys of imperialism.’ The courtroom was packed with supporters of the revolution who screamed and waved ropes. In fact only three of the accused were hanged. These included Said Qazzaz, the former minister of the interior.
July 14th, 1958 set a pattern for Iraq and other military coups followed, including one in 1963 in which Brigadier Qasim was killed. He had been too busy worrying about his own survival in power to deliver much freedom or reform. In 1968 a coup by the socialist Ba’ath party brought General Hasan al-Bakr to power where he remained until ill health forced him to hand over to his deputy, Saddam Hussein, in 1979. By this time many Iraqis must have been looking back nostalgically to the days of Nuri and King Faisal. But Iraq’s new nightmare had only just begun.
