28 April: Saddam Hussein

This date in 1937 saw the birth of Iraq's former dictator, Saddam Hussein. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. His father was a shepherd who died from cancer before he was born. His older brother also died from cancer at around the same time. His mother plunged into such a severe depression over the deaths that she attempted suicide. When Saddam was born, she wanted nothing to do with him so he was taken in by an uncle who was a member of the Ba'ath Party. He returned to his mother when she remarried, but his step-father treated him badly so he ran away at the age of 10 and went back to his uncle.
2. He studied law for three years before dropping out to join the Ba'ath Party.
3. Hence he was close to his cousins growing up and eventually married one of them – Sajida – when he was 21. He later had a second wife who was never officially recorded. Her name was Samira and needless to say, Sajida was furious about it. There were even rumours that he had an additional two wives.
4. The name Saddam means “one who confronts” in Arabic.
5. Before coming to power in 1979, he achieved some good things. As vice-chairman of his party, he set up a literacy programme, built roads and schools, set up a healthcare system. His literacy programme even won a UNESCO award.
6. He even pledged to send money to the USA to help “homeless and wretched Americans”. He also made donations to a church in America – the Chaldean Christians, a Christian sect with roots in Iraq. The church was based in Detroit, and its leader, Reverend Jacob Yasso had sent congratulations when Saddam took power. The donation resulted in Saddam being presented with the keys to the city of Detroit. He is one of only 10 people to have that honour conferred upon them.
7. He wrote a book. Not, as you might expect, a book on wars and military tactics, but a romance novel called Zabiba and the King. It was published anonymously in 2000 but newspapers in Iraq got hold of the idea that he might be the author. It was after this that it became an best seller and was turned into a musical.
8. In the 1990s, he commissioned a copy of the Qur'an written in his own Blood, as a thank you to God for helping him overcome the dangers he'd faced in his life. It's estimated that 50 pints of blood would be required to complete it. While blood donation experts maintain that it would take at least nine years to safely donate that much blood, Saddam's calligrapher Abbas Shakir Joudi completed the project in two. Whether Allah was likely to have been impressed is debatable since Islamic law forbids using blood to write a Qur'an.
9. While being held by the Americans, his guard reported that the only time Saddam looked really defeated was when they ran out of his usual breakfast cereal and he had to eat Fruit Loops, which he hated.
10. His captors let him plant a small garden with a date tree which Saddam liked to spend time in, taking care of the plants. He used to feed the birds which visited the garden, too.

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