The Life of Abdel-Karim Qassim - Part 4: High School Years

Date; 1927-31. 
Place; Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq.

Abdel-Karim Qassim's shenanigans and boyish pranks ended when he finished elementary school at Al-Rasafa and entered Baghdad's Central High school. After leaving his old gang of misfits back in the neighborhood, he had to rebuild his social life at school. 

It was hard for Abdel-Karim to fit in amongst the students, as he was shy by nature and only relaxed when he got to know them. At the same time, they could only get acquainted with him if they made some sort of an effort to approach him.

Without his old friends, he lost his confidence in socializing and in himself. In return, that encouraged him to study harder and concentrate at school. He had always been an excellent student, yet his only problem in the past was his friends that distracted him into a point, where he could have gone a completely different road than education.

According to former classmates, he wasn't the most popular guy in the institution; Abdel-Karim was one of the quitest students during his high-school days, during the breaks he would spent the time all alone in a corner by himself, embarrassed about his appearance and lack of money. 

He stood out with a strong facial structure, dark skin and a tenuous body type. On top of that, he had an infection that made his jaw and lips look freakishly large, with the upper lip halting to the left.  

His appearance gave him a very negative self-understanding and made him feel inferior to the rest of the students. He did anything to avoid contact with his fellow pupils and would rather sit in the corner, all gloomy and sad about his very own existence.

About his attendance during class, more or less the same was said by fellow classmates: Abdel-Karim was extremely clever and fast-learning, when asked something by the teacher, he would come with an overflowing amount of answers from different theories. 

At times, it reaches a point where he wouldn't know where to start and end. Even his speaking would become impaired, as he tries to organize his thoughts into a meaningful sentence, as fast as possible, so he doesn't take up time from his fellow students. 

Usually, the Iraqi and British teachers of human sciences, would ask the students a surprise question to test their knowledge. Abdel-Karim would be in such a hurry to answer the question, that he would stutter in the process. Which in return, would always lead to scattered laughter and giggling in the classroom, leaving Abdel-Karim embaressed over his own impatience. 

The teachers didn't hesitate to put the pupils in their place, telling them; that they could laugh as much as they wanted, for in the future, Abdel-Karim will become somebody, while the others can contemplate why they never amounted to anything.

While he was doing very well in the human sciences classes, one of the teachers in natural sciences, Sheet Ne'ma, thought otherwise when it came to Abdel-Karim's attendance in his classes: 

"I have three points concerning his attendance in my natural sciences classes: A) He would always sit in the rearest seats, avoiding participation completely during class. B) He would always show up in dirty and untidy clothes, which showed that he woke up late on the days he was supposed to show up for my classes. C) He had the highest percentage of absence in the class and would at all times avoid our quizzes. 

In the human sciences classes, he was well-prepared for every class and would look his best. He would try to impress his teachers in any way, not only with his intellect, but also with his appearance. 

During class, if the students were asked a question, he would be the first student to lift his arm. When he was picked, his face would turn red and his chest would expand, as if his lungs were overworked with the amount of oxygen, reserved for the different theories he wanted to use as answers to the teachers questions.

But in the natural sciences classes, his appearance and participation in class was abysmal. He dreaded the days where he had his natural sciences, he wasn't prepared and didn't even bother getting dressed appropriately. He would also try avoiding any kind of contact with the teachers, sitting in the back with his arm over his head, as if it made him magically invisible.

When it came to his interests, such as Arabic literature. He would go out of his way to read the works of all the different writers, even the ones he didn't have any homework on. He would spend all of his spare time on reading and every now and then, he would take a break, walking back and forth in the study room like a mad scientist. 

Thinking, philosophizing and theorizing about the written words and the sentences it constructed, trying to encode every meaning of each and every piece of the literary work. His favorite poet was Ma'rouf Al-Rasafi, he would memorize all of his works and would recite them frequently to his closest friends.

A poet that left a big mark on Abdel-Karim, forming his ideas and values on what Iraq is and what it represents. A man he could relate with, as they were both from the lower middle-class and of mixed ethnicity; Arabic and Kurdish. A patriot he admired, as he was mesmorized by the romantic idea of sacrifising yourself and setting aside your own ambitions and needs for the good of the people and country. 

Many years later, as he became the Prime-Minister of Iraq, he would personally attend an annual memorial for the poet. He prepared a speech about the poet, where he would go on and say: "I am one of his greatest admirers, I can recite every single one of his poems and in my humble opinion, he is one of the greatest, if not the greatest poets to have ever lived".

In 1931, he graduated from high-school at the age of 17 with average grades.

Abdel-Karim Qassim in his high-school days,

2nd from the left in the back-row.

Anno late 1920's.

Sources

1. From the memoirs collected by Abdel-Karim's classmates, among them Rasheed Sutlak, whom later became the Minister of Tourism in the first government of the Iraqi Republic. The memories are collected and published by the writer Ahmad Fawzi in the book "Abdel-Karim Qassim and His Last Hours".
2. Image #1 from the facebook page; "Illustrated Archive of the Leader Abdul-Karim Qassim".