The Life of Abdel-Karim Qassim - Special: The Militant Poet

To understand the identity of Abdel-Karim Qassim, we have to look at the personalities that affected his life, people who formed and molded him into the man he later became. The special editions will concentrate solely on each family member, friend, colleague and role model. While other parts of this chronicle will document his biography - where we together - will relive these events that influenced him along the road of life.

The Militant Poet - Ma'rouf Al-Rusafi
One of the personalities that formed the views of Abdel-Karim Qassim on politics and Iraq in general was one of the great poets of Iraq, Ma'rouf Al-Rusafi. The poet was born in Baghdad in 1875; his father Abdel-Ghani Mahmoud, was of Kurdish decent from Kirkuk and his mother Fatima bint Jassim Al-Shammar, of Turkmen decent from Baghdad.

The father, a God fearing man, was an officer outside Baghdad and therefore Ma'rouf was raised by his mother, whom was as religious as the father. The poets early years were spent in mosques and katateeb, where he learnt the Quran by heart. After three years of elementary school he was transferred to Al-Rushdiyah Al-Askariyah School, where he failed his studies and therefore couldn't continue on to military college to achieve a position in government services. A position that could give you a comfortable life, something all Iraqis dreamt off during Ottoman rule.

The failure reflected on his next choice, he switched studies and started to study Islamic law under the supervision of the Salafi scholar Mahmoud Shukri Al-Alousi, known as the Mufti of Baghdad. For twelve years, he also studied under the teachings of Sheikh Abbas Al-Kassab and Imam Qassim Al-Qaysi. Where his interest in the words of poetry, was evoked by the poetic construction of sentences in the holy Quran.

As a "gift" for graduating, he was giving a turban and cloak, ready to preach as one of Al-Alousi's finest disciples. The imam also rewarded Ma'rouf with the artistic name: "Al-Rusafi" (derived from the name of the western bank of Tigris). As opposed to the Sufi saint Ma'rouf "Al-Karkhi" (derived from the name of the eastern bank of the river Tigris), on a side note; Al-Alousi was not very fond of Sufi-Islam.

For those who don't know the poet, he became extremely secular later in life. Neither when, nor why is documented. It is widely believed that it happened during a chapter of his life, where he worked as a teacher in elementary schools in Baghdad (and later Diyala) after finishing his religious studies.

After returning to Baghdad, he passed an examination in Arabic language and literature, so he could work in high schools. In the years up to 1908, he managed to get several of his poems published in Egyptian magazines such as Al-Muayad and Al-Muktataf with several other Iraqi writers. 

The Iraqi writers couldn't get published in Ottoman Iraq, the main reason was that there weren't any publications allowed and also, because of the rising amount of poets who were using a nationalistic rhetoric. While in Egypt, the British rulers were supportive of any criticism directed at the Ottomans.

The Iraqi writers started to gain recognition as their words of resistance reached the entire Arab world and as far as the United States, where young Arab emigrants were memorizing the poems to keep in touch with the motherland.

By that time, he had made a transformation from religious to political poetry. During his religious studies and shortly after that, he made poetry praising the beauty of God's creations. While at the turn of the century, his poetry became more and more militant and aggressive towards the Ottomans. Reciting the words of his poems, as if they were bullets shot at the longtime occupier of Iraq.

At that time, the young academics started to move away from the idea of Islamic Unionism and the outdated system in the Ottoman Empire, a system that was kept alive for 600 years on the basis of "it's God's will". As for Ma'rouf, he started to move towards nationalism and the ideals of the French Revolution.

In his poems and public appearances; he demanded freedom of thought, resisted imperialism, promoted scientific and cultural revival after the European model, preached for the need of modern inventions, defended victims of social injustice and lamented the deteriorating conditions of the Ottoman Empire and its provinces, in particular Iraq.

Ma'rouf even went as far as using the slogan of the French Revolution; "Liberty, Justice and Equality" in his poetry. Words he freed from the Ottomans torture chambers and returned to the mind of the Iraqi populace, after 600 years of feudal slavery.

The same slogan was used by the Committee of Union and Progress, the umbrella organization founded by the Young Turks. They fought against the Ottoman system, wishing to replace it with a pan-Turkish empire. The idea spread like a wildfire, now all the nations within the empire started their own branch. The goal was to secure autonomy for their own nation within an ailing empire, as Istanbul was rapidly falling into the hands of the popular Young Turks.

In Baghdad, the secret organisation was led by Murad Bey Suleiman, a man inspired by the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi; an Italian general who led the unification of the Italian kingdoms, given the honorific titles of "The Father of the Fatherland". 

He officially became an active member of the resistance in 1908, what made him differ from the other poets; was that he acted upon what he preached and didn't leave his followers to fight the fight alone. Unlike the other poets, he refused to limit his resistance to ink on paper, quite the contrary, he wanted to lead the masses into judgment day; together we get our freedom or together, we die fighting for it.

As the Young Turk Revolution succeeded in 1908 and the Ottoman Empire became a constitutional monarchy. Ma'rouf, already a trusted member of the C.U.P. branch in Baghdad. Was given an invitation by Murad Bey, to edit the political and cultural journal in the party's local bulletin, he also wrote poetry dedicated to the party's resistance against the Ottoman administration. 

Even though the revolution succeded and the "new" constitution was implemented, with a new parliement and parties were once again allowed to participate with representation coming from every corner of the empire. They were met with fierce opposition from Sultan Abdul-Hamid II and his aristocrats, whom gave up their political powers reluctantly. 

The Sultan resisted the autonomy given to the wilayat of the empire, something the many branches of the C.U.P. had fought for, as they resisted the centralistic nature of the Sultan's empire. The revolutionary Young Turks had won the battle, but not the war, as they continued their resistance towards a possible counter-coup by the Sultan. 

One of Ma'rouf's most daring actions within the resistance was his attack on Al-Wazir mosque, build by the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in 1599. A mosque known for spewing propaganda for the Sultan, advocating sectarianism with Friday sermons dominated by racist rhetoric towards the ethnic and religious minorities of Iraq.

As Ma'rouf became fed up with the mosque and it's brainwashing of the local youth, he gathered a group of Iraqi nationalists of Jewish, Christian and Muslim background. Most of them comrades representing minorities, therefore making them victims of the mosques preaching. 

During one of the Friday sermons, they occupied the mosque; the poet pushed down the Imam from his pulpit, while comrades barricaded the doors from the outside; forcing the praying to stay inside, as the poet "dressed down" the worshippers rhetorically. 

For foreign readers, a "dressing down" or "getting someone naked" in Iraqi sense, is to destroy someone's reputation, honor and self-esteem in public; all through the use of words, words that can annihilate the most confident human being on earth. 

Shortly after, mobs of angry conservatives surrounded the mosque and the governor Nazim Pasha's residence. As they demanded the hanging of the poet or they would take the matter in their own hands and lynch him themselves. As the governor was a secret admirer of Ma'rouf's poetry, he put him in a house arrest for his own safety, saving him from an incident that could have ended his life. 

As the Ottoman Empire was self-destructing, the poet had built himself a reputation of being a lion amongst sheep. With his words he moved the masses to action, so they could end the miserable state the empire was in. Starting the first of many battles for Iraqi self-realization and independence. Wishing to remove the mental shackles imposed on them and once again makes them a free nation. 

To be continued... In the upcoming article: "The Militant Poet, Part II".

Ma'rouf Al-Rusafi in the early 1900's

Sources

1. The academic paper "Two Baghdadi Poets, One from Rusafa and One from Karkh" by Dr. Yasin T. Al-Jibouri.
2. The book "The Encyclopedia of Islam, Volume 6" by the author Clifford Edmund Bosworth.
3. The academic paper "Ma'ruf al-Rusafi: His life and works" by Dr. Joynul Hoque.
4. Image #1 from the website; "Muntada Ayamna".