Abd al-Karim Qasim

Abd al-Karim Qasim (Arabic: عبد الكريم قاسم‎ `Abd al-Karīm Qāsim) (21 November 1914 – 9 February 1963), was a nationalist Iraqi Army brigadier who seized power in a 1958 coup d'état, wherein the Iraqi monarchy was eliminated. He ruled the country as Prime Minister until his downfall and death during the 1963 Ramadan Revolution.

During his rule, Qasim was popularly known as al-za‘īm (الزعيم) or, "The Leader".

Early life and career

Abd al-Karim Qasim's father was an Iraqi Muslim of Arabic descent who died shortly after his son's birth during World War I as a soldier for the Ottoman Empire. Qasim's mother was a Shiite and the daughter of a farmer from Baghdad.

When Qasim was six years of age his family moved to Suwayra, a small town near the Tigris, then to Baghdad in 1926. Qasim was an excellent student; he entered secondary school on a government scholarship. After graduation in 1931, he taught at Shamiyya Elementary School from October 22 of that year until September 3, 1932, when he was accepted into Military College. In 1934, he graduated as a second lieutenant. Qasim then attended al-Arkan (Iraqi Staff) College and graduated with honors (grade A) in December 1941. In 1951, he completed a senior officers’ course in Devizes, Wiltshire. Although shy and lacking in "the rabble-rousing skills on which most successful Arab politicians rely", he was nonetheless nicknamed "the snake charmer" by his classmates in Devizes, because of his gift in convincing them to undertake improbable courses of action during military exercises.