Abd Al-Karim Qasim

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Abd al-Karim Qasim, was a nationalist Iraqi Army officer who seized power in a 1958 coup d'état, wherein the Iraqi monarchy was eliminated. He ruled the country as Prime Minister of Iraq until his downfall and death in 1963. His name can be transliterated from the Arabic in a number of ways, e.g. Abdel Karim Kassem, Abdul Karim Kassem, Abdulkarim Kasem, Abdel-Karim Qaasim, `Abdul Karim Qasem, Qassem. During his rule, he was popularly known as al-za'¿m or, "The Leader". Abd al-Karim Qasim's father was a Sunni Muslim of Arab 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 Feyli Kurd farmer from Baghdad