Zabibah and the King
Zabibah and the King (Arabic: زبيبة والملك Zabībah wal-Malik) is a romance novel, originally published anonymously in Iraq in 2000,[1] that was purportedly written by Saddam Hussein. The CIA believes that it was written by ghostwriters with the direct influence of Hussein.[2]
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[edit] Characters
- 'Arab — The protagonist of the story, the novel follows 'Arab as he becomes king of Iraq. The character represents Saddam Hussein.[1]
- Zabibah — A poor woman in an unhappy marriage, she is the love interest of 'Arab. Zabibah represents the people of Iraq.[1]
- Zabibah's husband — a cruel man. This unnamed character symbolizes the United States.[1]
- Hezkel — An emir and an antagonist to 'Arab. Zabibah lives in a small hut next to Hezkel's palace. Hezkel represents Israel.[1]
- Shamil — Another enemy of 'Arab, Shamil represents both Jews and merchants.[1]
- Nuri Chalabi — An antagonist to 'Arab and a feudal lord. His character represents Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the Iraqi National Congress, an American-funded Iraqi opposition movement.[1]
[edit] Plot summary
The plot is a love story about a powerful ruler of medieval Iraq and a beautiful commoner girl named Zabibah. Zabibah's husband is a cruel and unloving man who rapes her. The book is set in 7th or 8th century Tikrit, Hussein's home town. Although the book is on the surface a romance novel, it is (and was intended to be read as) an allegory. The hero is Hussein and Zabibah represents the Iraqi people. The vicious husband is the United States and his rape of Zabibah represents the U.S. invasion of Iraq at the end of the Persian Gulf war[citation needed].
[edit] Distribution
The book was a best-seller in Iraq when it was originally published for 1,500 dinars (about US$0.50). It is estimated that over one million copies were sold.[3] Royalties, according to the back cover, were to go to "the poor, the orphans, the miserable, the needy, and [other] charities".[1] The Iraqi publishers appropriated four paintings of Canadian artist Jonathon Earl Bowser, to illustrate the novel, putting his "The Awakening" on the cover. Bowser did not authorize their use of his work and has attempted with no success to obtain compensation for copyright infringement.[3]
An American businessman commissioned the book's translation into English in 2004. Saddam Hussein received no money from sales of the English translation as the copyright is owned by the editor, Robert Lawrence.
[edit] Adaptations
A 20-part television serial and a musical based on it were later produced.[1]
Two days after Saddam's execution, an unabridged recital of the book in British Sign Language was uploaded to the video site YouTube. It was broken down into 122 sections but, due to terms of use violations, was removed less than 48 hours later.
Sacha Baron Cohen has adapted the novel into a black comedy film called The Dictator.[4] its estimated release date is May 2012. [5]
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Ofra Bengio, "Saddam Husayn's Novel of Fear", 9 Middle East Quarterly 1, 2002.
- ^ Elaine Sciolino, "C.I.A. Sleuths Study a Novel for the Thinking of Hussein", The New York Times, 24 May 2001.
- ^ a b Jonathan Earl Bowser, "The Artist and the Dictator", www.jonathonart.com, accessed 4 November 2006.
- ^ "Merrick"
- ^ "[1]"
[edit] External links
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