A tragic novel of loveless marriage, rape and death is causing a stir in Iraq and at the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which suspects that its author is Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
The New York Times reported Friday that the CIA was studying the novel for hints at how the Iraqi leader thinks.
According to the paper, the CIA bought a copy of the novel from a London bookshop, and took three months to translate and look into it, before concluding that Hussein was probably the editor, but not the author, of the book Zabibah and the King.
The daily quoted US officials as saying that the CIA believes the president added “his thoughts and expressions” to the literary work.
According to the Guardian, the 160-page paperback, Zabibah wal Malik (Zabibah and the King), has -- apparently -- become every Iraqi's favorite read. All the public libraries stock copies and, if newspaper reports are to be believed, it's the talk of the intelligentsia.
The Guardian said that despite its rambling, overblown prose and its gaudy, pre-Raphaelite influenced illustrations, the Iraqi media had hailed it as an "innovation in the history of novels" and given it rave reviews.
“Indeed, nobody in Iraq appears to have whispered so much as a word of criticism against it,” claimed the report.
The Guardian said that President Saddam Hussein early last year remarked that he intended to write a novel.
The cover gives no clue as to the writer's identity, saying cryptically that it is "a novel by its author." A note inside explains that the author "did not wish to put his name on it out of humility, like the sons of Iraq who sacrifice their lives and their valuables and never talk about their great deeds."
The story is heavily allegorical and the beautiful heroine, Zabibah, is seen by the US agency as representing the Iraqi people.
The mighty king is you-know-who and Zabibah, cruelly treated by her husband, falls in love with him.
In a series of long but chaste encounters, the king pours out his heart to Zabibah and -- interestingly for the spooks in Langley -- reveals his feelings of insecurity. One night, returning from the palace, Zabibah is dragged off to the forest and raped. She and her estranged husband are killed on Jan. 17 -- the anniversary of the allied attack on Iraq during the Gulf War.
The king establishes a parliament, only to find that all its members are disreputable characters. As the parliamentarians squabble, a messenger announces that the king has died. This brings the novel to a puzzling conclusion. After a funeral befitting Saddam, the MPs declare: "Long live Zabibah! Long live the people! Long live the army!" But nobody mentions a new king.
The CIA analysts say that the dialogue between the king and Zabibah reveals many ideas typical of the Iraqi leader, including tribal values and high estimation of family as the safety valve in society. In addition, highlighting rape as a crime that is worse than murder necessitates revenge against the rapists, according to the reports.
A US official was quoted in the New York Times as saying that “the king is Saddam, who wants his people not only to obey him, but to love him as well.” -- Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
