Nuri al-Said

From his first appointment as prime minister under the British Mandate in 1930, Nuri was a major political figure in Iraq under the monarchy. The 1930 Anglo-Iraqi Treaty granted Britain permanent military prerogatives in Iraq, but also paved the way for the country's nominal independence and entry as a member of the League of Nations in 1932. Nuri was forced to flee the country after the 1941 Iraqi coup d'état which brought a pro-Nazi government to power, but following a British-led intervention he was re-installed as prime minister.


During the early fifties, Nuri's government negotiated a fifty-fifty profit-sharing agreement on royalties with the Iraq Petroleum Company as oil began to play a significant role in the Iraqi economy. The agreement, along with the establishment of the Iraqi Development Board, provided for a series of ambitious schemes and projects to foster comprehensive economic growth in Iraq, and the private sector came to dominate the country's economic activity. However, the working conditions of the poor remained poorly addressed, which further contributed to the growth of anti-monarchist sentiment. The formation of the Baghdad Pact in 1955 exacerbated discontent in the country.


A controversial figure throughout most of his career, Nuri was deeply unpopular amongst several fragments of Iraqi society by the end of 1950s. His political views, regarded as a blend of Iraqi nationalism, conservatism, pro-western themes, anti-communism, and anti-nasserism, were believed by his detractors to have failed in adapting to the country's changed social circumstances. A coup d'état took place in July 1958 and led to the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy. Nuri attempted to flee the country but was captured and killed.

Personal life and family[edit]

Nuri and his wife had one son, Sabah As-Said, who married an Egyptian heiress, Esmat Ali Pasha Fahmi in 1936. They had two sons: Falah (born 1937) and Issam (born 1938). Sabah As-Said is supposed to have taken an Iraqi-Jewish woman as a second wife and had a child with her when Jews accounted for 25-40% of Baghdad's population. After being ousted from Iraq, both his second wife and child fled to Israel.^[13]


Falah, who worked as King Hussein's personal pilot, was first married to Nahla El-Askari and had one son, Sabah. He later married Dina Fawaz Maher in 1974, the daughter of a Jordanian army general, Fawaz Pasha Maher, and had two daughters: Sima and Zaina.


Falah died in a car accident in Jordan in 1983. Issam was an artist and architect based in London who died in 1988 from a heart attack.^[14]