Khairallah Talfah ( ; 1910 – 20 April 1993) was an Iraqi military officer, politician, and author. He was the maternal uncle and father-in-law of Saddam Hussein. He was the father of Saddam's first wife Sajida Talfah and of Iraqi defense minister Adnan Khairallah. Under the Saddam regime, Talfah served as governor of Baghdad from 1979 to 1981, when he was removed from his position on charges of corruption.
Born in the village of Al-Awja near Tikrit, many of Talfah's family members were Arab nationalists who opposed the Ottoman Empire. Talfah himself would also adopt the ideology against British rule in Iraq, eventually participating in the 1941 coup d'état, which brought the anti-British Rashid Ali al-Gaylani to power with aid from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. However, the British quickly suppressed al-Gaylani's government in the ensuing Anglo-Iraqi War, leading to Talfah's imprisonment. Following his release, his anti-British political activities continued, and he played a role in the founding of the Arab nationalist Iraqi Independence Party in 1946, though it was dissolved a decade later. Talfah's career as a politician would not particularly grow in notability until the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party took control of Iraq through the 1968 coup d'état.
Under Saddam's regime, Talfah reportedly spent most of his tenure as Baghdad's governor conducting morality policing against Iraqi citizens, particularly women, who were seen as adopting "Westernized" clothing styles. These actions, along with his mishandling of government funds and other resources, contributed to the removal of Talfah from his position by Saddam two years after his appointment.
Talfah authored a pamphlet titled Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies in 1940. The work, which overtly expresses anti-Persian sentiment and antisemitism, has been described by British journalist Con Coughlin as a "weak Iraqi attempt at imitating Mein Kampf" and is believed to have had an influence on Saddam's policies, owing to the Arabization campaigns in northern Iraq and the Iran–Iraq War.
Early life and military career
Khairallah was born in 1910 in the village of Al-Awja, 5 km south of Tikrit, and then part of the Baghdad Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. He was grandson of Musalat ibn Omar Bey III, al-Bu Nasir tribal leader and martyr of the anti-Ottoman resistance.
Khairallah, a teacher and an Arab nationalist, was a member of the al-Jawwal society and later participated as an Iraqi Army Officer in the Army revolt of 1941 led by Rashid 'Ali Al-Gaylani against the Iraqi Royal institution supported by the occupying British forces. The revolt did not achieve any major changes, with the British dispatching a taskforce which occupied the country and re-installed the ousted pro-British Regent 'Abd al-Ilah. Many Iraqi soldiers who had participated in the revolt were pardoned, largely keeping their ranks and military position. Khairallah was expelled from the army and spent six years in prison for his part in the revolt.
He would later play a role in the founding of the anti-British and Arab nationalist Iraqi Independence Party. He was released from prison in 1947. Following his release, he returned to Tikrit, where his nephew Saddam Hussein moved back in with him and began school. Saddam had previously lived with Khairallah prior to the 1941 coup and subsequent war, but had moved back in with his parents during Khairallah's imprisonment. Unlike Khairallah, Saddam's mother and step-father beat him and prevented him from receiving an education.
- He was Saddam's father-in-law (Saddam Hussein was married to Khairiallah's daughter, Sajida).
Published works and controversy
In 1940, Talfah wrote a pamphlet, Three Whom God Should Not Have Created: Persians, Jews, and Flies (), in which he describes Persian people as "animals that God created in human form" and Jewish people as "a mixture of dirt and diverse remnants of people." According to British author Con Coughlin, "This weak Iraqi attempt at imitating Mein Kampf had an impact on Saddam's future policies." His views notwithstanding, it is claimed that Talfah played an important role in saving many Jews from detention under Saddam's regime, although more than 75% of Iraq's Jewish population had been evacuated to Israel well before Saddam's rise to power in 1979.
See also
- Family of Saddam Hussein