Everyone in Baghdad knows that the July 14 bridge, a convenient route to the US Embassy and government offices in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, marks a 1958 coup when Iraq’s last king was murdered. But not many know that King Faisal II lives on in the classic Tintin comic books.
This includes his own cousin, the man who would be king in the unlikely event that the Iraqi monarchy were restored.
“I have read Tintin since childhood but I never made the connection with King Faisal,” laughed Sharif Ali bin Hussein, amused to learn that Belgian comic writer Herge had modelled one of his characters on his relative.
On the morning of July 14, 1958, King Faisal II, who had just turned 23, was led into the palace courtyard with several family members. All were executed under the command of Captain Abdul Sattar As-Saba’a, a leader in a coup d’êtat led by Colonel Abdul Karim Qassim.
Sharif Ali, Faisal’s maternal first cousin who is now in his mid-50s, was only about two at the time.
The day’s events changed the course of Iraqi history and led, in July 1979, to the rise of Saddam Hussein, whose dictatorship lasted until he himself was ousted by the 2003 US-led invasion.
But years before, the young king had captured the imagination of the West – as well as Tintin creator Herge – after the tragic death of his father King Ghazi in a 1939 car crash that sent King Faisal to the throne at age three.
From childhood until death, the life of Iraq’s “boy king” was chronicled in photos and articles in big-name US magazines like Time, Life and National Geographic.
Herge quietly drew on the anecdotes to fashion his character Prince Abdullah of the imaginary kingdom of Khemed. The mischievous Arab prince and practical joker both exasperated and charmed boy reporter Tintin and his irascible friend Captain Haddock, first in the Land of Black Gold (1950) and later in The Red Sea Sharks (1958).
The real-life King Faisal shared the same playfulness.
“What I know from family anecdotes is that he used to love practical jokes, which is an indication of his sense of humour and sense of fun,” said Sharif Ali at his villa on the Tigris river where framed photographs of his royal Hashemite lineage adorn the wall.
“Touch not the son of my master,” he chuckled, quoting from memory Captain Haddock when he grabs Abdullah in anger at his antics and is warned off by the boy’s Arab guardian.
The real life King Faisal’s mother Queen Aliya or his English governess Dora Borland at times escorted the “boy king”, who was often photographed holding the hand of his uncle, Prince Abdulillah, who was regent until the king came of age in 1953. King Faisal II was a regular in Life magazine, which ran a 1942 photo essay showing the seven-year-old king first in shorts on an oversized throne, then on the palace grounds with his German shepherd dog.