Late for Tea at the Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family
Page 1
TAMARA CHALABI
Late for Tea
at the
Deer Palace
The Lost Dreams of
my Iraqi Family
To my dearest ammooooo, Hassan Chalabi
Contents
Maps
Family tree
Chronology
Prologue
Book One: Fallen Pomegranates
December 2007
1 Duty Calls: A Busy Day for Abdul Hussein (1913)
2 Stacking Rifles: Hadi and the War (1914–1916)
3 All That is Good Will Happen: A Marriage Prospect (1916)
4 Sugared Almonds and Jasmine: Bibi and Hadi’s Wedding (1916)
5 A Giant Broken: The End of the Ottomans (1917–1918)
November 1999, Beirut
Book Two: Replanting Eden
September 2005
6 Café Chantant: The British in Baghdad (1918) 77
7 Rebellion: Fighting for Freedom (1919–1920) 86
8 A New King for a New Country: From Mesopotamia to Iraq (1920–1921)
9 Fesanjoon, a Royal Luncheon: Faisal Visits Kazimiya (1921)
10 Banished: Out of Kazimiya (1922–1924)
11 Accidents of Nature: The Baghdad Boil (1925–1926)
12 In Between: A Home Between Two Cities (1926–1929)
13 Stolen Hopes: A Young Life Lost (1928–1929)
14 Bursting Energy: Hadi’s Growing Empire (1931–1933)
15 Prison: Uninvited Guests at a Feast (1935–1936)
16 Carefree: Growing Up in the Golden Age (1936–1938)
17 A Dark Cloud: The End of a Generation (1938–1939)
18 A New Home: The Shadow of Death (1937–1939)
October 2006
Book Three: A Dangerous Garden
May 1993
19 Mountains and Floods: Domestic Changes (1939–1941)
20 Blood and Salons: Mounting Tensions (1941)
21 An Education Overseas: Mixed Fortunes (1941–1945)
22 Love in Strange Quarters: Of Marriage and Other Unions (1946–1947)
23 The Girl on the Bridge: Anger on the Streets (1947–1949)
24 Precious Things: Towards a New World (1950–1951)
25 Storm Clouds Gathering: Family Feuds and Revolution (1952–1956)
26 Defiance: A Crisis and a Key (1956)
27 Revolution: Slaughter of a Family (1958)
February 2005, Sadr City
Book Four: Fields of Wilderness
December 2007
28 Lost Lands: Seeking Shelter (1958)
29 Migration: Precious Cargo (1958)
30 Hunger Pangs: Yearning for Home (1958)
31 Arrivals and Departures: The Importance of Contacts (1958–1959)
32 Escape to Nowhere: The Threat of the Clown Court (1959)
33 A Temporary Home: Visits to the Park (1959)
34 Return to the Shrine: A Life by the Sea (1959–1963)
35 Of Carpets and New Blood: The Emergence of New Patterns (1967)
36 The Ruins of Kufa: A Coup and a Birth (1968–1972)
37 Civil War: A Shattered Sanctuary (1975–1982)
38 Creased Maps: A Move to a Different Land (1980s)
39 Lessons in Humility: The Loss of Everything Precious (1980s)
40 The Mortality of Gods: Burials of the Banished (1988)
41 The Lost Talisman: When Everything is Taken (1989–1992)
42 A Question of Identity: In Search of a Way to Be (1990–2009)
30 January 2005, Election Day in Baghdad
Epilogue
Glossary of Iraqi Terms
Acknowledgments
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Maps
CHALABI FAMILY TREE
Chronology
1833
Ali Chalabi is born.
1869–72
Midhat Pasha, Ottoman governor in Baghdad, launches a series of much needed reforms aimed at modernization.
1879
Abdul Hussein is born.
1898
Hadi is born.
1900
Bibi is born.
1908
The Young Turks or CUP (Committee of Union and Progress) Revolt occurs.
1909
Persian Constitutional Revolution takes place in Iran.
1911
Bibi’s father, Sayyid Hassan al-Bassam, dies.
1912
The Turkish Petroleum Company is formed for oil exploration. Its main partners are British and Dutch.
1914
World War I begins.
1916
T. E. Lawrence is sent by the British to Sharif Hussein of Mecca to foment an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, aimed at weakening the Ottoman position near the Persian
Gulf to Britain’s advantage.
Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein, leads the revolt alongside Lawrence.
Signature of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, a contract between Britain and France carving up the Ottoman Empire, including the Arab provinces, into spheres of control.
Gertrude Bell, traveller and archaeologist, arrives in Basra to serve as the only female British political officer with knowledge of the terrain and the Arab tribes of Iraq. Bibi and Hadi are married.
1917
Baghdad is captured by British troops marching from the south.
1918
Word War I ends and Rushdi is born.
The British occupy the provinces that make up Iraq.
The French occupy Syria and Lebanon.
1919
The Paris Peace Settlement is signed. Faisal heads an Arab delegation to the conference, accompanied by T. E. Lawrence, to lobby unsuccessfully for Arab independence.
1920
The Treaty of San Remo is decided at a meeting to determine fate of former Arab Ottoman territories, based on the previous Sykes–Picot agreement and overlooking British promises to Sharif Hussein for an Arab Kingdom.
Gertrude Bell becomes Oriental Secretary to British Commissioner Sir Percy Cox and plays a key role in supporting Arab rule in Iraq.
Faisal is crowned King of Syria but is driven out by the French after the battle of Maysaloun in June.
Revolt breaks out in southern and central Iraq among Shi’a tribes and there is joint Sunni–Shi’i resistance to the British in Baghdad.
The idea of the India Office running Iraq as an administration is abandoned by the British in favour of national rule.
1921
In April, the Cairo Conference is called by Winston Churchill to decide the fate of Iraq, which is now too costly for the British to run. Lawrence and Bell attend. Faisal is chosen as King of Iraq.
King Faisal arrives in Basra in June, then through the main Iraqi cities to Baghdad. He receives a cool reception, but among those welcoming him is Abdul Hussein Chalabi.
Faisal is crowned at a ceremony in Baghdad in August. Gertrude Bell is charged with setting up his court.
Hassan is born.
1922
Abdul Hussein becomes Minister of Education, breaking with the Shi’a fatwa forbidding participation in government. He is banished from Kazimiya.
The Chalabi family moves to the Deer Palace late November.
1923
Thamina is born.
1924
Raifa is born.
Hassan loses his sight.
Tensions that will later explode under Saddam Hussein begin to brew in the Ministry of Education, under Sunni Arab nationalist D
irector of Education Sati’ al-Husri.
1925–8
Abdul Rasul studies at Cambridge.
1926
Gertrude Bell founds the Iraqi Museum in June, then commits suicide in July.
1929
Abdul Rasul is diagnosed with cancer and travels to Europe with Hadi to seek treatment.
The Turkish Petroleum Company becomes the Iraqi Petroleum Company. Majority shares are still held by European partners, with Iraq benefiting from only 20 per cent of revenue.
1930
Abdul Rasul dies of a brain tumour. Hadi becomes a Member of Parliament for the town of Diwaniya.
Hadi becomes the agent for Andrew Weir & Co., supplying wheat and barley – Iraq’s main agriculture exports along with dates.
1932
Faisal struggles with a tension between local demands and Britain’s intervention in what has until now remained a British mandate. This year, Iraq officially becomes independent.
Iraq joins the League of Nations.
Rebellion breaks out in the north and is dealt with brutally by the British. 4000 die.
1933
Umm Kalthoum holds her first concert in Baghdad. Bibi attends with Shamsa.
Talal is born. King Faisal dies unexpectedly. Ghazi becomes king.
1935
Hazem is born. Hadi is arrested on charges of treason, imprisoned and sentenced to death, but released three months later.
1936
Abdul Hussein serves his final parliamentary term and becomes a senator.
A military coup d’état is attempted.
Hadi becomes the first head of the Iraqi stock exchange.
1937
Rushdi travels to London to study, then transfers to the American University of Beirut.
1938
The Chalabi family move from the Deer Palace to new house built by Hadi, now called the Sif Palace.
Jamila dies.
1939
Abdul Hussein dies.
King Ghazi dies in car crash. Popular opinion holds that the British killed him because he was a nationalist and popular with the military.
The Second World War breaks out while the Chalabi family is travelling back from holiday in Lebanon, then under French rule.
1940
Hassan starts his degree at the law college and is introduced to Jamila.
Minister of Finance and former adviser to King Faisal Rustum Haidar is killed in his office. The murder is widely seen as a sectarian attack against the Shi’a.
1941
A successful pro-Nazi coup d’état is led by Rashid ’Ali Gailani. The royal family flees.
British and Iraqi forces clash at Habbaniya.
Baghdad is rocked by the Farhud – the Great Loot – during which Jewish shops and homes are attached by angry anti-British mobs.
The royal family returns to Baghdad with British help. Some coup d’état leaders are arrested, others flee. The British temporarily reoccupy Baghdad.
Thamina marries Bibi’s cousin Saleh Bassam.
Rushdi becomes involved in Freya Stark’s anti-Nazi Brotherhood of Freedom.
Four officers behind the coup are executed by order of the Prince regent, in a move that proves unpopular.
1942
Thamina gives birth to Leila, Bibi’s first granddaughter.
1943
Iraq enters World War II, fighting against the Axis powers.
Raifa marries Abdul Amir Allawi.
Rumia dies.
1944
Hadi makes his first trip to America as part of a business delegation.
Ahmad is born.
Hassan goes to university in Egypt to pursue a doctorate in law. Jamila goes with him.
Raifa and Thamina give birth one after the other to Ghazi and Mahdi, respectively.
1946
The Communist leader ‘Fahd’ is imprisoned for inciting workers to protest against the government.
1947
Rushdi marries Ilham and becomes MP for Kazimiya.
Hadi becomes a senator.
Hassan briefly returns to Baghdad before moving to Paris to continue his doctorate at the Sorbonne. Jamila follow him.
1948
Raifa’s second son, Ali, is born. Rushdi first child, Hussein, is born.
The Arab Israeli war – what the Israelis call the War of Independence and the Palestinians call the Catastrophe (Nakba) – breaks out with the abrupt ending of the British mandate in Palestine. As part of the Arab Legion that included forces from Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Iraq initially sends 3,000 men to fight, later increasing that number to 21,000. Pressure on Iraq’s Jewish population increases.
1949
Bibi travels to Europe for the first time to visit Hassan in Paris.
Fahd is executed.
Salim Chalabi temporarily becomes secretary general of the Iraqi Communist Party.
1950
Najla marries Abdul Latif Agha Jaafar, Ilham’s brother.
1951
Hassan is hospitalized in Paris.
Hadi, Bibi and their three youngest boys take a family trip to Europe.
1952
Hassan returns to Cairo to defend his PhD.
Revolution in Egypt topples the monarch. Jamal Abdul Nasser, a military officer, takes over.
Hassan begins a career as a professor at Baghdad University.
1953
18-year-old King Faisal II is crowned in Baghdad.
1954
Hadi buys Latifiyyah Estate from Andrew Weir.
Rushdi becomes Minister of Agriculture.
1955
The Baghdad Pact is signed, including Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and Britain in a political and economic bloc aimed at countering Soviet influence in the region.
Hadi becomes deputy head of the Senate.