Abd al Rahman al Bazzaz

Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz was an Iraqi politician, reformist and writer. He was a pan-Arab nationalist and served as the Dean of Baghdad Law College and later as Prime Minister of Iraq. Al-Bazzaz main political project was the professionalization of the government through increasing access to civilian expertise. That civic agenda came at the expense of the military. Al-Bazzaz was charged by the Ba'athist-dominated government of participation in activities against the government and he was tortured and imprisoned. Al-Bazzaz was finally released because of illness in 1970 and moved to London for treatment before later dying in Baghdad on 28 June 1973. Al-Bazzaz was born to a Sunni Muslim family in Baghdad. He completed both elementary school and high school in Baghdad. Al-Bazzaz graduated from the Baghdad Law College in 1934. In 1938 Al-Bazzaz completed his law studies at King's College London. During the 1930s, he became an affiliate of the Muthanna and Jawwal clubs, the academic focus of which was pan-Arabism and encouraging Arab nationalism. The Muthanna Club was established in Baghdad in 1935 and was an influential radical pan-Arab and pan-Islamic fascist society which collapsed with the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani rebellion. In 1941 al-Bazzaz supported the Iraqi coup d'état. After the coup failed, al-Bazzaz was incarcerated during the Second World War but he was released at the end of the war. ¹ After the war, al-Bazzaz was chosen as the dean of the Baghdad Law College. In 1956 he was forced out of this role by the government for protesting against the invasion of Egypt by France, Britain and Israel. He signed a petition that was very critical of the Iraqi government's stand during the Suez crisis under the premiership of Nuri as-Said, a staunch opponent of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Al-Bazzaz returned to the Baghdad Law College as the dean after the revolution in 1958. Al-Bazzaz's interest in the pan-Arab movement again put him into disagreement with the government, this time with the new government of Abd al-Karim Qasim (1958–1963), an Iraqi nationalist aligned with communist forces. ¹ In 1964, al-Bazzaz was chosen as the Secretary General of OPEC. In 1965, he was appointed as the Foreign Minister of Iraq under President Abdul Salam Arif. Later that year, he became the Prime Minister of Iraq and held both positions until 1966. Al-Bazzaz was known for his moderate and reformist policies, especially regarding the Kurdish issue. He proposed a peace plan that would grant cultural and political rights to the Kurds, but it was rejected by the Ba'ath Party and other Arab nationalists. Al-Bazzaz also tried to improve Iraq's relations with other Arab states, especially Egypt and Syria. He supported the idea of a federal union between the three countries, but his efforts were hampered by the Six-Day War in 1967 and the death of President Arif in 1968. ¹ After the Ba'athist coup of 1968, al-Bazzaz was arrested and accused of plotting against the regime. He was tortured and sentenced to death, but his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He was released in 1970 due to his poor health and allowed to travel to London for medical treatment. He returned to Baghdad in 1973 and died there on 28 June 1973. ¹²