The Forbidden Book Written in the Blood of Saddam Hussein

TL;DR

The Blood Quran is a 605-page copy of the Quran written in what was presented as Saddam Hussein’s blood, creating a paradox because human blood is considered ritually unclean under Islamic law while the Quran cannot be defaced or destroyed. Commissioned in 1998 as an expression of gratitude to God, it reportedly required 27 liters of blood and two years of work. Read on to understand the doubts about its creation and the debate over its fate.

Transcript

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Key Insights

• 🩸 The Blood Quran is a paradoxical artifact, deemed both holy and unclean by Islamic beliefs, creating controversies among Islamic clerics.
• 😒 The creation of the Blood Quran involved the use of 27 liters of Saddam Hussein's blood over a two-year period.
• 🛟 The current debates in Iraq revolve around whether the Blood Quran should be destroyed or preserved due to its theological and political implications.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is the Blood Quran?

The Blood Quran is a copy of the Islamic holy book written entirely in blood presented as Saddam Hussein’s. Completed in 2000, it contains 114 chapters and 6,000 verses across 605 pages.

Q: Why did Saddam Hussein commission the Blood Quran?

Saddam commissioned it on April 28, 1998, his 61st birthday, as thanks to God for carrying him through conspiracies and dangers. He had recently re-embraced his Islamic faith after his son Uday narrowly survived an assassination attempt on December 12, 1996.

Q: Who wrote the Blood Quran, and how long did it take?

Saddam commissioned calligrapher Abbas Shakir Judi al-Baghdadi to create it. Over two years, al-Baghdadi treated the supplied blood with stabilizing chemicals and used it to write the Quran.

Q: How much blood was reportedly used for the Blood Quran?

A nurse reportedly drew and delivered 27 liters of Saddam Hussein’s blood over two years. The transcript notes that donating at the stated typical maximum of around 3 liters per year would require nearly nine years, creating doubts about the account.

Q: Is it certain that the Blood Quran contains Saddam Hussein’s blood?

The transcript says eyewitness accounts of the process conflict widely, so the blood’s true source is uncertain. Some have speculated that it came from an underling or political prisoners, but the question is described as unlikely ever to be answered.

Q: Why is the Blood Quran considered a theological paradox?

Under the Islamic-law explanation in the transcript, human blood is ritually unclean, and writing the Quran in blood is forbidden. Yet the finished object is still a Quran and therefore cannot be defaced or destroyed according to Islamic tradition.

Q: Where is the Blood Quran kept?

After U.S. forces captured Baghdad in April 2003, mosque caretakers removed the pages from their pavilion and hid them for safekeeping. The book is now kept in a vault beneath Baghdad’s Um al-Qura Mosque, behind three locked doors whose keys are held in separate places.

Q: Why do Iraqi clerics and politicians debate whether to preserve or destroy the Blood Quran?

Clerics face the conflict between its ritually unclean method of creation and the prohibition against destroying a Quran. Some politicians also fear that relics from Saddam’s era could become rallying points for Baath Party revivalists, while others view the book as a reminder of totalitarianism and the idealization of a ruler.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The Blood Quran is a copy of the Islamic holy book written entirely in the blood of Saddam Hussein, commissioned by the dictator as thanks to God for his survival.

• Commissioned calligrapher Abbas Shakir Judi al-Baghdadi used 27 liters of Saddam's blood to write the 605-page book over two years.

• The Blood Quran is controversial due to Islamic beliefs regarding human blood and is currently hidden away in a vault beneath the Um al-Qura Mosque in Baghdad.