ʿAbd al-Salam Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli ( ar, عبد السلام محمد عارف الجميلي'; 21 March 1921 – 13 April 1966) was the second

president of Iraq The president of Iraq is the head of state of Iraq and "safeguards the commitment to the Constitution and the preservation of Iraq's independence, sovereignty, unity, the security of its territories in accordance with the provisions of the Con ...

from 1963 until his death in a plane crash in 1966. He played a leading role in the

14 July Revolution The 14 July Revolution, also known as the 1958 Iraqi coup d'état, took place on 14 July 1958 in Iraq, and resulted in the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq that had been established by Faisal I of Iraq, King Faisal I in 1921 under the ...

, in which the

Hashemite monarchy The Hashemites ( ar, الهاشميون, al-Hāshimīyūn), also House of Hashim, are the royal family of Jordan, which they have ruled since 1921, and were the royal family of the kingdoms of Hejaz (1916–1925), Syria (1920), and Iraq (1921� ...

was overthrown on 14 July 1958.

1958 coup and conflict with Qasim

Along with Abdel Karim Qasim and other Iraqi military officers, Arif was a member of the clandestine organisation, the Free Officers of Iraq. Like Qasim, Arif served with distinction in the otherwise unsuccessful 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, where he captured Jenin in what is now the West Bank part of Palestine. During the summer of 1958, Prime Minister Nuri as-Sa'id ordered Iraqi troops under Arif to aid

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

, as part of an agreement of the Arab Federation. Instead, however, he led his army units into

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and on 14 July launched a coup against the

. Qasim formed a government under the newly proclaimed republic and Arif, his chief aide, was appointed deputy prime minister, interior minister, and deputy commander-in-chief of the armed forces.Ismael, Ismael, and Abu Jaber, 1991, pp. 158–159. Almost immediately however, tensions rose between the

pan-Arabist Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...

Arif and Iraqi nationalist Qasim who also had the support of the Iraqi Communist Party. The former supported a union with the

United Arab Republic The United Arab Republic (UAR; ar, الجمهورية العربية المتحدة, al-Jumhūrīyah al-'Arabīyah al-Muttaḥidah) was a sovereign state in the Middle East from 1958 until 1971. It was initially a political union between Eg ...

(UAR)—composed of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

—under president

Gamal Abdel Nasser Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein, . (15 January 1918 – 28 September 1970) was an Egyptian politician who served as the second president of Egypt from 1954 until his death in 1970. Nasser led the Egyptian revolution of 1952 and introduced far-re ...

, but the latter opposed merging with the UAR. As a result, the two leaders engaged in a power struggle, ending in Qasim prevailing and the removal of Arif from his positions on 12 September. He was appointed the low-ranking post of ambassador to

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. Arif refused to take up the post and upon returning to Baghdad on 4 November, he was promptly arrested for plotting against the state. He was sentenced to death along with

Rashid Ali al-Gaylani Rashid Ali al-Gaylaniin Arab standard pronunciation Rashid Aali al-Kaylani; also transliterated as Sayyid Rashid Aali al-Gillani, Sayyid Rashid Ali al-Gailani or sometimes Sayyad Rashid Ali el Keilany (" Sayyad" serves to address higher standing ...

in February 1959. Qasim had him released in November 1961.Ismael, Ismael, and Abu Jaber, 1991, p.163.

President of Iraq

Qasim was overthrown on 8 February 1963, by a coalition of

Ba'ath Ba'athism, also stylized as Baathism, (; ar, البعثية ' , from ' , meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"Hans Wehr''Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic'' (4th ed.), page 80) is an Arab nationalist ideology which promotes the creation ...

ists, army units, and other pan-Arabist groups. Arif had previously been selected as the leader of the

Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council The Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council was established after the military coup in 1968, and was the ultimate decision-making body in Iraq before the American-led invasion in 2003. It exercised both executive and legislative authority in the ...

and after the coup he was elected president of Iraq due to his popularity. Qasim pleaded with Arif to be exiled instead of executed and reminded Arif that he had commuted his death sentence two years before. Nonetheless, Arif demanded that Qasim swear to the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

that it was he, Arif, who had been the real leader of the 1958 coup. Qasim refused and was consequently executed. Although he was chosen as president, more power was held by the Ba'athist secretary general

Ali Salih al-Sa'di Ali Salih al-Sa'di ( ; 1928 - September 19, 1977) was an Iraqi politician. He was General Secretary of the Iraqi branch of the Baath Party from the late 1950s until the November 1963 Iraqi coup d'état. From February 8, 1963 ( Ramadan Revolutio ...

and Ba'athist prime minister,

Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr ' (1 July 1914 – 4 October 1982) was the fourth president of Iraq, from 17 July 1968 to 16 July 1979. He was a leading member of the revolutionary Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party and later the Baghdad-based Ba'ath Party and ...

. Following a Ba'athist-led coup in Syria in March 1963, Arif entered his country into unification talks with Syria and Egypt (which had split from the UAR in 1961). After a fallout with Nasser in July, the Ba'athist government of Iraq removed all non-Ba'athist members from the cabinet, despite Arif's support for Nasser. On 18 November Arif, with the support of disaffected elements in the military, took advantage of a split between the Ba'ath—which weakened the party—and ousted their members from the government. Arif formed a new cabinet, retaining a few Ba'athists, but mostly made up of

Nasserist Nasserism ( ) is an Arab nationalist and Arab socialist political ideology based on the thinking of Gamal Abdel Nasser, one of the two principal leaders of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952, and Egypt's second President. Spanning the domestic a ...

army officers and technocrats. He maintained his presidency and appointed himself chief-of-staff. A month later he handed the latter post to his brother General

Abdul Rahman Arif Hajj ʿAbd al-Rahman Mohammed ʿArif al-Jumayli ( ar, عبد الرحمن محمد عارف الجميلي, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿĀrif; 14 April 191624 August 2007) was a career soldier and the third president of Iraq from 16 April 1966 to 17 Ju ...

, and the premiership to his confidant Lieutenant-General

Tahir Yahya Tahir Yahya ( ar, طاهر يحيى; 1916 – 1986) was Prime Minister of Iraq twice, from 1963 to 1965 and a short term in 1967–1968. He was educated at the Baghdad Military College and the Staff College. Born in Tikrit 1916. He was the 4th ch ...

.Ismael, Ismael, and Abu Jaber, 1991, pp. 164–165. In the fall of 1964, the Ba'ath attempted to depose Arif, but failed when their plot was unveiled. Arif had the conspirators, including

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

, arrested. On 26 May 1964, Arif established the Joint Presidency Council with Egypt. On 14 July the anniversary of the revolution, he declared the establishment of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) of Iraq, commending it as the "threshold of the building of the unity of the

Arab nation The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...

under Arab socialism." It was nearly identical in structure the ASU of Egypt and like in Egypt, many of the Arab nationalist parties were dissolved and absorbed by the ASU. Also, all banks and over thirty major Iraqi businesses were nationalized. Arif undertook these measures in an effort to bring Iraq closer with Egypt to help foster unity and on 20 December plans for union were announced. Despite this, in July 1965, the Nasserist ministers resigned from the Iraqi cabinet.Ismael, Ismael, and Abu Jaber, 1991, p. 166. President Arif played a major role in Iraq construction and developing its infrastructure.

Death

On 13 April 1966, Arif was killed in the crash of

Iraqi Air Force The Iraqi Air Force (IQAF or IrAF) ( ar, القوات الجوية العراقية, Al Quwwat al Jawwiyah al Iraqiyyah}) is the aerial warfare service branch of the Iraqi Armed Forces. It is responsible for the defense of Iraqi airspace as well ...

de Havilland DH.104 Dove 1, ''RF392'', in southern Iraq, and was replaced as president by his brother Abdul Rahman. Reports at the time said Arif had died in a helicopter accident.

Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz Abd al-Rahman al-Bazzaz (Arabic: عبد الرحمن البزاز; 20 February 1913 – 28 June 1973) 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 M ...

became acting president for three days, and a power struggle for the presidency occurred. In the first meeting of the Defense Council and cabinet to elect a president, Al-Bazzaz needed a two-thirds majority to win the presidency. Al-Bazzaz was unsuccessful, and

was elected president. He was viewed by army officers as weaker and easier to manipulate than his brother.

Family

On 13 December 2004, Arif's daughter, Sana Abdul Salam, and her husband, Wamith Abdul Razzak Said Alkadiry, were shot dead in their home in Baghdad by unknown assailants. Rafal Alkadiry, their 22-year-old son, was kidnapped,Iraqi voter registration site attacked

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

. 18 December 2004 and later killed.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Arif, Abdul Salam 20th-century rulers in Asia 1921 births 1966 deaths Arab Socialist Union (Iraq) politicians Field marshals of Iraq Iraqi Arab nationalists Iraqi revolutionaries Iraqi socialists Iraqi Sunni Muslims Nasserists People from Baghdad Presidents of Iraq State leaders killed in aviation accidents or incidents Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Iraq Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1966 Muslim socialists