Saib Shawkat ( ar, صائب شوكت; 1898 – 13 February 1984) was an Iraqi doctor and politician who was an Arab nationalist leader in Iraq.
Medical career
He was from an upscale patriotic Baghdadian family and studied at a medical school in Istanbul 1913-1918, completing post-graduate studies in general surgery in Germany. Shawkat was the first Iraqi doctor to teach anatomy at the
Iraqi Royal College of Medicine of which he became the dean later in the 1940s.
He was one of the pioneers in general surgery in Iraq, serving as Director General of
Baghdad Hospital in the 1930s. In 1932 he became a founding committee member of the
Iraqi Red Crescent Society.
He attended
King Ghazi
Ghazi ibn Faisal ( ar, غازي ابن فيصل, Gâzî ibn-i Faysal) (21 March 1912 – 4 April 1939) was the King of Iraq from 1933 to 1939 having been briefly Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Syria in 1920. He was born in Mecca, the only son ...
after the car accident preceding his death.
Politics
Shawkat led the
Arab nationalist
Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language an ...
Nadi al-Muthanna Club and advocating the
expulsion
Expulsion or expelled may refer to:
General
* Deportation
* Ejection (sports)
* Eviction
* Exile
* Expeller pressing
* Expulsion (education)
* Expulsion from the United States Congress
* Extradition
* Forced migration
* Ostracism
* Persona non ...
of
Jews
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
from Iraq.
Such claims about Dr. Shwakat's attitude toward Jews are contradicted by his personal heroism in defending Jewish patients at the Baghdad hospital where he worked.
Hayim Habousha in his account of the pogrom (farhud) writes:
On June 1, 1941, Dr. Saib Shawkat, Dean of the Baghdad Medical College, chief of surgery and administrator of Baghdad Central Hospital entered the surgery ward and scrubbed his hands getting ready to operate. Doctors and nurses standing idly by, had no option but to follow his example. In a few hours, all patients (mostly Jews) were attended to and moved into clean beds.
When Jewish nurses reported threats of rape by Iraqi wounded officers being treated at the hospital, Dr. Shawkat sent the officers to their beds and warned on the megaphone that anyone disobeying his order would be shot by him with two guns at his belt. There was no argument--everyone obeyed.
Family
Saib Shawkat was the brother of politician
Naji Shawkat
Muhammad Naji Shawkat Bey ( ar, ناجي شوكت) (May 26, 1891 – May 11, 1980) was an Iraqi politician who served as the prime minister of Iraq under King Faisal I.
Early life
Muhammad Naji Shawkat was born to an Arabized family of Georg ...
, who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from 1932-33.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawkat, Saib
Antisemitism in Iraq
Iraqi surgeons
Iraqi Arab nationalists
Arab collaborators with Nazi Germany
1898 births
1984 deaths
Iraqi people of Georgian descent