Ali Bader - The Tobacco Keeper

14 July 1958 : A military coup d’état, led by Abdel Karim Qasim, was declared in Baghdad. The monarchy was overthrown and a republic proclaimed. Qasim became both Prime Minister and Defence Minister. The Rihab Palace witnessed the massacre of the whole royal family, including women and children.

Yousef Sami Saleh entered Iraq under the name of Haidar Salman, who had been born in Baghdad in 1924, who had studied music in Moscow and Tehran and whose family was made up of merchants from Al-Isterbadi market in Al-Kazemeya.

In the same year his son Hussein was born.

1959 : Haidar Salman became acquainted with the great sculptor Jawad Salim and joined the cultural milieu, particularly the Baghdad Modern Art Society. During that same year, he gave several concerts in which he charmingly and masterfully performed Paganini and Bach.

During that period, rumours circulated that he was having an affair with the well-known painter Nahida al-Said.

1960 : He started composing and departed for Moscow where he spent a year studying the arts of conducting and composition at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

5 August 1961 : He won an award bestowed by Elizabeth, the former Queen of Belgium, which he received at an event held by the queen to honour the winners.

8 February 1963 : A coup d’état initiated by the Baath and nationalist leadership overthrew the regime of Abdel Karim Qasim. Fierce popular resistance led by the communists continued for several days. Abdel Salam Arif became President of the Republic, while Abdel Karim Qasim, together with Fadhel Abbas al-Mehdawi and Taha al-Sheikh Ahmed, were executed. There followed mass killings of communists, including the leader of the Communist Party, Salam Adel, who died under torture.

At the end of February, Haidar Salman was smuggled into Tehran and from there to Moscow, where his wife Tahira was waiting for him. The painter Nahida al-Said was executed by hanging.

25 August 1964 : Haidar Salman began teaching violin at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where he became acquainted with leading Russian musicians. Rumours circulated concerning an affair with the Russian pianist Ada Brunstein.

1965 : He took part in the Jacques Thibaud competition in Paris.

1966 : He participated in the Leventritt Competition held at the Carnegie Hall in New York.

5 June 1967 : Start of the Six Day War, which resulted in the occupation of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, the Golan Heights in Syria and the Palestinian West Bank. Haidar Salman stopped performing with the New York Symphony Orchestra in protest against this aggression and returned to Iraq, thereby ending his affair with Ada Brunstein.

17 July 1968 : A Baathist coup d’état in Baghdad installed Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr as President of the Republic and Saddam Hussein as his Deputy. The ousted President, Abdel Rahman Arif, was exiled to Turkey.

In May 1968 the communists declared an armed struggle and led the revolution of the marshlands in southern Iraq. The uprising failed, however, and the Head of the Central Leadership of the Iraqi Communist Party, Aziz al-Hajj, was detained. He gave a detailed confession that led to the arrest of all members of the Politburo. During that same year, the Baath Party executed large numbers of politicians on charges of conspiracy. A group of merchants was publicly executed in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square on charges of espionage, amid the shouting and clamouring of the crowd.

1 February 1974 : Haidar Salman’s son Meir emigrated from Israel to the United States. He became a naturalized American citizen and joined the Marines.

1979 : The year of the Iranian Revolution. On 1 February, Khomeini returned to Qom while the Shah left Iran for good. During that same year, Saddam Hussein led a secret coup and seized the reins of power after Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr had relinquished all his posts. This was followed by a Baathist massacre of all leaders that had no allegiance to Saddam Hussein.

4 September 1980 : The Iran — Iraq war began. Iraqi citizenship was withdrawn from all citizens with Iranian affiliations, who were deported to Iran after having their property confiscated, while many young men were killed. Haidar Salman was deported with his wife Tahira after his assets, his house and his property had all been confiscated. The Iraqi authorities deposited him and his wife by truck close to the Iranian border. His wife Tahira, who was in poor health, died at the border, while his son Hussein was detained in jail in Baghdad as part of the operation to detain all Iraqi young men of Iranian origin. Some of these men were killed while others were deported to Iran.

1981 : Haidar Salman was witness to the repercussions of the Iranian Revolution especially the conflict between the liberals and the radicals. Rumours circulated that he had an affair with Pari, the daughter of his host in Tehran, Mohammad Taqi. On 3 November, Haidar Salman travelled to Damascus on a forged passport in the name of Kamal Medhat. The name belonged to an Iraqi merchant who had died in a car crash in Tehran and who was the second husband of a wealthy Iraqi woman living in Damascus, called Nadia al-Amiry. Her first husband, who was Syrian, had been killed during the civil war between the Baathists and the Muslim Brotherhood.

1982 : He entered Baghdad under the identity of Kamal Medhat Mustafa, born in 1933 in Mosul to a merchant family that traded between Mosul and Aleppo.

5 March 1983 : His wife Nadia al-Amiry gave birth to their son, Omar. In that same year, Kamal Medhat joined the Iraqi National Symphony Orchestra, which turned him into a star. He became particularly famous after playing ‘The Martyr’ symphony with Walid Gholmieh. He developed into a well-known and well-liked artistic figure in political circles, particularly to former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Gossip had it that he had an affair with a cellist in the National Symphony Orchestra, Widad Ahmed, who was responsible for strengthening his ties with the regime at that time. He was also rumoured to have had an affair with a woman with a reputation, a failed pianist called Janet.

26 November 1986 : Kamal Medhat played a fantasia, including a beautifully performed cadenza, at the presidential palace in front of Saddam Hussein and a number of political figures.

8 August 1988 : The Iran — Iraq war ended. A year after this, his son Omar went to live with his maternal aunt in Egypt.

2 August 1990 : The Iraqi army invaded Kuwait and declared the establishment of a transitional government. On the eighth of the same month, Iraq issued a decree annexing Kuwait as its nineteenth province.

17 January 1991 : The second Gulf War began. The US-led coalition forces began to expel the Iraqi military from Kuwait. On 24 January, the land campaign began.

On 26 February, Saddam Hussein accepted UN Resolution 660 and withdrew from the city of Kuwait, which coalition forces then entered.

Nadia al-Amiry, who had been ill, died. There was talk of an affair between Kamal Medhat and a rural servant girl called Fawzeya.

1991–2003: Kamal Medhat lived in Baghdad under the embargo imposed on the country. He witnessed poverty, disease, war and the decline of the arts. Although he withdrew completely from public life, he continued to compose.

20 March 2003 : The US launched the third Gulf War to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power. On 9 April, US forces entered Baghdad. In a dramatic scene, the statue of Saddam was toppled. Kamal Medhat’s son Meir, now a major-general, arrived in Baghdad with the allied forces.

2004 : His son Hussein returned to Baghdad from Tehran, along with Shia political forces and joined the political system. His son Omar also returned to Baghdad from Cairo in opposition to the US occupation and to the whole political process in Iraq.