Yesterday I got a gift from a colleague at the university that has given me unexpected pleasure: the deck of cards with fifty-two top Iraqi officials distributed to the American troops before the invasion of the country. It is a fascinating document of the conflict. The first thing one notices about it is the absence of many a face. Only names and functions appear on a large proportion of cards, the faces being replaced by black blobs. Then one notices that many of the mug-shots are of extremely poor quality, suggesting that next to nothing is known about the individuals in question. A good number of the photographs have been taken directly from the television screen. Many are quite distorted for that reason. And it is clear that this is the US Army’s best effort at identifying the elusive enemy. But the greatest pleasure is in the long Arab names, spelled out in full: Muhammad Hamza al-Zubaydi, Barzan abd al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid al-Tikriti, Sayf al-Din Fulayyih Hasan Taha al-Rawi, Latif Nusayyif al-Jasim al-Dulaymi… The spelling of the names is precise and mutually consistent. Some of the familiar names are thus a bit unusual at first. For instance, the top enchilada’s name is rendered as Saddam Husayn al-Tikriti. Flipping through the cards, I keep reading out loud those fabulous names: abd al-Tawab Abdullah Mullah al-Huwaysh, Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Jabburi al-Tai, Amir Hamudi Hasan al-Sadi… Come to think of it, I must be hoping that the full name of Harun al-Rashid will pop up sooner or later. And it will be a very, very long one.

Addendum (June 12, 2003)

Flipping through the deck over and over again, I just had to have the old caliph’s full name. As usual, Google search paid off, although it was not all that easy. Harun al-Rashid’s name is everywhere, but the full name is hard to come by. Anyhow, the full name is Harun al-Rashid ibn Muhammad ibn al-Mansur al-Abbasi. There are other spellings, but this one is consistent with the US Army deck. There!