Editing Saddam Hussein (section)

== Early life and education ==
[[File:Саддам_в_молодости.jpg|left|thumb|Saddam in his youth as a shepherd in his village, near  [[Tikrit]], 1956]]
Saddam Hussein Al-Majid Al-Tikriti was born on 28 April 1937, in [[al-Awja]], a small village near [[Tikrit]], to a Sunni Arab family<ref>{{Cite web |title=Saddam Hussein |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095951798 |access-date=17 December 2023 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en}}</ref> from the Al-Bejat clan of the [[Bedouin]] [[Al-Bu Nasir (Iraqi tribe)|Al-Bu Nasir]] tribe, which was descended from [[Sayyid]] Ahmed Nasiruddin bin Hussein, a descendant of [[Husayn ibn Ali]].<ref name="alriyadh" /><ref name="Jordan 323–345">{{Citation |last=Jordan |first=David |title="So Let Today Be All the Arabs Muḥammad": The Prophet in the Discourse of the Iraqi Baʿth Party |date=10 November 2021 |work=The Presence of the Prophet in Early Modern and Contemporary Islam |pages=323–345 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004466753/BP000022.xml?language=en |access-date=15 December 2024 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-46675-3}}</ref> His father, Hussein Abd al-Majid, was from the Al-Majid branch of the Al-Bejat clan, while his mother Subha Tulfah al-Mussalat was granddaughter of Mussallat bin Omar Al-Nasiri, a tribal leader of the Al-Bu Nasir tribe and an opponent of the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule in Iraq.<ref>{{Cite web |title=In search of Saddam |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2003/10/26/in-search-of-saddam |access-date=15 December 2024 |website=Al Jazeera |language=en}}</ref> His tribe originated in [[Yemen]], eventually migrating to [[Syria]] where they settled in [[Aleppo]] and [[Harran]], before later settling in Tikrit in Iraq under Ottoman rule.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Wrzesniewski |first=Jakub |title=Tribe and State in Post-Ba'athist Iraq |date=2014 |publisher=UC Berkeley |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1hq9j8j4 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Jordan 323–345" /><ref name="alriyadh">{{Cite web |date=23 September 2020 |title=جريدة الرياض {{!}} أحمد حسن البكر رجل المقاومة الأول ضد بريطانيا |work=جريدة الرياض |url=http://www.alriyadh.com/226724/ |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923182812/http://www.alriyadh.com/226724/ |archive-date=23 September 2020 }}</ref><ref name="Baram 2003">{{cite web |last=Baram |first=Amatzia |date=8 July 2003 |title=The Iraqi Tribes and the Post-Saddam System |url=https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-iraqi-tribes-and-the-post-saddam-system/ |access-date=23 May 2023 |website=Brookings |language=en-US}}</ref> 

Saddam's name means "the fighter who stands steadfast".<ref name=":33">{{cite journal |last=Post |first=Jerrold |date=June 1991 |title=Saddam Hussein of Iraq: A Political Psychology Profile|journal=Political Psychology |language=en |volume=12 |issue=2 |pages=279–289 |doi=10.2307/3791465|jstor=3791465 |issn = 0162-895X }}</ref> His father died before his birth.<ref name=":33" /> This made Saddam's mother, Subha, so depressed that she unsuccessfully attempted to [[Abortion|abort]] her pregnancy and commit [[suicide]].<ref name=":33" /> Subha "would have nothing to do with him", and Saddam was eventually taken in by an uncle.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bumiller |first1=Elisabeth |author-link1=Elisabeth Bumiller |date=15 May 2004 |title=Was a Tyrant Prefigured by Baby Saddam? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/15/books/was-a-tyrant-prefigured-by-baby-saddam.html |url-status=live |work=[[The New York Times]] |issn=1553-8095 |oclc=1645522 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911052637/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/15/books/was-a-tyrant-prefigured-by-baby-saddam.html |archive-date=11 September 2016 |access-date=21 November 2018}}</ref> His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly after his return, and (according to a psychological profile created by the [[CIA]]) beat him regularly, sometimes to wake him up.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Jack |first1=Anderson |title=Saddam's Roots an Abusive Childhood |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1991/01/25/saddams-roots-an-abusive-childhood/2c5af56e-6413-410b-a1cf-5c215f1f64c2/ |access-date=8 November 2021 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref><ref name="beat1">{{cite web |last1=Post |first1=Jerrold |title=Saddam is Iraq: Iraq is Saddam|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a424787.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210521205900/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a424787.pdf |url-status=live |archive-date=21 May 2021 |publisher=Maxwell Airforce Base |access-date=20 November 2021}}</ref> At around the age of 10, Saddam fled the family and returned to live in [[Baghdad]] with his uncle [[Khairallah Talfah]], who became a fatherly figure to Saddam.<ref name="Karsh 13–15" /> Talfah, the father of Saddam's future wife, was a devout Sunni Muslim and a veteran of the 1941 [[Anglo-Iraqi War]] between [[Iraqi nationalists]] and the [[United Kingdom]], which remained a major colonial power in the region.<ref>Eric Davis, ''Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq'', [[University of California Press]], 2005.</ref> Talfah was appointed the mayor of Baghdad during Saddam's time in power, until his notorious corruption compelled Saddam to force him out of office.<ref name="Karsh 13–15">{{cite book|author-link1=Efraim Karsh|last1=Karsh|first1=Efraim|last2=Rautsi|first2=Inari|title=Saddam Hussein: A Political Biography|publisher=[[Grove Press]]|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8021-3978-8|pages=13–15}}</ref>

Later in his life, relatives from his native city became some of his closest advisors and supporters. Under the guidance of his uncle, he attended a nationalistic high school in Baghdad. After secondary school, Saddam studied at an [[Iraqi law school]] for three years, dropping out in 1957 at the age of 20 to join the revolutionary [[Pan-Arabism|pan-Arab]] [[Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party – Iraq Region|Ba'ath Party]], of which his uncle was a supporter. During this time, Saddam apparently saw himself as a secondary school teacher.<ref>{{cite book|last=Batatu |first=Hanna |author-link=Hanna Batatu |title=The Old Social Classes & The Revolutionary Movement in Iraq |year=1979 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-05241-0}}</ref> Ba'athist ideology originated in [[Syria]] and the Ba'ath Party had a large following in Syria at the time, but in 1955 there were fewer than 300 Ba'ath Party members in Iraq, and it is believed that Saddam's primary reason for joining the party as opposed to the more established Iraqi nationalist parties was his familial connection to [[Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr]] and other leading Ba'athists through his uncle.<ref name="Karsh 13–15" /> The pan-Arab nationalism of [[Gamal Abdel Nasser]] in Egypt profoundly influenced young Ba'athists like Saddam.<ref>Humphreys, 68</ref> The rise of Nasser foreshadowed a wave of revolutions throughout the Middle East in the 1950s and 1960s, with the collapse of the monarchies of [[Kingdom of Iraq|Iraq]], [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]], and [[Kingdom of Libya|Libya]]. Nasser inspired nationalists throughout the Middle East by fighting the [[British Army|British]] and the [[French Army|French]] during the [[Suez Crisis|Suez Crisis of 1956]], modernizing Egypt, and uniting the [[Arab world]] politically.<ref>Humphreys, 68</ref> Saddam's father-in-law, [[Khairallah Talfah]], was reported to have served five years in prison for his role in fighting against Great Britain in the [[1941 Iraqi coup d'état]] and [[Anglo-Iraqi War]], and often mentored and told tales of his exploits to the young Saddam.<ref name="beat1" />