A TIME IN IRAQ BEFORE SADDAM AND THE PRESENT ANARCHY – VISIT OF IRAQI PRINCE TO PAKISTAN AND CHUGHTAIS PAINTING.

Little is known about King Faisal of Iraq and this can be understood:
“Faisal II (Arabic: الملك فيصل الثاني‎ Al-Malik Fayṣal Ath-thānī) (2 May 1935 – 14 July 1958) was the last King of Iraq. He reigned from 4 April 1939 until July 1958, when he was executed during the 14 July Revolution together with numerous members of his family. This regicide marked the end of the thirty-seven-year-old Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, which then became a republic. “

He was cousin of King Hussain of Jordan, and belonged to the prestigious Hashemite kingdom of Islam. He was always accompanied by his uncle Prince Abdullah, who was his regent. Prince visited Pakistan and was presented with a Chughtais painting. A version of his famous painting “Morning Star”. Most probably the painting destroyed in the regicide against his rule, but one does not know. We have a photograph of the Prince with his uncle Prince Abdullah, and our own famous diplomat Pitras Bokhari receiving him in state. Little known facts are on record with us.

The tragic end is on record:
 The monarchy’s end was quite similar to the regicide of the Russian Tsarist autocracy in 1917. On July 14, 1958, a coup d’état, orchestrated by officers who called themselves the “Free Officers” (inspired by the Egyptian Free Officers who overthrew the Egyptian Monarchy in 1952), raided the Qasr al-Zuhur (Palace of Roses) and directed the royal family to the courtyard, under the pretense that a helicopter would pick them up. Instead, they were lined up, facing the palace walls, and machine-gunned. Among the dead were Faisal; Abdul Ilah; Princess Nafeesa, Abdul Ilah’s mother; Princess Abadiya, Faisal’s aunt; and Princess Hiyam, Abdul Ilah’s wife. Mob mentality ensued and took over Baghdad; Faisal and Abdul Ilah’s bodies were dragged through the streets and hung outside the Ministry of Defense as evidence that Iraq had been liberated from its Western ties.
And these people were the custodians of Holy places from times immemorial, the famous Hashims of Khana Kaaba.