 abd al-karim qasim ( ) (21 november 1914 â 9 february 1963), was a nationalist iraqi army brigadier who seized power in a 1958 coup d'Ã©tat, wherein the iraqi monarchy was eliminated. he ruled the country as prime minister until his downfall and death during the 1963 ramadan revolution. his name can be transliterated from the arabic in a number of ways, e.g. abdel karim kassem, abdul karim kassem, abdulkarim kasem, abdel-karim qaasim, `abdul karim qasem, qassem. during his rule, he was popularly known as al-zaâÄ«m (Ø§ÙØ²Ø¹ÙÙ) or, "the leader". ==early life and career== left|thumb|qasim in 1937. abd al-karim qasim's father was a sunni muslimiraq - a country study federal research division, library of congress of arabic and kurdish descent who died shortly after his son's birth during world war i as a soldier for the ottoman empire. qasim's mother was a shiite and the daughter of a feyli kurd farmer from baghdad. when qasim was six years of age his family moved to suwayra, a small town near the tigris, then to baghdad in 1926. qasim was an excellent student; he entered secondary school on a government scholarship. after graduation in 1931, he taught at shamiyya elementary school 
1914_births 1963_deaths 20th_century_in_Iraq Executed_prime_ministers Iraqi_Sunni_Muslims Iraqi_generals Iraqi_nationalists Leaders_ousted_by_a_coup Leaders_who_took_power_by_coup People_from_Baghdad People_of_Arab_descent People_of_Kurdish_descent Prime_Ministers_of_Iraq