Saib Shawkat (; 1898 – 13 February 1984) was an Iraqi doctor and politician who was an Arab nationalist leader in Iraq.

Medical career

He was from an upscale patriotic Baghdadian family of Georgian origin and studied at a medical school in Istanbul 1913–1918, completing post-graduate studies in general surgery in Germany. Shawkat was the first Iraqi doctor to teach anatomy at the Iraqi Royal College of Medicine of which he became the dean later in the 1940s. He was one of the pioneers in general surgery in Iraq, serving as Director General of Baghdad Hospital in the 1930s. In 1932 he became a founding committee member of the

Iraqi Red Crescent Society The Iraqi Red Crescent Society was founded in 1932, and it has its headquarters in Baghdad. It is an independent, international humanitarian society that works to provide non-discriminatory medical aid to people under any and all circumstances. B ...

. He attended

King Ghazi Ghazi ibn Faisal () (21 March 1912 – 4 April 1939) was King of Iraq from 1933 to 1939 having been briefly Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Syria in 1920. He was born in Mecca, and was the only son of Faisal I. He died in a car accident in Bag ...

after the car accident preceding his death.

Politics

Shawkat led the

Arab nationalist Arab nationalism () is a political ideology asserting that Arabs constitute a single nation. As a traditional nationalist ideology, it promotes Arab culture and civilization, celebrates Arab history, the Arabic language and Arabic literatur ...

Nadi al-Muthanna and advocating the expulsion of

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

from Iraq. Such claims about Dr. Shwakat's attitude toward Jews are contradicted by his personal heroism in defending Jewish patients at the Baghdad hospital where he worked. Hayim Habousha in his account of the pogrom (

Farhud The () was a pogrom carried out against the Jewish population of Baghdad, Kingdom of Iraq, Iraq, on 1–2 June 1941 (coinciding with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot), immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War. The riots oc ...

) writes:

On June 1, 1941, Dr. Saib Shawkat, Dean of the Baghdad Medical College, chief of surgery and administrator of Baghdad Central Hospital entered the surgery ward and scrubbed his hands getting ready to operate. Doctors and nurses standing idly by, had no option but to follow his example. In a few hours, all patients (mostly Jews) were attended to and moved into clean beds. When Jewish nurses reported threats of rape by Iraqi wounded officers being treated at the hospital, Dr. Shawkat sent the officers to their beds and warned on the megaphone that anyone disobeying his order would be shot by him with two guns at his belt. There was no argument--everyone obeyed.

Family

Saib Shawkat was the brother of politician Naji Shawkat, who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from 1932 to 1933.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shawkat, Saib 1898 births 1984 deaths Antisemitism in Iraq Iraqi surgeons Iraqi fascists Iraqi Arab nationalists Iraqi people of Georgian descent Iraqi collaborators with Nazi Germany 20th-century Iraqi physicians