La lettre de suicide du Premier Ministre 'Abd al-Muḥsin al-Sa'dūn. Vie et mort d'un nationaliste irakien de langue turque

More than a decade after the retreat of Ottoman administration from the Empire's Iraqi provinces, in November 1929, the Prime Minister of Iraq 'Abd al-Muḥsin al-Sa'dūn commits suicide by shooting himself in the heart, right after he addressed a suicide note to his son 'Alī in Ottoman Turkish. In this article I question the dynamics of a "Hashemite memory of state" under the monarchy of Fayṣal, centered on a supposedly homogenous and immemorial Arabness. In particular I ask whether there could have existed, in the shadow of the official memory, a multiplicity of alternative memories. By a close reading of the Prime Minister's political and personal trajectory - between his Ottoman Turkish socio-political background and the mounting tensions with the Shi'i leadership from southern Iraq - I examine the complexity of identity politics, behind the claims of Arabness. The legacy of the Turkish language: amnesia or indifference? (Text in French) (Tranlsation into Arabic forthcoming)