15. He Had A Copy Of The Qur'an Written In His Own Blood
The "Blood Qur'an" is a copy of the Islamic holy book that, allegedly, was written using the blood of former Iraqi President Hussein's own blood during the late-1990s. Supposedly Hussein had the book commissioned on his 60th birthday in 1997 in order to give thanks to God for helping him through many "conspiracies and dangers". He commissioned the book to be produced by Islamic calligrapher Abbas Shakir Joudi. Between 50 and 57 pints of Hussein's blood were used to copy the 6,000 verses and 336,000 verses of the Qur'an and, explaining the reasoning behind the task, the Iraqi leader stated:
"My life has been full of dangers in which I should have lost a lot of blood... but since I have bled only a little, I asked somebody to write God's words with my blood in gratitude."
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
