humanity has known many tyrannical leaders for their bloodshed, and a few reformers, such as kamal ataturk, for example, but their number is negligible.
there was hulaku (khan was a mongol ruler who conquered much of western asia), nero (the last roman emperor of the julio-claudian dynasty), al-hajjaj (ibn yusuf, perhaps the most notable governor who served the umayyad caliphate, a ruthless statesman) and thousands of others.
in our time, the world knew joseph stalin (a soviet revolutionary and politician of georgian nationality), the only bloodshedding dictator who was probably poisoned to death in his bed. his reign caused the deaths of tens of millions of russians, the likes of the ukrainians.
(benito) mussolini (italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the national fascist party and ruled italy as prime minister from 1922 to 1943, and then comes (adolf) hitler (a german politician who was the leader of the nazi party), who holds the world record for the number of people killed directly or indirectly during his rule.
there were also (françois) duvalier in haiti, (muammar) gaddafi in libya, saddam (hussein) in iraq, (francisco) franco in spain, (augusto) pinochet in chile, (nicolae) ceausescu in romania, (zine el abidine) ben ali in tunisia, (robert) mugabe in zimbabwe, pol pot in cambodia, mao zedong in china and dozens more.
the purpose of this article is not to enumerate or confine tyrants or dictators in history, this is a difficult task, the names may be controversial, and we may enter the taboo by talking about those who are alive or who are seen by their people or their governments as symbols and they are dead.
so we will be exposing ourselves to imprisonment in this charged atmosphere in which the government is not ready to accept any opinion, and under the terrorism of the notorious audio/visual law.
i remembered all these and others, and began to imagine the power they enjoyed when they were at the helm of affairs and how the very mention of their names terrorized their opponents.
i think their insistence for adherence to power often stemmed from their desire to enjoy the pleasures of life and the power of rule, the ecstasy of controlling others and the ability to torture their enemies.
here they are not different from those ordinary people who spend their lives without considering the consequences and then having to pay for that recklessness and end up being sick or disabled.
this happens often to tyrants who end up being prisoners in their palaces or die or are persecuted and living in exile a life of misery when they are at the end of their journey of life.
i often wondered about the meaning of their lives, if the end was all that misery? can they rejoice the early pleasures of their lives while they are in that miserable situation, isolation or ill? what about dignity and psychological comfort, and happiness they had achieved and people’s love for them?
it is a shame to be illiterate, but if we are unable to learn from our mistakes or the mistakes of others, the fault is greater. the failure awaits anyone who does not read history and learns.
i have known, befriended, and lived among dozens of friends and acquaintances, many of whom are wealthy, others have good health, or both, but only a few have managed to maintain their health or their wealth.
some people’s calls to enjoy life by living according to the saying of a famous pre-islamic poet imru’ al-qais, ‘today is wine and tomorrow is another matter’, that is to say ‘carpe diem’ or pluck the day may be fun that time, but what about the price that must be paid next?