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A Quran written in Saddam Hussein blood is a macabre reminder of the dictator's brutal reign. According to art experts, it's also both a continuation of — and a departure from — artistic tradition.
RIGHT PHOTO: Iraqi Imams view the 605-page qur'an written using 24 litres of former dictator Saddam Hussein's own blood donated over a number of years. Photograph: Scott Peterson/Getty Images
The "Blood Quran" is taking a toll on Islamic clerics uncertain of whether it's better to destroy the holy book or preserve it as a reminder of the dictator's brutality. Hussein likely knew the controversy his blood-inscribed Quran would create when he commission it, given common taboos surrounding human bodily fluids. But despite the shock value of a book written in human blood, animal blood has been a part of art for centuries.
"Blood is a common medium used in paint," Bruno Pouliot, an objects conservator at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware and a professor of art conservation at the University of Delaware, told LiveScience. "Ox blood is one of the oldest forms, and a very stable form, actually, of paint."
Bloody but sacred
In the late 1990s, Hussein conscripted a calligrapher to copy the Quran in his blood.
In what he reportedly described at the time as a gesture of "gratitude" to God, Hussein donated seven gallons (27 liters) of blood over the course of two years to be used as ink in the macabre volume, according to an article in The Guardian on Sunday (Dec. 19).
The Quran is now kept behind locked doors in a mosque in Baghdad, and officials are uncertain how to handle an object that is simultaneously sacred and profane.
