سَبْعَ سِنِينَ طِوال مِنَ المأسي

Location: Mesopotamia

Date: 1918

The First World War had ended in 1918, and Iraq fell under the control of the British Mandate.

The scene was not much different from the days of Ottoman rule; poverty still cast its gloomy shadows, the landlords grew ever stronger, and the people cried out with no one to answer.

Amidst these disturbances, fate decreed the birth of a new child.

It was a Friday, and the chill of winter spread through the narrow alleys of the old city.

In a modest home, between simple walls, Noufa bint Ali ibn Mukhlid al-Shahbi gave birth to her first son, with the help of her loyal friend Amina.

The newborn was named Majid ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Majaawi, as though he had been born to bear witness to an age overshadowed by turmoil and calamities.

He was born without choice, existence imposed upon him just as occupation had been imposed upon his homeland.

There, in the city of Najaf, a new story began—one intertwined with the threads of history, unfolding with the clamor of restless days.

Majid was the firstborn of Noufa and Muhammad, after fourteen long years of marriage.

His father, Muhammad, was a wise and hardworking man, who toiled every day, struggling to secure a humble living for his household.

Like most of the people, Muhammad worked as a farmer under the authority of a feudal landlord.

His share of the harvest was barely enough to sustain him and his family, yet he had no other choice; life in those days was harsh, and compulsion weighed heavier than freedom.