Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh

Salah al-Din al-Sabbagh (; 1889 – 16 October 1945) was an Iraqi Army officer and Arab nationalist that led the Golden Square group which had opposed the government at the time and had highly influenced politics between the years of 1939 and 1941.

Biography Born in Mosul to Iraqi parents, between 1939 and 1941, a group of army officers that had placed heavy influence on Iraq's political scene. During this period, and relating to being an army officer and a pan-Arab nationalist, al-Sabbagh supervised the training of al-Futuwwah youth movement. Established in 1935, and made compulsory for high school students in 1939, the futuwwah movement, via its paramilitary training, sought to transform young Iraqi-Arab youth into future soldiers committed to the cultural, historical, geographical and national unity of the Arab nation.

Having admired the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, he worked both with him and Rashid Ali al-Kaylani to negotiate with the Axis powers for support of their pan-Arab goals. Al-Sabbagh supported Rashid Ali as prime minister in 1941 and was responsible as a major advocate of the Anglo-Iraqi War in April and May. Soon after the Iraqi defeat in the Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941, Sabbagh fled to Iran, then to Turkey. However, in 1945, he was captured by the British, after which he was extradited to Iraq. Sabbagh was court-martialed for treason, sentenced to death, and publicly hanged on 16 October 1945. in 1956 which had detailed the account of his pan-Arabism.