TEHRAN – Only a few books have so far been published in Iran that directly recount stories about Qassem Soleimani, one of the country’s most powerful figures who was martyred in Iraq in a U.S. airstrike.

“Hajji Qassem” came out in 2016 as the first book, which contains his memories of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war and some other topics compiled by Ali-Akbar Mozdabadi. It also carries some articles published about Soleimani by several international studies centers.    

The book was published by Ya Zahra Publications, which then announced its plan to release a two-volume series of Soleimani’s accounts of some of Iran’s military operations during the Iran-Iraq war.

“The Attack on Invasion” was the first book of the series, which describes Iran’s military actions during the early days of the war. 

“The Battle of Seyyed Jaber”, the second book of the series, was released in 2017. The book tells about the role played by the Sarallah Brigade, Soleimani’s unit, during Operation Beit-ul-Muqaddas in 1982. Both of the books were compiled by Abbas Mirzai.       

In 2016, Se Noqteh publishing company released “The Soldiers of the Commander” authored by Morteza Keramati. In the first chapter, the writer gives an account of Soleimani’s leadership as the Quds Force commander. The second chapter carries the memories of his soldiers in the fight against the ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq. 

Mozdabadi also accumulated some other of his memories of various subjects, which were published in “Zolfaqar” a few months ago.

Other books, including “Men of Hajji Qassem”, also have made direct reference or allusion to the commander.

In the book, Hossein Marufi, a commander of a squadron in the Sarallah Brigade, recounts his memories of the war and 26 months of captivity.

Soleimani also wrote a preface to “The Entry-Forbidden Commanders”, which is a compilation of stories from 30 Iranian commanders by Rahim Makhdumi.

He also wrote a commendation for Hamid Hesam’s book “When the Moonlight Was Missing”, which carries the memories of veteran Ali Khoshlafz who was seriously wounded in the Iran–Iraq war.  

Photo: This combination photo shows covers of books about Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.

MMS/YAW