Faisal II

Both were buffeted by the wave of Arab nationalism that erupted after World War II. Abdullah was assassinated by a Palestinian nationalist in Jerusalem in 1951, and Iraq’s King Faisal II was deposed and killed in a bloody 1958 coup.

Iraqis still bitterly recall the British invasion during World War II and many view the 1958 coup that deposed Faisal II with pride.

Growing up in a prominent Iraqi family, he had nurtured political ambitions of his own and was a childhood playmate of King Faisal II, whose execution during a 1958 revolution led Mr. Kirdar to immigrate to the United States.

“Over there, they owned a club and played in major concert halls,” Tassa said, adding that his grandfather’s music was adored by Faisal II, the last King of Iraq.

In the 1950s, in the pre-revolution era of King Faisal II, and then again during the oil boom of the 1980s, the city vied to regain its historical place as the centre of the Arab world.