---
title: Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure 'Ruler of the dead'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-ruler-of-the-dead-skull-1991/
description: A black-and-white line drawing of a bearded, moustached man in a beret with a skull badge, his face drawn as a skull with hollow eye sockets and bared…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

**Content note:** Caricature of a political leader drawn as a skull-faced figure, with Arabic text. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure 'Ruler of the dead'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-war-leaflet-ruler-of-the-dead-skull-1991.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gulf-war-leaflet-ruler-of-the-dead-skull-1991.jpg)

# Gulf War leaflet, skull-faced figure 'Ruler of the dead'

A black-and-white line drawing of a bearded, moustached man in a beret with a skull badge, his face drawn as a skull with hollow eye sockets and bared teeth, above a single line of Arabic, 'Ruler of the dead!' The tell is the label doing the work: the figure is reduced to a death's-head and one title, with no claim about any act that could be checked.

## Text on the object

Original (Arabic) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
حاكم القتلى!
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Ruler of the dead! (also readable as 'Governor of the slain').
```

Read from a 210 by 400 px scan; the Arabic line is clear. Machine-translated by Claude, not checked by a fluent reader.

[← Gulf War leaflet, portrait with mourning band 'The cold face of death and war'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gulf-war-leaflet-cold-face-of-death-1991/) [Baghdad communique and RCC-Ba'th statement, 17 January 1991 (FBIS translation) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/baghdad-communique-3-fbis-1991/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking)
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Ondersoeckt de Geesten, ofse van den Duyvel syn, of niet (the De Witt brothers as devils)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ondersoeckt-de-geesten-de-witt-devils-1672/) (Dutch Republic · 1672 · Scapegoating, Name-calling)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (Great Britain · 1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [The North Briton, No. XLV, 23 April 1763 (John Wilkes), opening page](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/north-briton-no-45-wilkes-1763/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Apr 23, 1763 · Name-calling)
- [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd.
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (France · 1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)