The "Blood Qur'an" is a copy of the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an, claimed to have been written in the blood of the former president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, over the course of two years in the late 1990s. Saddam commissioned the book in 1997 on his 60th birthday, reportedly to give thanks to God for helping him through many "conspiracies and dangers". He explained his reasons for commissioning the book in a letter published by the Iraqi state media in September 2000: "My life has been full of dangers in which I should have lost a lot of blood ... but since I have bled only a little, I asked somebody to write God's words with my blood in gratitude."[1] Saddam's act was denounced in 2000 by the religious authorities of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia,[2] and, after his fall from power in 2003, the Qur'an was removed from public display.