Book Review

Entitled Commander of Destruction

Compiled by: Razia Ebrahimi
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2023-7-5

The book "Commander of Destruction" is the rare oral memoirs of the martyrs of the holy defense warriors, written by Hossein Adhami.

This book is the result of 43 hours of interviews in 19 sessions of approximately two to three hours from September 2014 to September 2016. During the interview, the narrator's wife, Mrs. Mehri Jafari, was also present, and according to the author of the book, her words played a significant role in completing the memoirs.

Nader Murid Mushtaq was born in 1959, followed the revolution and joined the Revolutionary Guards after the victory of the Islamic Revolution. Being in the operational areas as an infantry force in 1980 until serving in the operation unit of the Rasht Guards Corps and participating in the urban war with the hypocrites, protecting the provincial officials and commanding the demolition battalion of Lashkar Quds in Gilan, which caused him many physical and mental injuries, including His activities. The narrator's body is home to 250 grams of small and large splinters that sometimes move in his body and threaten his life; "Once, two or three meters from the car, on the student's side, there was a sound of a bullet and a loud explosion. I don't know if it was a 120 mortar shell or a cannon. At that moment, a vacuum was created with this explosion and we all flew away with a wave of shrapnel. A second or two later, another explosion occurred, and in the same flight mode, the shrapnel from the second explosion hit my lower body and soles of my feet. At that moment of flight, I felt I heard Haj Mahmoud's voice, Allahu Akbar. He said in my heart: I am now a martyr, Hussein! I don't remember anything after that. I was cracked everywhere from my toes to my head without exception. Even my face was not spared from the shrapnel... My injury was extremely severe and my wounds were horribly gaping, my bones and flesh were visible. The flesh on the soles of my feet was completely injured and he could see everything under it..."

His bravery is not only due to his leaving, even his relatives and acquaintances do not know that he has experienced multiple seizures and is suffering from nerve and mental damage. According to the narrator, whenever he was at the front, he was a commander, but whenever he came to the rear of the front, he was just a simple force, and this issue was completely true in all his years of service in the army.

Mr. Mushtaq owes his passing through those difficult years to the sacrifices of his wife, Mrs. Mehri Jafari, who took care of him with sacrifice and dedication throughout their life together and during his injury. "During my illness, my wife and then my mother struggled to take care of me. No one suffers from my illness as much as these two women. Traveling to hospitals and different places, taking care of the child and taking care of the housework really puts pressure on my wife."

In addition to making the narrative interesting, the author has tried to create a meaningful connection between the chain of events to discover different angles of the narrator's personality.

Among many other books published in the field of oral memoirs of warriors, the rare memoirs of Murid Mushtaq have unique features, some of which from the author's point of view are as follows:

 Describing the society in the period before and after the Islamic revolution of Iran

The narrative of how the Revolutionary Guards were formed and the issues related to it

A look at judicial courts and revolutionary courts

How to form a destruction unit in the structure of the Revolutionary Guards

The special importance of the destruction unit in operations

Special mental and personality characteristics of destruction forces

Telling the history of the formation of the Quds Brigade of Gilan

The narrator's type of injury

Explaining the function and structure of war support committees

At the end of the book there is a calendar and an album of pictures (around 40 photos) which are explained by mentioning the names of the people in the photos. At the end, the profile is also set.

The book "Commander of Destruction" was published in 2019 by the artistic area of Gilan province in 536 pages and the number of 1000 copies was published in the ministerial edition at the price of 30,000 Toman (Iranian Currency)