Soldier, scholar and patriot. Brig. Mahmud took leading part in the failed revolution of 1941. He held ministerial position after the fall of Qasim in 1963 but quit in 1964 to devote him self exclusively to studying, writing, teaching and lecturing on Muslim military history and Islamic law (fiqh) governing wars and qital. Sheit Khattab published more than 400 titles. Mahmud Sheit Khattab was born in Mosul, in a family of Iraq's well-known nobility.