Taking a Look at book "The Autumn of Fifty Years old"

He Got Himself on the "Syrian" Martyrdom Bus

Seyedeh Pegah Rezazadeh
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2020-2-25

"The Autumn of Fifty Years Old" is the name of a book from the memory of Maryam Jalali, the wife of the defender of shrine, martyr Mohammad Jamali published in current autumn with 168 pages and 2500 volumes and 20,000 Toman[1] for those are interested in the oral history of the war. This book is dedicated to the martyrs in defense of the holy shrine, written by Fatemeh Behbudi, edited by Mohammad Mehdi Aqabi and co-authored by the Kerman Province's Martyrs Congress.

This book can be criticized in the form of a vivid picture of the life and life story of martyr and general Jamali from his wife's words. The author of book narrates untold memories of the Syrian War in a simple words with a wide vocabulary that the reader will be attracted by the first few pages of the book and read all the end. Memories of the personal life of the martyred defender of the holy shrine and his wife who endured hardships and misery with many ups and downs. The book deals with the oral history of the war and the operations in which martyr Jamali was involved. The author of the book met with Maryam Jamali, the wife of martyr Jamali, in January 2019, and in the preface of the book says that the day I met the wife of martyr Jamali coincided with the birth of the lady of Damascus, Hazrat Zainab[2] (SA) and the death of holy woman of Bani Hashim[3]; he traveled to city Babak He and met the martyr's mother to complete her interview.

In the first chapter we get to know the memoirs and story of the marriage of martyr Jamali with his wife. Maryam Jamali narrates how he met her cousin. On page 24 of this chapter we read the story of first experience of martyr Jamali in war narrated by his mother. She says that he was student of eleventh grade when the war began. His classmate came from Rafsanjan[4]; I said him: what about our Muhammad? He said he went to take military training; he wanted to go to the warfront. Next day, he was going to go there early morning.

In the continuous of second chapter, Maryam Jamali recounts her distresses and loneliness for martyr Jamali when he went to war, when he was injured in the Kheibar operation and wounded in another operation. Maryam Jamali, in the page 34, refers to a time when martyr Jamali was injured by blast and some days he did not feel well and occasionally uttered crisp words that I couldn't not understand. But, sometime, when he was conscious, he wrote notes in his calendar.

Once, martyr Mohammed Jamali's wife reads those notes and yearbooks, and says: "He has written that we were in the canal for fifteen days during operation Karbala Five; the enemy fired on us so much that the ground was moving beneath our feet and trembling like a child's cradle." His wife was nineteen at that time, when he was a student and martyr Jamali was traveling to the front and participating in various operations. In the third chapter, he went to Ahwaz with his wife and son in 1988, due to his involvement in the operations of the 41 Saralah Division. This chapter is a story of wife's loneness with her child in a city she has no knowledge of it and is strange. The end of this chapter, the author points to a victory in sacred defense and returning to their hometown of Kerman.

The fourth chapter discusses the task of commanding general Jamali on the orders of martyr general Haj Qassem Suleimani. Mohammed Jamali went to Sirjan to fight the villains along with general Mahmoudi, due to long time of the operation, martyr Jamali's wife would have to go to Sirjan with her child. On page 66, Martyr Jamali describes his reason for the operation: “The people of Sirjan are not safe and comfortable for some traffickers and we are going to fight and fight them, so that this area is safe for women and children. Having safety better then bread.

The fifth chapter depicts their preparation for a trip to Kerman. Maryam Jamali quotes the difficulty of performing these operations and combating the villains. On page 71, according martyr Jamali's notes on Sirjan's operations, we read:" Fighting against villains is harder than fighting against Iraqis. They are compatriots; they dress like us; we speak the same language; Maryam Jamali says in the fifth chapter: At that time, I realized that the battle in Sirjan was in fact what is known as the irregular war. But the brigade of Imam al-Zaman (PBUH) is so fighting against villain that that did not even lose a force, sometimes they used camouflage anonymously to fight against villains.”

After three and a half years of board activity, general Jamali and his colleagues, Sirjan, become a safe area by the attempt of him and his companions. It is clear from the notes left by Mohammed Jamali that they used to identify and investigate the determined area for about a week to 10 days before each operation. When they knew where the villains have come from, where they were moving, and where they were employed, they would alert the troops and start the operation. In fact, general Jamali himself was responsible for information-operations. In the sixth chapter, martyr Mohammad Jamali returns to division 41 of Kerman; we also read about martyr's assistance as the first expedition to the Bam earthquake in 2003. In the seventh chapter, we read about the retirement of Martyr Jamali with the rank of Colonel in the autumn of 2007. On page 108, it was discussed how Jemali was sent to Syria. Martyr Mohammad Jamali goes to the mourning assembly of Fatemeh Zahra (PBHM)[5] in the house of general Soleimani in the year of 2013, as a usual activity after the war. Haj Qasim Suleimani used to stand by door and greet the guests. At the night Mohammed came home, he informed his wife that Haj Qassem Suleimani has said that if he wasn’t busy now, he could go to Syria. Martyr Jamali's wife recounts that Martyr Mohammed Jamali, when he uttered these words to me, he became happy, and it was clear that he had accepted the request of Haj Qassem Soleimani, heartily. This chapter also reminds the Jamali's departure from the airport and his family. The general Jamali departed for Syria in early September 2013.

In the second paragraph of Chapter eight is mentioned: “Haji came with boot and gray clothes. He was tired. Suddenly I saw he was staring at my daughter's hairs. I said what happened Haji? He said, 'I remember the puppets of Syrian little girls falling under the boot of ISIL’s soldiers[6]!' In this chapter of the book, on page 120, one of the most beautiful memories of the war is narrated by general Jamali for relatives, as well as the last days before general Jamali's became martyrdom. On page 125 of this book, a poetry is written by martyr Jamali:

Oh my lord, I don't want in bed to be died

On thy way, help me in the bulwark to be died

I love in fire, bullets and blood  

Away from my home to be died.

The ninth Chapter is the memoir of general Jamali's marydom and how the family became aware of it. On page 136, the memory of general Mahmoudi about martyr Jamali is narrated as follows: “We were in Jaffir when one night Mohammad Jamali went to identify the area. It was late and had not come back. I was lying next to the kids in the bulwark, but I couldn't sleep. It was about three or four o'clock in the morning, I saw a tall shadow next to bulwark. I found out it was himself. She looked at the comrades and lay down. Ten minutes or a quarter later, he got up and the crept out. I got up behind him and followed him. A few yards down the bulwark. The comrades had made a new bulwark. He pulled a taperecorder out of his pocket and turned it on. Hossein Ansarian was mourning; Jamali cried out. He was crying insofar as I started to cry. I listened to his whisperings: God, how many times have I sinned in the few years that my martyrdom cannot be take place?"

In tenth chapter, we read about the difficult moments of facing the martyr's body and his family's painful farewell. Also on page 147 of the book, we read some part of speeches of general Haj Qassem Suleimani at the funeral of martyr Jamali:

"Martyr Jamali was Basij[7] during eight years of sacred defense. After the war, he lived as a Basij. Althogh he didn't get on the martyrdom bus of eight-year-old war, he got himself on the Syrian martyrdom bus."