The Caliph and Mujtahids: Ottoman Policy towards the Shiite Community of Iraq in the Late Nineteenth Century (original) (raw)
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Iranian Shiite ulema played a key role in the prevalence of Shiite population in Iraqi provinces of Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. The Iranian ulema’s first missionary activities began in cities which were accepted as sacred by Shiite believers and it was gradually expanded to all lands of Iraq. As a counter-policy to the Iranian ulema’s missionary activities, the Ottoman government took some measures to restrict the activities of Iranian ulema and the number of Shiite populations in Iraq. However, Ottoman government could not prevent the change of demographic map of Shiite population from the minority to the majority in Iraq. In this respect, this article will examine the Ottoman governmental policies towards Shiite groups in Iraq by rethinking the subject of sectarianism within a broader historical context, specifically within a late imperial framework. In other words, the main purpose of this study is to show the policies of the Ottoman administration to cope with the spread of Shiite belief among Iraqi people. This study will also explain the reasons for the growth of the Shiite supremacy in Iraq by basing on a number of documents from the Ottoman archives which reflect the ideology of government’s officials in the late- nineteenth century.
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Structural Changes in the Modern Middle East: Revolution, Constitution, Parliament or negative efforts of minor structural ones. In addition, a series of such changes, as a whole, can be believed to have originated with European penetration or rule, followed by progressive and reactionary moves in the nineteenth century. I believe that the contents of the presentations by Dr. Dundar and Mr. Tokunaga are evidently different but both are closely related with such changing processes in the Middle East. Their presentations were very helpful for us to reconsider the differences between and similarities in structural changes in the cases of the Ottoman Empire and Iran. In connection with the above, it appears that the millet system was one of the residues in the great structural change of the Ottoman Empire, which converted from an Islamic state into a multi-ethnic state, and finally the Turkish nation-state. Being different from the Ottoman Empire, which had already accomplished a pseudo-centralized or centralized system, Iran needed a state-building exercise based on centralization. I wonder whether the issue of electoral law highlighted by Mr. Tokunaga might have represented the evidence in the significant structural change from decentralized Qajar rule to the centralization of the Pahlavi dictatorship. Moreover, during Reza Shah's period, the task of centralization was certainly accomplished to some extent by means of modernization as well as policies against armed tribes and the Shi'ite religious forces. However, both the Turkish and Iranian cases seem to have scarcely realized structural change in relation to "Islam and Search for Democratization," which is this session's main theme.
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The paper aims to study the jurisprudential attitudes in the field of contemporary Shiite Imamiyah political thought, which is the basis for the formation of the first Shiite government. Hence, the main question is what developments have taken place in the contemporary political thought of the Imamiyah Shiite from the Constitution to the Islamic Revolution? The research findings suggest that the theoretical evolution of Shiite political thought has taken place in the light of several developments, among which the two important events of the "Constitutional Revolution" and the "Islamic Revolution" have had the greatest impact. These two phenomena have led to the emergence of scientific debates under each of them and the formation of new concepts and political theories in contemporary Shiite political thought. The most important feature of these theories is the attempt to reconcile democracy, government, and the involvement of the people in political destiny by accepting religious government and the leadership of a just well qualified jurist, known as "religious democracy".
AL MURAJAAT A SHII SUNNI DIALOGUE-
Bishri's year of birth in 1832 A.D., a date which agrees with the account provided by Murta¤a l-Y sin, to whom reference is made below, but he is very brief in recording his account of al-Bishri, so he makes no reference to the meeting between him and al-M sawi. The following information is presented to the reader as it exists in the 4 th edition of the original Arabic edition published in 1428 A.H./2007 A.D. by D r al-Q ri' for printing, publishing and distribution دع يد التو و در الن و اعدف ب ل ء القدال دال (of Beirut, Lebanon). According to this edition, Sayyid Abdul-µusayn Sharafud-Dīn al-M sawi was born in K ¨imiyya, Iraq, in 1290 A.H./1871 A.D. and died at the age of 87 (on Jum da II 8, 1377 A.H./December 18 [according to the Julian calendar], or December 31, according to the Gregorian calendar, 1957 A.D.). Some references place his year of death in 1958. Al-M sawi visited Egypt for the first time in pursuit of knowledge in 1329 A.H./1911 A.D. and stayed there for one year, according to Murta¤a l-Y sin who wrote in 1365 A.H./1946 A.D. the "Author's Biography" for this same Lebanese edition when he was in his home town, al-K ¨imiyya, Iraq. During that year, when he was 39, he met in Cairo al-Azhar's rector (head, dean), who was then 79 years old. This historic meeting between both men sparked a debate about the similarities and differences between Islam's two branches, the Sunni majority and the Shī`ite minority, which was later written in the form of correspondence the first letter of which is dated Dhul-Qi`da 6, 1329 A.H./October 16, 1911 and the last, which was sent by the Shī`i scholar to his Sunni debator, is dated Jam di al-la 2, 1330 A.H./April 6, 1912. It was then that Al-Azhar started teaching the Shī`i fiqh, regarding it the fifth School of Islamic Law.
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