Politics Under a Sandstorm: Making Sense of the Positions and Orientations of Shiites in the Process Leading up to the Establishment of the Iraqi State under the British Mandate [1918-1921]

Abstract

This study focuses on the relations established by the Shiite community with the British, another power formation, which appears as the biggest sign of the power vacuum that has arisen in this area as a result of the inactivation of the Ottoman State in Iraq after the end of the First World War. In this context, from the autumn of 1918 until August 1921, when Sharif Hussein's son Faisal was installed on the Iraqi throne, which instruments the Shiite community used to dispose of the British in the field and which cards the British released to disable these instruments were the main focuses of the study. In order to clarify these focal points, the study focused on the activities of important figures of both the British and the Shiites in the field and wanted to understand whether their actions shifted the balance of power in Iraq in favor of the British or in favor of the Shiites. Considering the issue in this way, the teachings of Sayyid Muhammad Kazim Yazdi and Sayyid Mirza Muhammad Taqi Shirazi, representing the Shiite community, have found a lot of space in this work. When the issue is approached from the British front, a wide bracket is opened, especially in the study of how Sir Percy Cox and Sharif Hussein's son Faisal undertook a mission in the establishment of the Iraqi State. In addition, the study focuses on the contacts established by the Iraqi Shiite community with Mustafa Kemal Pasha, the leader of the National Struggle Movement in Anatolia, what the figure of Mustafa Kemal Pasha means to the groups on the ground, and how the National Struggle Movement positions itself in the face of developments in Iraq. © 2023, Selim Hilmi Ozkan. All rights reserved.