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Success and Failure of a Shiite Modernist: Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Mandi Al-Khalisi (1890-1963)

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Success and Failure of a Shiite Modernist: Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Mandi Al-Khalisi (1890-1963) Sonderdrucke aus der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg WERNER ENDE Success and failure of a shiite modernist Muhammad ibn Muhammad Mahdi al-Khalisi (1890 - 1963) Originalbeitrag erschienen in: Alessandro Monsutti (Hrsg.): The other shiites: from the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Bern: Lang, 2007, S. [231]-244 WERNER ENDE Success and Failure of a Shiite Modernist: Muhammad ibn Muhammad Mandi al-Khalisi (1890-1963) Since 1920, the year in which the British Mandate authorities installed a first cabinet in Iraq, the history of that country may be seen in large part as one of efforts by the Shiite population to increase their share of key political, administrative and military positions — and thus, from their point of view, to make internal political conditions more equit- able. 1 In March 1947, when Salih Jabr became the first Shiite prime minister of modern Iraq — heading the fortieth government to be formed since 1920 — an important demand of politically conscious Shiites seemed to have been fulfilled.2 The feelings that this aroused among quite a few Sunnis may be gauged from the fact that, soon af- ter Salih Jabr took office, demonstrations in Baghdad that initially had nothing to do with religious issues escalated into a situation where stu- dents from the Sunni Kulliyyat al-sharra chanted the slogan: 'Down 1 For various aspects of this problem see H. Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, Princeton, N. J., 1978, 12-50 and passim; A. Kelidar, "The Shil Imami Community and Politics in the Arab East", Middle Eastern Studies 19 (1983), 3-16; E. Kedourie, "The Iraqi Shils and their Fate", in M. Kramer (ed.), Shrism, Resistance, and Revolution, Boulder/Col. and Lon- don, 1987, 135 - 157; W. Ende, Arabische Nation und islamische Geschichte, Beirut and Wiesbaden, 1977, 132-153; P.-J. Luizard, La formation de l'Irak con- temporain, Paris 1991, 2002; Y. Nalcash, The Skis of Iraq, Princeton, 1994. 2 For the history of Iraqi cabinets see 'A. R. al-Hasani: Tarikh al- wizarat al- iraqiyya, 10 vols., 7th ed. Baghdad, 1988. For the cabinets headed by Jabr and Sadr, respec- tively, see 7: 160ff. 232 WERNER ENDE with the rafidi!' . 3 The Jabr government fell in January 1948, but its successor (which lasted not quite six months) was also headed by a Shiite, Muhammad al-Sadr. The next ten years were marked, inter alia, by two developments which at first sight seem to have nothing to do with each other: bitter feuds between leading Shiite 'ulama' or their respective followings (feuds, therefore, within Iraq's Shiite community); and simultaneous efforts to achieve a not only political, but also theological rapprochement be- tween Shiites and Sunnis. These efforts came almost exclusively from the Shiite side. Their most prominent, and controversial, representa- tive was the mujtahid Muhammad Mandi al-Khalisi (b. 1890, d. Kazimiyya 1963), a theologian from an Iraqi Arab family. 4 After many years of exile in Iran (from 1922 onwards), he returned to Iraq in the postwar period (1949) and built up a madrasa (earlier founded by his father) into an institute called Jamiyyat Madinat al-71m. 5 At the same time, he kept up lively journalistic activity,6 and in this connection one of the goals he pursued was a better understanding between Christians 3 Kelidar, op. cit., 15, see also Hasani, op. cit., 7: 265. It should be noted, however, that slogans expressing confessional bias were not typical of those demonstra- tions, see Batatu, op. cit., 545-566, and M. Shabib, Wathba fi 1- 'Iraq wa -suqut Salih Jabr, Baghdad, 1988. 4 Kelidar, ibid., 9, and Luizard, La vie (see fn. 11 below), 28. 5 The name of this institution is related to the hadith "Ana madinat al-'ilm wa-Ali babuha". The authenticity and religious importance of this hadith is being stressed in Shiite literature — see, e. g., M. al-Amin: A`yan al-shi'a, 3rd ed., 1960, 3/1: 55 and 62 ff. As far as the Sunni tradition is concerned, this hadith is accepted by Tirmidhi (Sunan al- Tirmidhi, ed. Deas, 9, Hims 1968, 306f.). Later authors, however, have called its wording in question or rejected it completely, see Ibn al- Jawzi (d. 1200): Kitab al-mawduat, ed. Abd al-Rahman Muhammad 'Uthman, Medina 1966,349-355, and J. al-Suyuti (d. 1505), Al-idali al-masnu'aft 1-ahadith al- mawdu'a, 1, Cairo, n. d., 329-336. 6 A list of his publications (both books and pamphlets) in Arabic and Persian is to be found in K. Awwad, Mujam al- mu'allifin al- iraqiyyin, 3 vols., Baghdad 1969, 3: 235-239. For his Persian publications see also K. Moshar, Fehrest-e ketabha -ye chapi-ye farsi, (ed. Yarshäter) 3 (Index), Tehran, 1973, 71 (n. n. Khalesi-Zadeh), and idem: Mo'allefin -e kotob, 5, Tehran, 1964, cols. 449-453. Success and Failure of a Shiite Modernist 233 and Muslims. 7 In 1954 he took part in a well-attended international event in Lebanon to promote greater dialogue8 — although, of course, this did not prevent him from engaging in missionary work towards non-Muslims. 9 Under the conditions of relative freedom of the press that prevailed until the 1958 revolution, a whole series of debates on religious, cultural- historical and political questions arose between Khalisi and his many opponents in both the Shiite and Sunni camps. These centred in the end on Khalisi's defence of a (generally non-radical) modernism, and his attempt to use this as the basis for a Sunni-Shiite rapprochement (taqrib) at the levels of theology and Islamic law. Although it did not escape intervention by the censors, the debate was relatively open and some- times displayed great bitterness. The questions at issue would never be raised again in this way after 1958, yet they formpart of the background for an understanding of later developments — not only in Iraq. '° In contrast to the role that Khalisi and his father, Muhammad Mandi (d. 1925), played in previous decades in Iraq and (after 1922/23) in Iran," this later period in the life of Muhammad b. Muhammad Mandi 7 According to G. Krotkoff: "Kazimen — ein shiltischer Wallfahrtsort", Bustan 9 (1968), 60€ 8 See The Proceedings ofthe First Muslim-Christian Convocation, Bhamdoun, Leba- non, April 22-27, 1954, published by [...] Continuing Committee on Muslim- Christian Cooperation, n. p., 1955. Concerning Khalisi see in particular 3ff., 11, 65 ff. and the picture following 24. According to the text of the proceedings as a whole, it seems that Khalisi became more or less marginalized in the course of the Bhamdoun convention. 9 A case of Khalisi's alleged success in this respect is reported in his bookAl-tawhid wa-l-wanda, Baghdad, 1954, 37-39: two Yazidis and (previously) a Christian had come to the office of Jamlyyat Madinat al-Ilm and had declared their con- version to (Shiite?) Islam. Concerning al-Khalisi's missionary work, but also his efforts to promote a rapprochement between Sunnites and Shiites see also M. Reisch, Im Auto nach Koweit, Vienna, 1953, in particular 218-220. 10 For an excellent survey and analysis of the attempts at a rapprochement, in par- ticular in the Arab world, see R. Brunner, Islamic Ecumenism in the 20th Century, Leiden and Boston, 2004. 11 See P.-J. Luizard, "Shaykh Muhammad al-Khalisi (1890-1963) and his Political Role in Iraq and Iran in the 1910s/20s", in R. Brunner and W. Ende (eds.), The 234 WERNER ENDE al-Khalisi (who, unlike his father, soon acquired and always kept the name `Khalesi-Zadel0 has until recently received scarcely any attention in Western historical research and Islamic studies, despite the fact that in the 1950s he was one of the best-known Shiite figures in Iraq. One of the reasons for this may be that anyone who wishes to study in detail the religious and religious-political debates of the 1950s usually does not have full access to the Iraqi press of the time; the archives abroad are very sparse, and for years serious difficulties have stood in the way of library research inside the country. Furthermore, since the Iraq war of 2003, a large amount of archival and library material has been lost. A review of those debates of the 1950s , and at least the kind of cursory analysis that I propose to make here, would be impossible if Khalisi and his fiercest opponent in the Sunni camp, the writer and journalist Mahmud al-Mallah (d. 1969), had not taken the trouble in later years to collect and republish their newspaper or magazine articles in the form of books and pamphlets. 12 These editions exist in a number of Arab libraries outside Iraq, and some have even found their way to Europe and America. Since each of the two main protagonists also quotes and comments in his writings on the views of his opponent and other authors, we can gradually form quite a good idea of the themes and course of the debate, the personality of those who took part in it, and the general cultural- political atmosphere in Iraq at that time. This gives us an insight into a level of discussion some way beneath the one visible at pan-Islamic con- ferences, with their diplomatically polished resolutions, or in the occa- Twelver Shiis in Modern Times, Leiden etc., 2001, 223-235. Concerning his father (d. 1925), see La vie de l'ayatollah Mandi al-Khalisi par son fils, trans. from Arabic by P.-J. Luizard, Paris 2005, and (anon.) art. "Al-mujahid al-kabir al- Shaykh Muhammad Mandi al-Khalisi" (with a number of documents), Al- Mawsim, 3 (1990/ 1412 h), 728-759.
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