Bangor University DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY The Shiite Resistance Against the British Occupation in Iraq 1914-1921 Dashti, Eissa Award date: 2017 Awarding institution: Bangor University Link to publication General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 The Shiite Resistance Against the British Occupation in Iraq 1914-1921 Eissa Dashti A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Bangor University School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology 2017 September 2017 1 Dedication This thesis is dedicated to those who have helped and supported me throughout the Ph.D. programme My Supervisor: Dr Peter Shapley 5 Declaration of Authorship I, Eissa Dashti, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: Eissa Dashti Date: 19.12.2017 6 Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Dr. Peter Shapley for his friendship, support and advice throughout my dissertation journey. In addition, special thanks and appreciation go to the British Library, the British National Archive and the Iraq National Library and Archive for Research and Studies for cooperation and services provided. At the same time, I would like thank Dr. Amer Qādir at the Department of History in Bangor University for editing my thesis. I also owe much to Dr. Kāmil al-Jbūrī, Ṭāhā Khuḍayir al-Rabī‘ī, ‘Uday al-Bazūn, Sheikh Salāh, Aḥmad al-‘Abādī and Muḥammad al-Qāmūsī from Iraq, who all helped me during my journeys to Iraq. I would also like to thank my friends Mansūr al-Qallāf and Ḥabīb al-Ḥamar, who accompanied me on my trips to Iraq. This is also an opportunity to thank ‘Ali al-Ra’īs from Kuwait, who allowed me to access his individual archival materials. These were very useful to me in conducting this project. Finally, I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to my mother and my wife for their unwavering support and encouragement. 7 Note on the Transliteration System In this paper, I follow the style of the International Journal of the Middle East Studies (IJMES), which is a well-known system that most Middle Eastern scholars adopt in conducting research that contains Arabic, Persian and Turkish words. In this thesis, I adopt only the Arabic system due to the sources used. However, I have removed the diacritics on the letters to simplify the text for the reader. This is particularly important as this thesis is a historical study, and these diacritics are not usually used nowadays by historians. Those letters and words that do not have a commonly accepted form in English have been transliterated according to their Arabic forms. Examples of a few Arabic letters and words that are used in this study are set out below: ʻAṭiya = عطيه ع = ‘ al-Ghiṭāʼ = الغطاء ء = ʼ Ṭabāṭabā’ī = الطبطبائي ط =ṭ - Ṭ ʼAṣfahānī=اﻷصفهاني ﺹ =ṣ - Ṣ Ḥussein =حسين ﺡ = ḥ- Ḥ Ibrāhīm’ = إبراهيم إ = ʼI Āl Fatla =آل فتله آ = Ā Kāẓim = كاظم ظ = ẓ Al- Fayāḍ =فياض ض = ḍ It should be noted that I also converted all hijri dates (Arab calendar) on the Iraqi documents to the Gregorian calendar by using the following electronic website: www. Islamicfinder.org 8 Abstract The Shiite resistance against the British occupation of Iraq is an important event and a turning point in the modern history of Iraq. In order to understand it, there is a need for a thorough examination of the short-term changes that happened during this period. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to examine the role that the Shiite community played in resisting the British occupation of Iraq during the period 1914- 1921. It also considers their contribution to the formation of the modern State of Iraq under the rule of Faisal b. Al-Sharīf Ḥussein. Further, it analyses the role of this resistance in the emergence of the signs of nation building. The hypothesis that this study is testing is the role that the supreme cleric in Najaf, as an individual or belonging to an organization, and his fatwa in 1914 played in supporting the Ottoman Empire. In addition, the study involves the examinations of complex factors and overlapping elements such as those reflected in the relationships between the major powers (Ottoman and British forces) and regional rulers as well as entities and individuals such as; Khaʻzal in Al-Muhammarah, Ibn Sa‘ūd in the Arabian peninsula, Mubārak Al-Ṣabāḥ in Kuwait, the tribes in the south of Iraq and the coalitions of tribes, the jihadi movements during the First World War in the south and middle of Iraq, the national movement and political parties in Baghdad. This thesis is limited to studying the role of Shiites in the resistance of the British occupation of Iraq, and in the formation of modern Iraq in the period between 1914-1921. Limiting the exploration to this period and to the role of only the Shiites, which constituted about fifty-two percent of the Iraqi population in the period of the study, afforded the research a degree of specificity that allowed an in-depth exploration of a topic that has, hitherto, received little attention. Despite a fairly extensive and diverse literature that the study depended on, most of these sources lack analytical depth about the institutional and intellectual construction of al- Marja‘iyya (the Shiite religious authority). In particular, the latter is known to be limited to the religious and social aspects in the life of the followers, while it issued a fatwa on jihad addressed Muslims in general and non-Muslims living within the borders of the three vilayets to defend the land. 9 To enable the researcher and readers to garner a thorough understanding of all these complicated relationships makes it imperative to use a suitable approach. Therefore, the continuity and change concept is used to understand the Shiite resistance against the British. In addition, this thesis uses the transnational history approach. This approach allows for exploring the circulation process of the fatwa(s) from its original place of issuance to other areas in Iraq. It also helps identify how the spiritual thoughts moved and were dispatched to other areas in different provinces. Although the period the study addresses may seem very short, it witnessed many changes that affected Iraq and the aforementioned major countries. By the outbreak of the First World War, Iraq had become an arena for warring forces and was involved in the war. The arrival of British troops in the Faw region on 6 November 1914 and their occupation of Basra in November 1914 began a causal chain of events and change, which affected Iraqi society. These events also led to the penetration of religious thought in the Iraqi society through fatwas issued by Shiite clerics in various parts of the country. 10 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................. 9 Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................. 14 1.1.Introduction ................................................................................................... 14 1.2.Contextual analysis ....................................................................................... 15 1.3.Thesis Question ............................................................................................. 21 1.4.Methodology ................................................................................................. 24 1.5.Scope of the Study ........................................................................................ 29 1.6.Thesis Outline ...................................................................................................31 Chapter Two........................................................................................................ 34 The Shiites of Iraq before the British Occupation .............................................. 34 2.1.Iraqi Society Before the First World War ..................................................... 34 2.2.The Tribes and Beginnings of the Modern State in Iraq ............................... 36 2.3.Shi‘ism and Sects ..............................................................................................40 2.4.The Shi‘a Holy Cities of Iraq ........................................................................ 44 2.5.The Reformist and Nationalist Movement in Iraq ............................................46 2.6.Conclusion ........................................................................................................51 Chapter Three...................................................................................................... 53 Britain and the First and Second Jihad Movements (1914–1917) ...................... 53 3.1.The British occupation