The Islamic Movement of Iraqi Shi‘as

Contents

List of Tables and Figures / vii
Acknowledgments / ix

1 Introduction / 1

2 Historical Context / 7
Origin of the Shi‘as From Capital of the Islamic Empire to Ottoman Backwater
British Dominance, 1917-1958
Summary

3 Da‘wa, the Call to Islam / 31
Recruitment
Opposition to the Movement

4 State Violence / 45
Toward Totalitarianism
Revolutionary Da‘wa

5 Social Bases of the Islamic Movement / 73
Clergy
Youthful Intelligentsia
Urban Poor
Other Societal Groups

6 Epigenesis / 101
Broad Socioeconomic Processes
Tactical Adaptations

7 The Political Ideology / 119
Traditional Shi'i Political Ideology
Ayatollah al-Sadr’s Interpretations
System Effected by Imam Khomeini
Internal Contradictions

8. What Will Iraq’s Islamists Accept? / 143
Interests to Which Islamic Government Appeals
Factors Rejected as Determinants
Extrapolation

Appendixes / 155
Glossary / 167
Bibliography / 173
Index / 183

About the Book and the Author / 193

Tables and Figures

Tables

2.1 Religioethnic Composition of Iraq in 1947 / 8
2.2 Successive Estimates of Iraq’s Religioethnic Composition / 9
3.1 Institutions Founded by Jama’at al-‘Ulama’ / 35
4.1 Islamists Who Died in Government Custody Between
December 1979 and Mid-February 1980 / 56
4.2 Iraqis Expelled Across the Border into the Bakhtiran District
of Iran During a Two-Year Period / 59
4.3 Leadership of al-Majlis al-A‘la lil Thawra al-Islamiya fi al-Traq
(Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq, or Majlis [Assembly]) / 61
5.1 Religious Scholars of Najaf / 75
5.2 Educated Nonclerical Islamists / 86
5.3 Profile of Educated Nonclerical Islamists / 89
5.4 Islamists from the Urban Poor / 91
5.5 Profile of Islamists from the Urban Poor / 93
6.1 Cost Components of Gross Domestic Product / 112
7.1 Maraji'al-Taqlid al-Mutlaq (Sole Supreme Authorities) / 123

Figures

6.1 Political Process Model of Movement Emergence / 102
6.2 Political Process Model of Movement Adaptation / 110
7.1 Political Authority as Formulated by Ayatollah al-Sadr / 127
7.2 Lines of Political Authority as Actualized in Iran / 135