Iraqi History

Displacement and statecraft in Iraq: Recent trends, older roots.

by Ali Ali

Published in the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies Volume 5 Issue 2 (2011).

This article discusses the relationship between state formation and refugees, linking statecraft - the 'art' of state... more This article discusses the relationship between state formation and refugees, linking statecraft - the 'art' of state building - and displacement in post-2003 Iraq. It uses the testimonies of displaced Iraqis now living in Syria to show how parties and militias in Iraq targeted specific groups, including religious minorities such as the Mandaeans. They created new forms of exclusion, forcing some communities to flee. In some cases, they compelled people to leave abruptly; in others, hostile forces gradually encroached upon the target groups. Some organizations had their origins in pre-2003 dynamics and were not the first in Iraq to use displacement as a means to implement a political design.

L'accès à l'information et les méthodes de travail d'un lettré bagdadien du Ve/XIe siècle / Access to information and methods of work of a 5th/11th century Baghdadi scholar

by Vanessa Van Renterghem

This article focuses on information sources and work methods of Arab medieval historians, through examining the... more This article focuses on information sources and work methods of Arab medieval historians, through examining the original example of a Hanbali Baghdadian scholar, Ibn al-Bannā’ (d. 471 h./1079 CE). This author left some personal notes probably meant to be later used for historiographical writing. In most case, Ibn al-Bannā’ had been the witness of the actor of the events he reports on; in others, travelers (merchants and scholars) were the source of information. They were using oral as much as written transmission, the written documents being mainly merchant letters brought by caravans. Then the news would be collected and afterwards spread in Baghdad by some riche Hanbali merchants and patrons. Public rumor would also spread important political or military news. The information collected by Ibn al-Bannā’ was nevertheless mainly local in nature, concerning Baghdad, Iraq, or rarely the neighboring areas (Syria, Palestine, Ġazīra, Iran, Arabia) but never other parts of the world. Finally, the author’s sociability networks appear as essential in collecting information.
Keywords: Baghdad, information, chronicles, history, Arab historians, rumor, merchant letters, Hanbalism, Hanbalis, Ibn al-Bannâ’, Ibn al-Bannā’, networks, sociability.

Sayyida Zaynab in the State of Exception: Shiʿi Sainthood as “Qualified Life" in Contemporary Syria

by Edith Szanto

International Journal of Middle East Studies 44 no. 2 (2012): 285-299.

According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law,... more According to Giorgio Agamben, a “state of exception” is established by the sovereign's decision to suspend the law, and the archetypical state of exception is the Nazi concentration camp. At the same time, Agamben notes that boundaries have become blurred since then, such that even spaces like refugee camps can be thought of as states of exception because they are both inside and outside the law. This article draws on the notion of the state of exception in order to examine the Syrian refugee camp cum shrine town of Sayyida Zaynab as well as to analyze questions of religious authority, ritual practice, and pious devotion to Sayyida Zaynab. Though Sayyida Zaynab and many of her Twelver Shiʿi devotees resemble Agamben's figure of homo sacer, who marked the origin of the state of exception, they also defy Agamben's theory that humans necessarily become animal-like, leading nothing more than “bare lives” (or zoē) in states of exception.

Un traité politique du IIe/VIIIe siècle : l’épître de ʿUbayd Allāh b. al-Ḥasan al-ʿAnbarī au calife al-Mahdī

by Mathieu Tillier

Published in: Annales Islamologiques, 40 (2006), p. 139-170.

Destroying the Symbols of Baathist Iraq

by Benjamin Isakhan

Since the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces in 2003, the Iraqi people have not only suffered a devastating death toll and witnessed the erosion of every aspect of their civil infrastructure, they have also endured an extraordinary period of cultural and historical destruction. This began during the battle phase of the war, which saw untold degrees of “collateral damage” done to sensitive historic and cultural sites across the nation. This was followed, in the very earliest days of the now more than seven year occupation, by a period of looting and arson in which many cultural and historical sites were destroyed. Key institutions such as the Iraq National Museum (INM) and the Iraq National Library and Archive (INLA) were targeted, as well as other sites like the Bayt Al-Hikma and the Al-Awfaq libraries, Iraq’s Museum of Modern Art, an Abbasid-era palace, an Ottoman-era mosque and the Hashemite Parliament House. In addition, many Iraqi civilians and foreigners have become involved in highly co-ordinated black market operations that systematically loot sensitive archaeological sites across Iraq and smuggle the antiquities out of the country and on to the highly lucrative international black market. The ongoing hostility between varying factions within Iraq has also had ruinous consequences for Iraq’s cultural heritage with artefacts, symbols and monuments so often caught in the crossfire or deliberately targeted by opposing ethno-religious sectarian groups.

None of this tragic tale will come as a surprise to members of TAARII and regular readers of this publication, many of whom are involved in documenting and analysing the ongoing cultural and historical destruction of Iraq. By now a whole host of scholarly studies exists on this topic including the work of leading Iraqi and international scholars, archaeologists, historians, cultural and heritage workers, diplomats, government officials and military officers.  What is curiously absent from the existing literature on the cultural and historical destruction of Iraq, however, is the contemporaneous program to symbolically De-Baathify the nation in which key monuments, state buildings, murals and statues have been decimated or destroyed. Indeed, while the consequences of what might be called the “bureaucratic” or “militaristic” dimensions of Iraq’s De-Baathification have been discussed in much of the literature, the symbolic dimension of De-Baathification and its consequences for national identity and social cohesion has remained an under studied and underappreciated factor.

Isakhan, B. (2010). Destroying the Symbols of Baathist Iraq. The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII)... more Isakhan, B. (2010). Destroying the Symbols of Baathist Iraq. The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) Newsletter, 5(2), 1-5.

The Iraqi Mandate: An Examination of the Relationship between Britain and Iraq In the Aftermath of the First World War

by Victoria Whitecotton

HIST351 History of Iraq Class Research Paper

“The Local and the Global: The Iraqi Revolution of 1958 Between Western and Soviet Modernities,” Ab Imperio, 4 (2011), pp. 172-202.

by Elizabeth Bishop

Modernizzazione, imperialismo e sviluppo politico in Iraq tra le due guerre mondiali, 1914

by Paolo Chiocchetti

[2005] Kalashnikovs, Explosives & Hijab: A chronology of female involvement in the Iraqi insurgency

by Michael Loadenthal

American University, Independent Study under the supervision of Professor Abdul Bangura

A chronology of female involvement in the Iraqi insurgency A chronology of female involvement in the Iraqi insurgency

"Basra’da “Muktedir” ve “Müşteki” Bir İttihatçı: Süleyman Nazif Bey’in Basra Valiliği"

by Burcu Kurt

Sakarya Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü Dergisi, Haziran 2012

II. Meşrutiyet döneminde Irak kıtasının üç vilayetinde de valilik görevinde bulunmuş olan Süleyman Nazif Bey’in Basra... more II. Meşrutiyet döneminde Irak kıtasının üç vilayetinde de valilik görevinde bulunmuş olan Süleyman Nazif Bey’in Basra valiliği bir çok açılardan önem arz etmektedir. Bu dönem İttihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti’nin Arap taşrasına yönelik politikasını tahlili için bir örneklem teşkil etmekte, aynı zamanda Cemiyet’in Arap taşrasına atamış olduğu vali tipolojisine de güzel bir örnek oluşturmaktadır. Basra valiliği döneminde izlediği sosyo-ekonomik, siyasal ve bayındırlık politikalarıyla son derece “muktedir” bir vali imajı çizen Süleyman Nazif, aynı zamanda gerek eşrafla gerekse yerel memurlarla girdiği polemikler itibariyle Babıali’ye sürekli şikayet arz eden bir tablo çizmiştir. Bununla birlikte Süleyman Nazif Bey’in II. Meşrutiyet döneminde Basra vilayetinde görev yapan valiler içerisinden en etkililerinden biri olduğunu söylemek yanlış olmayacaktır.

Artikel: Neustart nach dem Crash?

by Hauke Feickert

in German, draft only, February 2012

Le premier âge abbasside (132-218/750-833)

by Mathieu Tillier

Co-authored with Thierry Bianquis.
Published in: Th. Bianquis, P. Guichard et M. Tillier (éd.), Les débuts du monde musulman (VIIe-Xe siècle). De Muhammad aux dynasties autonomes, Nouvelle Clio, Presses Universitaires de France, 2012, p. 123-136.

De Sâmarrâ’ à Bagdad : l’autorité abbasside ébranlée

by Mathieu Tillier

Co-authored with Thierry Bianquis.
Published in: Th. Bianquis, P. Guichard et M. Tillier (éd.), Les débuts du monde musulman (VIIe-Xe siècle). De Muhammad aux dynasties autonomes, Nouvelle Clio, Presses Universitaires de France, 2012, p. 185-194.

Book Review: Baghdad Arts Deco: Architectural Brickwork, 1920-1950

by Mona Damluji

International Journal of Islamic Architecture. Spring, 2012. 1(1): 161-3.

"Securing Democracy in Iraq": Sectarian Politics and Segregation in Baghdad

by Mona Damluji

Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. 2010.

Physical, sectarian-based segregation is a recent phenomenon in Baghdad. This essay examines how this urban condition... more Physical, sectarian-based segregation is a recent phenomenon in Baghdad. This essay examines how this urban condition has resulted from U.S. political interventions in occupied Iraq, which have actively reproduced, intensified, codified and spatially reinforced the significance of sectarian difference. It discusses the emergence of sectarian militias, details the violent practices used to consolidate territory, and maps the transformation of once heterogeneous neighborhoods into separate Shi’a and Sunni enclaves. By focusing on intersecting security discourses and the erection of concrete walls by the occupying Multi-National Forces (MNF), the essay argues that Baghdad’s new segregated neighborhoods have hardened and intensified patterns of internal conflict, diminishing the potential for reconciliation.

“Osmanlı Irak’ında Petrol ve Petrole Dayalı Çevre Kirliliğinin Keşfi”

by Burcu Kurt

Toplumsal Tarih, Sayı 169, Ocak 2008

"Dünden Bugüne Şattü'l-Arap Sorunu"

by Burcu Kurt

Akademik Orta Doğu Dergisi, Cilt 1, Sayı 2, 2007.

Provincial Histories of Twentieth-Century Iraq: Reflections on the Research Process

by Arbella Bet-Shlimon

This short article, published in the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq Newsletter (vol. 6, no. 2), examines the process of conducting research on the Iraqi provinces in the era of the modern state. It includes discussions of available sources and relevant methodologies.

The Politics and Ideology of Urban Development in Iraq’s Oil City: Kirkuk, 1946-1958

by Arbella Bet-Shlimon

Forthcoming in Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Group Identities, Oil, and the Local Political Domain in Kirkuk: A Historical Perspective

by Arbella Bet-Shlimon

Forthcoming in the Journal of Urban History.