UNDERSTANDING THE MIDDLE EAST:
History, Religion, and the Clash of Cultures
400 pages
Copyright © 2007 by Beechmont Crest Publishing
First edition, 2007
0-9748330-6-1
C H A P T E R 9:
Iraq Before Saddam Hussein
Three Ottoman provinces
Iraq did not exist as a nation a mere hundred years ago. Until the end of World War I, its territory was divided into three separate provinces of the Ottoman Empire: Basra to the south, Baghdad in the middle of the country, and Mosul to the north. These Ottoman provinces were the historic lands of Mesopotamia, where the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia had risen from the cultural roots of old Sumer.
The Ottomans absorbed this territory during their conquests of the Middle East throughout the 1500s and 1600s. This was an era in which the great Mesopotamian empires were in the distant past, and aspiring but inept Muslim dynasties contested for dominance over the region. The Ottomans were both fierce fighters and competent administrators during their heyday, and they quickly swept Mesopotamia’s lesser political forces aside.
Despite the geographic proximity of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul, the Ottoman Empire never considered these provinces to comprise a single administrative or cultural unit. To begin with, the area was ethnically diverse: Kurds, Arabs, and Jews were scattered throughout all three provinces. The area was also religiously diverse. Most of the population was Muslim (with a substantial Jewish and Christian minority); but the Shiites and Sunnis were divided both socially and doctrinally. Other less popular (and now mostly forgotten) strains of Islam also existed in Mesopotamia. The residents of Ottoman Iraq had relatively little in common other than geography.
The sultans in Istanbul regarded Mesopotamia as a difficult country to govern. A tight network of influential families controlled the residents’ loyalties in each city. The rural population was an even more fractured pell-mell of tribal affiliations and competing chieftains. No matter what method of administration the sultans employed in Iraq, they found themselves at the mercy of these local power bases.
The competing religious affiliations in Iraq created special problems for the Ottomans. The Ottoman Empire was Sunni; and Iraq’s Shiites had nothing but contempt for an empire based in Sunni Islam. In a pattern that would repeat itself countless times in the Middle East, religion and politics combined for violent ends. Extreme devotion to Shiite Islam became a form of resistance against the Ottoman state. Shiite religious leaders repeatedly led calls for revolt and armed struggle against the unwelcome Ottoman occupiers.
The Ottomans were forced to acquiesce to the inhospitable realities of the area. They succeeded in those areas where they were able to work through local political leaders, making them de facto extensions of the Ottoman administrative system. In those areas where the Ottomans and the local leaders were unable to reach a mutual understanding, Istanbul endured unpaid taxes, rebellions, and other headaches.
By the 1700s, the Ottomans had developed a decentralized method of administration for Iraq. Throughout Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, the sultan installed Georgian mamluks as regional administrators. The mamluks were Christian males who had been taken from their families as boys, raised as Muslims, and groomed for service in the Ottoman Empire. The mamluks had a high degree of autonomy, but they ultimately answered to the sultan in Istanbul. This meant doing the sultan’s bidding in Iraq: enforcing applicable laws, collecting taxes, and maintaining order.
(end of chapter excerpt)
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Copyright 2005 Beechmont Crest Publishing
