The Committee of Union and Progress and the Iraqi Shiites

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the relationship between the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) and the Shiite subjects of Ottoman Iraq in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Drawing on a wide range of archival sources, it examines the various contexts in which the CUP attempted to integrate Iraq's Shiite population into the state apparatus – for example, by authorizing and supporting the establishment of modern Shiite schools or by employing Shiite scholars at the Ottoman courts. The Shiites themselves navigated administrative contexts, regularly petitioning the Ottoman authorities to fight for their rights under the recently restored constitution of 1908, thus exercising agency as Shiite subjects of the empire. In dealing with Iraq's Shiite population, the CUP government in Istanbul had to negotiate continuity and change in its policies towards them from earlier practices under the rule of Abdulhamid II (r. 1876–1909). New policies and administrative practices towards Iraq's Shiite population also had to be negotiated with local political intermediaries – creating a complex political constellation in which the equally complex relationship between the CUP and the Iraqi Shiites would unfold.

KEYWORDS:

• Ottoman Empire
• Abdulhamid II
• Committee of Union and Progress (CUP)
• Shiites
• Iraq
• Constitutional Revolution

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Nakash, Shi’is, 50–5.

2 Tripp, History of Iraq, 22.

3 Hut, ‘II. Meşrutiyet’in İlanı’, 116–7.

4 Nakash, Shi’is, 53. Yitzhak Nakash notes that ‘among the magazines that circulated were al-Manar, al-Muqattam, al-Muqtataf, al-Hilal, al-Muqtabas, and al-Habl al-Matin, Al-ʿIlm, as the first Shii Arabic magazine to be published in Iraq, received the blessing of the important mujtahid Shaykh al-Shariʿa Isfahani’. According to Davut Hut, although many of them were short-lived, 69 newspapers and 17 journals were published between 1908 and 1914 in the three Iraqi provinces of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul. Hut, ‘II. Meşrutiyet’in İlanı’, 133.

5 BNA (British National Archives), FO (Foreign Office) 195/2275, No: 848/93, Baghdad (14 September 1908).

6 BNA, FO 195/2275, No: 796/87, Baghdad (31 August 1908).

7 To give an example, Davudzade Haj Suleiman Efendi, a tradesman in Baghdad, applied to the Ottoman local government to open a printing house. He was 42 years old, had no criminal record, and knew the legal requirements. To receive the authorization to open his printing house, Suleiman Efendi submitted the bond and the bill (beyannāme ve taʿahhüd senedi) and gave assurances that he would abide by the laws regulating the press. In his letter, he was promising what was required and expected for founding a publishing house and wrote, ‘this bond acknowledges and undertakes that in the “Jaʿfariyya Publishing House” I will not publish books, pamphlets, etc. adverse to the state and society or to morals and ethics as well as things forbidden by law.’ BOA, DH.MKT 2909/98, 8.Ş.1327 (25 August 1909).

8 BOA, MV. 123/39, 24.Z.1326 (17 January 1909).

9 Abidor, ‘Amili Perspectives’, 120.

10 BNA, FO 195/2309, No: 748/82, Baghdad (12 July 1909).

11 BNA, FO 195/2308, No: 191/15, Baghdad (22 February 1909). In particular, Hamdi Bey and Süreyya Bey, two representatives of the Young Turks, visited Baghdad. Hamdi Bey was in close contact with the president of the Persian Liberal Committee, which was formed in Najaf and received the open sympathy of Süreyya Bey.

12 Ende, ‘Iraq in World War I’, 65–8.

13 Hut, ‘II. Meşrutiyet’in İlanı’, 133–4.

14 Nakash, Shi’is, 50–1.

15 Ibid., 54.

16 BOA, DH.MUİ 129/31, 11.N.1328 (16 September 1910).

17 Mujtahids were also part of a complex patronage system, which was needed to maintain educational activities, and there had always been close ties between financiers and mujtahids. In Iran, pro-constitutionalist mujtahids worked in collaboration with their financiers, the bazaar owners, and securing their own economic interests was a major issue. Litvak, ‘Finances of the ʿUlamāʾ’, 61–6; Nakash, Shi’is, 51.

18 Somel, Modernization of Public Education, 277.

19 Tripp, History of Iraq, 24.

20 Hut, ‘II. Meşrutiyet’in İlanı’, 123–36.

21 Fattah and Caso, Brief History of Iraq, 156.

22 Tripp, History of Iraq, 26–7.

23 Fortna, Imperial Classroom, 62–6.

24 Herzog, Osmanische Herrschaft, 561–4. Other schools, that received funding from the French government were as follows: two Carmelite boys’ schools in Baghdad and Basra, two Dominicans girls’ schools in Baghdad and Basra, one Syrian-Catholic boys’ school in Baghdad, one Chaldean boys’ school in Baghdad, and one Armenian-Gregorian boys’ school in Baghdad. Shaykh Shukur’s school was called a reform school and offered French classes.

25 Nakash, Shi’is, 52–3.

26 Mekteb-i Teraqqī-yi Caʿferī-yi ʿOs̱mānī is the Ottoman version.

27 Nakash, Shi’is, 52–3; Herzog, Osmanische Herrschaft, 564.

28 BOA, MF.MKT 1103/69, 7.S.1327 (28 February 1909).

29 BOA, DH.İD 190/33, 27.Ca.1332 (24 April 1914).

30 Herzog, Osmanische Herrschaft, 564

31 Ibid.

32 BOA, DH.İD 190/28, 2.Ca.1332 (28 March 1914).

33 Somel, Modernization of Public Education, 274.

34 Deringil, ‘Struggle against Shi’ism’.

35 BOA, MF.MKT 1050/7, 24.Ra.1326 (25 April 1908).

36 BOA, DH.İA 33/39, 29.Ş.1330 (13 August 1912).

37 BOA, MF.MKT. 1050/7, 24.Ra.1326 (25 April 1908).

38 BOA, DH.MUİ 14-2/3, 5.S.1328 (16 February 1910).

39 Nadir Özbek has studied the subject of paternalism in the Ottoman Empire in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He explains the formation of the social state between 1800 and 1914, and monarchical reflections of the welfare policies during the time of Sultan Abdulhamid II, and then investigates the fate of paternalistic institutions and civil associations as well as voluntary paternalistic activities during the CUP period. Özbek emphasizes the continuity between the Hamidian and CUP periods and claims that the image of ‘benevolent father’ represented in the personality of Sultan Abdulhamid II was dominant in the former period while, in the latter, philanthropic institutions acquired a more formal bureaucratic image and shifted from a sultan-centric to a nationalist and patriotic discourse. Özbek, Osmanlı imparatorluğu’nda sosyal devlet.

40 Kern, ‘Prohibition of Sunni-Shi’i Marriages’, 175–82.

41 BOA, MF.MKT 1149/8, 18.S.1328 (1 March 1910).

42 BOA, DH.İUM 19-11/1/10, 19.5.1338 (9 February 1920).

43 Nakash, Shi’is, 184–92.

44 BOA, ŞD 2787/50, 15.B.1327 (2 August 1909).

45 Ibid.

46 BOA, DH.MKT 2784/71, 12.Ra.1327 (4 April 1909).

47 BOA, DH.MKT 2835/45, 18.Ca.1327 (7 June 1909).

48 BOA, DH.MUİ 48/58, 11.M.1328 (23 January 1910).

49 Nakash, Shi’is, 197–8.

50 BOA, DH.ID 203/2, 12.B.1332 (7 June 1914).

51 BOA, DH.MUİ 48/58 11.M.1328 (23 January 1910).

52 BOA, İ.HR. 393/11, 20.L.1322 (28 December 1904).

53 Nakash, Shi’is,189.

54 BOA, İ.HR 417/11 3.S.1327 (24 February 1909).

55 BOA, DH.MKT 2752/92, 7.S.1327 (28 February 1909).

56 Alkan, Non-Sunni Muslims, 123–32.

57 Gönüllü, ‘Road Tax ‘, 291. Ali Riza Gönüllü gives further information in his article about the road fees and writes that the first legal regulation was issued in 1866 and exempted civil servants, imams, lay clergy of various religious communities and madrasa teachers from paying road fees. Three years later, in August 1869, the exemption included soldiers and gendarmerie. In the Circular dated 30 March 1909, new provisions were introduced regarding the persons exempted from road fees. According to this circular, those exempted were as follows: imams, school teachers, priests and rabbis of various denominations who were actually on duty, persons with physical disabilities and those who were mentally unstable (mecnūn), regular soldiers under arms and gendarmerie soldiers, madrasa residents, madrasa students and ʿulamāʾ.

58 Asım, ‘Yollarımız naṣıl inşā olunuyor’; idem, ‘Tarīḳ-i bedelāt’.

59 Zeki Paşa took over the position from Cemal Bey on 13 November 1912 and held it until 12 May 1913.

60 Hüseyin Celal Bey served as the vālī of Baghdad from 22 June 1913 to 27 November1913.

61 BOA, DH.İD 179/4, 29.Ca.1332 (26 April 1914).

62 It is interesting to note that, when the provincial administration demanded the opposite of what it had previously requested, both the central and local governments asked for a reason for the change, and it is not clear whether the change in local policy was due to the change of vālī. In a short period between February 1912 and April 1914, there were three vālīs and one interim vālī: Cemal Bey, Mehmet Zeki Paşa, Hüseyin Celal Bey and Ömer Lütfi Bey, who served as the interim vālī for one month from 22 May to 22 June 1913. Herzog, Osmanische Herrschaft, 704–5.

63 BOA, DH.ŞFR 46/303, 23.Z.1332 (12 November 1914).

64 Muhammad Hasan Muhsin, the British Vice-Consul at Karbala, distinguished Sadruddin from other mujtahids of Karbala in terms of his noteworthy political ability. BNA, FO 195/2163, No: 274/22 (1904).

65 BOA, DH.MKT 2752/92, 7.S.1327 (28 February 1909). This document, which is from a later date, was probably put into the folio of earlier date by mistake.

66 BOA, DH.EUM 7.Şb 2/45, 25.M.1333 (12 December 1914).

67 BOA. DH.ŞFR 454/118, 9 Kanun-ı Evvel 1330 (22 February 1915).

68 BOA, DH.İD 6. Şube 2/30, 4.S.1333 (22 December 1914).

69 BOA, HR.SYS. 2167/28, 28.Z.1332 (17 November 1914).

70 BOA, HR.SYS. 2167/30, 29.Z.1332 (18 November 1914).

71 BOA, HR.SYS 2338/42, (29 December 1914).

72 There could be reasons other than sectarian discrimination for this, such as the differences between the inheritance laws in the two groups.

73 BOA, DH.ŞFR 423/64, 27.Ma.1330 (9 April 1914).

74 BOA, HR.SYS 2338/93, (21 November 1915).

75 BOA, HR.SYS 2338/93, (21 November 1915).

76 Abdul-Hadi Hairi wrote that the sect or religion of Ali-Allahi (or Ahl-i Haqq) was formed during the second half of the fifteenth century when the Karakoyunlu (Black Sheep) rulers were in power. Hairi, Shiism and Constitutionalism, 66. Carl Ritter mentions a village within walking distance of Tehran, called Kebud, whose inhabitants adhered to the Ali-Illahi. Ritter, Erdkunde von Asien, 447.

77 ‘Şehīt Kerendlileriñ’, 304. ‘Kerendis were the first conscripted soldiers in the new Iranian corps organized under the supervision of Ottoman military officers. They were sent to the war and fought very well.’ Ḥarb Mecmūʿası was a journal published twice a month which provided information about the war.

78 İmamoğlu, ‘I. Dünya savaşı’na’, 151–2.

79 British officials noted in August 1908, ‘The unity of Turkish subjects irrespective of religion is still being preached in Baghdad, lectures on the subject have been given in the coffee shops and also at a gathering held on the premises of the Chaldean Church.’ BNA, FO 195/2275, No: 757/81, Baghdad (17 August 1908).

80 BNA, FO 195/2339, No: 285/12, Baghdad (29 July 1910). Summary of Events in Turkish Iraq during the Months of April and May 1910. The number of the confidential reports is given as 27,430.

81 Somel, Modernization of Public Education, 229.

82 When the Şeyhülislām was relieved of some of his temporary duties by the CUP government in 1916, chiefly transferring the management of the Sharia courts to the Ministry of Justice, some European contemporaries thought that such measures represented the resumption of the CUP’s secularization programme from 1909. Cornwallis, Arab Bulletin, 102. For a more detailed account of the CUP’s wartime reforms of the judiciary and reactions to these reforms, see Gürer, ‘İttihat ve terakki’nin’, 1194–200.

83 Kurt, ‘II. Meşrutiyet döneminde’, 73.