WEBVTT 00:00:05.850 --> 00:00:09.040 And now, we move to the Kingdom of Iraq. 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:14.550 The Kingdom of Iraq established in historical Mesopotamia, that area 00:00:14.550 --> 00:00:18.140 between the two great rivers of the Euphrates and the Tigris. 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:22.400 But, these great rivers do not serve as the Nile 00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:27.360 does in Egypt as an artery of very effective centralized government. 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:32.890 In Egypt, where everybody almost lives along the Nile, that 00:00:32.890 --> 00:00:36.540 is not true in Iraq of the Euphrates and the Tigris. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:42.660 And, there are mountains in the north, populated very much by the Kurds. 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:46.540 There's swampy region in the south populated predominantly by the Shi'ites. 00:00:47.650 --> 00:00:50.320 So, this is a country which was much more difficult 00:00:50.320 --> 00:00:53.960 to rule in a unified form than Egypt ever was. 00:00:56.580 --> 00:01:01.890 The Shi'is in Iraq, under the Ottomans, were suspected of loyalty 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:06.300 to Shi'ites Persia and were never really regarded as loyal Ottoman subjects. 00:01:07.860 --> 00:01:10.510 Never integrated into the state, and the Shi'is 00:01:10.510 --> 00:01:12.870 themselves wanted no part of the Ottoman system. 00:01:13.880 --> 00:01:16.420 They didn't send their children to Ottoman schools. 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:17.920 They didn't serve in the military or in 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:21.540 the bureaucracy and the Shi'is essentially lagged behind the 00:01:21.540 --> 00:01:24.580 Sunnis to the North, who were more exposed and 00:01:24.580 --> 00:01:28.490 more involved in the 19th century reforms and modernization. 00:01:30.250 --> 00:01:33.320 The Shi'is were discriminated and underprivileged. 00:01:33.320 --> 00:01:38.530 An underclass the remained uneducated, less economically developed, and living in 00:01:38.530 --> 00:01:43.120 the underdeveloped south, the very far, distant perimeter of the Ottoman Empire. 00:01:44.280 --> 00:01:50.140 But, Iraq was the birthplace of Shi'i, and the most holy places of Shi'i 00:01:50.140 --> 00:01:55.890 are there in Iraq In Najif, in Karbala, and in Kadhimiya which is in Baghdad. 00:01:55.890 --> 00:02:01.470 The influence of Shii men of religion is 00:02:01.470 --> 00:02:06.510 especially powerful in the Shiite tradition, moreso than in Suni Islam. 00:02:08.410 --> 00:02:12.890 And, the Hashemite arrangement In Iraq, which eventually failed, 00:02:12.890 --> 00:02:16.700 as opposed to the Hashemite arrangement in Jordan which succeeded. 00:02:16.700 --> 00:02:20.150 The Hashemite arrangement in Iraq, which failed, 00:02:20.150 --> 00:02:23.080 was seemingly the most promising when it began. 00:02:23.080 --> 00:02:28.476 Actually, the Hashemite arrangement in Trans-Jordan looked much more difficult 00:02:28.476 --> 00:02:32.830 to implement, but [UNKNOWN] in Jordan Created Jordan from scratch. 00:02:34.160 --> 00:02:38.340 It was much easier to create Jordan in the 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:42.020 image that Abdullah and the British desired than was possible 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:44.930 in Iraq with all the problems that it had 00:02:44.930 --> 00:02:47.480 from the moment it was created as we will see. 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:53.430 In the case of Iraq, it was very much the opposite to the case in Trans Jordan. 00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:55.800 From the very beginning, the Hashemites had 00:02:55.800 --> 00:02:59.280 to deal with the most unwieldy existing situation. 00:03:00.490 --> 00:03:03.870 The existing reality in Iraq, evntully destroyed 00:03:03.870 --> 00:03:08.120 the Hashemites, who were overthrown in 1958. 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:13.530 Iraq was made up of three Ottoman Vilayets, three Ottoman provinces. 00:03:15.380 --> 00:03:19.480 The Provinces of Basra, Baghdad, and Mosul. 00:03:19.480 --> 00:03:24.400 And, it is these three that were lumped together to form the Kingdom of Iraq. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:28.180 Mosul originally was supposed to be part of the French Mandate in Syria. 00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:32.660 But, in order to obtain British agreement for the 00:03:32.660 --> 00:03:36.230 French occupation of Lebanon and Syria, the French, as 00:03:36.230 --> 00:03:39.230 we have seen, compromised in Palestine, they compromised in 00:03:39.230 --> 00:03:43.830 Iraq too, and gave Mosul over from Syria to Iraq. 00:03:43.830 --> 00:03:49.430 The population of Iraq, approximately 3 million in the early 1920's, was made 00:03:49.430 --> 00:03:55.230 up from ninety percent of Muslims, with small minorities of Jews and Christians. 00:03:55.230 --> 00:03:59.460 That looks, on the face of it, rather promising, but it wasn't really. 00:04:00.820 --> 00:04:04.390 The Muslims were made up of Sunnis and Shis and it was the Shis who 00:04:04.390 --> 00:04:09.030 were actually the majority, with a ratio of some seven to five more or less. 00:04:10.340 --> 00:04:13.460 But of the Sunnis, half were Kurds and not Arabs. 00:04:14.490 --> 00:04:18.140 So, you have a very complicated reality in Iraq. 00:04:20.050 --> 00:04:27.350 A Shi'ite majority with a Sunni minority, and the Sunni minority divided into two. 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:30.610 Partly Arab, partly Kurdish. 00:04:30.610 --> 00:04:33.890 While the Shi'ites were part of the Arab majority but, not Sunni. 00:04:37.760 --> 00:04:40.300 Baghdad was the main city, the capital where the 00:04:40.300 --> 00:04:45.960 population of 200,000 but, with a very large Jewish minority. 00:04:45.960 --> 00:04:51.460 In fact, the Jews in Baghdad, 80,000 of them, were the largest ethnic group in 00:04:51.460 --> 00:04:54.890 Baghdad, because the other 120,000 who were 00:04:54.890 --> 00:04:58.120 the majority were divided between Sunni and Shia. 00:05:01.280 --> 00:05:02.970 But, people in Iraq in the early 1920s 00:05:02.970 --> 00:05:08.740 didn't define themselves, or identify themselves, as Iraqi. 00:05:08.740 --> 00:05:12.750 Most people did not identify themselves as Iraqis but, rather 00:05:12.750 --> 00:05:17.650 by their sect, by their ethnicity, or by their tribe. 00:05:17.650 --> 00:05:20.200 Very few people thought of themselves as Iraqis. 00:05:21.990 --> 00:05:26.040 But, the British created Arab Iraq in the name of Arabism which was not a 00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:30.709 shared value for very many of the people who became part of this Arab state. 00:05:32.470 --> 00:05:34.460 The Sunni Arabs, who are already about a quarter 00:05:34.460 --> 00:05:39.330 of the population, did identify quite strongly with Arab nationalism. 00:05:39.330 --> 00:05:41.980 But, the Shiite Arabs did not. 00:05:41.980 --> 00:05:43.740 The Shiite Arabs generally saw Arab 00:05:43.740 --> 00:05:47.070 nationalism as a Sunni device for supremacy. 00:05:48.490 --> 00:05:51.510 And the Kurds, who were Sunnis, we're not Arabs and 00:05:51.510 --> 00:05:55.080 certainly didn't share in the idea of an Arab state. 00:05:55.080 --> 00:06:00.450 In 1920, from July to October, there was a revolt in Iraq. 00:06:00.450 --> 00:06:03.280 And, there are those who tried to explain the revolt in terms of 00:06:03.280 --> 00:06:09.020 notions borrowed from Arab nationalism as if this was an Arab nationalist revolt. 00:06:09.020 --> 00:06:12.910 But in fact, it was in the main reaction 00:06:12.910 --> 00:06:15.840 of the Shi'i tribes to the new reality in Iraq. 00:06:17.050 --> 00:06:18.900 The Shi'i tribes rose in revolt, 00:06:21.080 --> 00:06:24.210 because of their hostility to the British, deeply 00:06:24.210 --> 00:06:27.240 encouraged by the men of religion, many of whom 00:06:27.240 --> 00:06:29.710 were actually Persian in origin with no loyalty either 00:06:29.710 --> 00:06:31.979 to the state of Iraq nor to Arab nationals. 00:06:35.410 --> 00:06:41.580 And, as Elie Kedourie, the British Iraqi historian has put it, 00:06:42.810 --> 00:06:49.360 in fomenting an anti-British rising in 1920, the Shi'ite divines no doubt 00:06:49.360 --> 00:06:52.880 hoped to gain and establish ascendancy for their community in a 00:06:52.880 --> 00:06:59.310 country where the Shi'ites were the majority, albeit hitherto a powerless one. 00:06:59.310 --> 00:07:02.550 It is difficult to say whether the failure of the uprising or the 00:07:02.550 --> 00:07:07.170 importation of Faisal and his men which followed it was to them more galling. 00:07:08.180 --> 00:07:13.430 The Hashemites in Baghdad, at all events, spelt renewed Sunni dominance. 00:07:16.650 --> 00:07:21.270 For them, for the Shiades that is that, the government in Baghdad that was now 00:07:21.270 --> 00:07:23.410 imposed upon them, was a creature of 00:07:23.410 --> 00:07:27.520 the British and an instrument of Sunni persecution. 00:07:27.520 --> 00:07:31.789 Different from its ottoman predecessor only in that is was without benefit. 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:36.390 Of longtime legitimate possession, and that its rule did not 00:07:36.390 --> 00:07:40.640 derive from conquest, but was bestowed upon it by the British. 00:07:40.640 --> 00:07:44.130 So, said Elie Kedourie about Iraq. 00:07:44.130 --> 00:07:45.810 But, that was not all. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:51.890 Aside from Shiite disapproval of the new 00:07:51.890 --> 00:07:54.330 order in Iraq, there was the Kurdish problem. 00:07:55.640 --> 00:07:59.440 The Kurds were now in the uneasy situation of 00:07:59.440 --> 00:08:03.080 becoming a minority in an Arab Iraq, whereas under 00:08:03.080 --> 00:08:05.240 the Ottomans, they had been part of the ruling 00:08:05.240 --> 00:08:08.970 majority which was Sunni Muslim, just as they were. 00:08:11.100 --> 00:08:17.910 So, the Kurds were these unhappy new members of this Iraqi state in which they 00:08:17.910 --> 00:08:20.176 were striving for at least autonomy and 00:08:20.176 --> 00:08:24.520 if not, even secession from the state altogether. 00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:28.180 As opposed to the Shiites, who did not wish to secede. 00:08:29.250 --> 00:08:32.707 After all the Shiites wanted to dominate Iraq. 00:08:32.707 --> 00:08:36.830 The Kurds were very much prone to secession. 00:08:40.169 --> 00:08:45.090 But Iraq, despite the Kurdish problem, despite the Shiite majority, 00:08:47.010 --> 00:08:52.800 Iraq was ruled under Sunni Arab predominance for decades. 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:59.660 Faisal, the Hashemite prince, was installed as the king of Iraq 00:08:59.660 --> 00:09:04.450 in 1921 with a referendum that was carefully stage-managed by 00:09:04.450 --> 00:09:09.170 the British to desired result of popular Iraqi approval. 00:09:12.110 --> 00:09:19.320 And, the dominant political elite of Hashemite, Iraq was strongly similar. 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:25.350 Between 1921 and 1936, 71% of the ministerial posts were held by Sunnis 00:09:25.350 --> 00:09:31.650 and only 24%, and mostly minor posts at that, were held by Shi's. 00:09:31.650 --> 00:09:34.320 In 1928, among the 88 deputies elected to 00:09:34.320 --> 00:09:38.080 the Parliament in Iraq, only 26 were Shias. 00:09:40.420 --> 00:09:44.950 In 1946, only three of 80 senior officers of the 00:09:44.950 --> 00:09:48.580 Iraqi military were Shias, and all the rest were Sunnis. 00:09:50.290 --> 00:09:52.340 The British however were relatively liberal when 00:09:52.340 --> 00:09:54.100 it came to the question of independence. 00:09:55.660 --> 00:09:58.570 The British understood the Revolt of 1920. 00:09:58.570 --> 00:10:01.606 To be an Arab nationalist revolt, meaning that they 00:10:01.606 --> 00:10:06.020 must move quickly to accord in the Iraqis' political independence. 00:10:06.020 --> 00:10:09.230 And indeed, in the treaty signed in 1922, 00:10:09.230 --> 00:10:14.420 Britain devolved more responsibilities to the Iraqi government. 00:10:14.420 --> 00:10:16.060 In a new treaty that was signed in 00:10:16.060 --> 00:10:21.970 1930, which further restricted British powers, Iraq became independent. 00:10:21.970 --> 00:10:25.610 And, Iraq was admitted into the League of Nations in 1932 and it 00:10:25.610 --> 00:10:30.190 was the first Arab to be a member of the League of Nations. 00:10:33.640 --> 00:10:38.444 But before his death, Iraq's first ruler King Faisal, who died in 1933. 00:10:41.030 --> 00:10:46.952 Noted that in Iraq there is still no Iraqi people but, unimaginable masses 00:10:46.952 --> 00:10:52.686 of human beings, devoid of any patriotic ideal, imbued with religious 00:10:52.686 --> 00:10:59.454 traditions and absurdities, connected by no common tie, giving ear to evil, Prone 00:10:59.454 --> 00:11:05.846 to anarchy, and perpetually ready to rise against any government whatsoever, 00:11:05.846 --> 00:11:09.989 so said the first King of Iraq about his country. 00:11:09.989 --> 00:11:14.916 [BLANK_AUDIO] 00:11:14.916 --> 00:11:20.762 The British Historian, Elie Kedourie, who we have already mentioned, summarize the 00:11:20.762 --> 00:11:26.292 history of Iraq as follows: From the very foundation then, of the Iraqi kingdom, 00:11:26.292 --> 00:11:31.427 there was this nagging feeling that it was a make-believe kingdom, built on 00:11:31.427 --> 00:11:36.649 false pretenses and kept going by British design, and for a British purpose. 00:11:38.920 --> 00:11:40.760 The new Arab states that were created 00:11:40.760 --> 00:11:44.970 in this fashion had, of course, questionable legitimacy. 00:11:46.660 --> 00:11:50.460 And as a result, you had a reality where independence movements in 00:11:50.460 --> 00:11:53.340 countries like Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan 00:11:53.340 --> 00:11:57.070 were fighting for the independence of states. 00:11:57.070 --> 00:11:58.780 When they did not really believe in the right 00:11:58.780 --> 00:12:01.410 of these states to actually exist as independent entities. 00:12:02.640 --> 00:12:05.940 And therefore, the great appeal of Arab unity, 00:12:05.940 --> 00:12:08.990 and of all sorts of unity schemes, such as 00:12:08.990 --> 00:12:12.370 those of the Hashemites, the Iraqi Hashemites, to 00:12:12.370 --> 00:12:15.330 unite the fertile crescent, which was to unite Iraq 00:12:15.330 --> 00:12:18.120 And Syria, with Jordan and with Palestine and 00:12:18.120 --> 00:12:22.040 Lebanon in one big Arab country, where at long 00:12:22.040 --> 00:12:23.810 last the Sunnis would be the majority and 00:12:23.810 --> 00:12:28.290 overcome their problem of the Shi'ite majority in Iraq. 00:12:28.290 --> 00:12:31.390 Abdalah had his own ideas of Greater Syria which meant 00:12:31.390 --> 00:12:35.840 a union between Is Syria and Lebanon, and Transjordan and Palestine. 00:12:37.510 --> 00:12:41.200 Which would of course have him as the King of Greater Syria sitting in Damascus. 00:12:42.570 --> 00:12:45.680 And then of course, there were in later years 00:12:45.680 --> 00:12:48.040 the Ba'ath party in Syria and the Ba'ath party 00:12:48.040 --> 00:12:51.210 in Iraq and Abdel Nasser who emerged as the 00:12:51.210 --> 00:12:53.870 President of Egypt, as we will see later on. 00:12:53.870 --> 00:12:57.100 Who were great supporters, of pan-Arab unity.