Activism in a Structural Crisis: An Analysis of the Relationship between the Authority of Sayyid Muhammad Sadr and the Ba'athist Regime in Iraq (1991–1999)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Islamic Denominations, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.

Abstract

The relationship between Shia religious authority (marja’iyya) and the modern political structure in Iraq, particularly during the rule of the Ba'ath Party, is one of the key issues in the study of contemporary Iraqi political history. The 1990s—following Iraq's defeat in the Kuwait War (1991) and the imposition of extensive international sanctions—marked a period of deep economic, social, and legitimacy crises for the Ba'athist state. Under these conditions, a distinctive model of religious and social activism emerged from Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Muhammad-Al-Sadr al-Sani (the Second Sadr) within Iraq's Shia community, drawing the attention of many researchers. The central question of this study is: How did Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Sadr, within an authoritarian yet crisis-ridden political structure, manage to organize his religious and social activism and expand it across society? In the existing literature on Shia religious authority in Iraq, two main models have typically been emphasized: the model of explicit political activism, analyzed in relation to Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad-Baqir al-Sadr, and the model of caution and preservation of the marja’iyya institution, prominent in the activism of Ayatollah Sayyid Abul-Qasim al-Khoei. However, the activism of Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Sadr in the 1990s has rarely been analyzed independently and within a theoretical framework. This study, employing the theoretical framework of "structure–agency" and using a historical-analytical method along with library-based data, examines the relationship between the structural conditions of Iraq in the 1990s and the activism of Ayatollah Sadr. The findings indicate that the crisis-ridden conditions of Iraq's political structure during this period created grounds for the emergence of new forms of religious and social activism. Ayatollah Sadr played an active role in organizing this activism by utilizing tools such as reviving Friday prayers, expanding direct communication with the masses, and strengthening the social function of the marja’iyya.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Abd al-Razzaq, S. (2010). Al-shahid al-Sadr al-thani marji' ummah [The second martyr Sadr: A source of emulation for a nation]. Muntada al-Ma'arif. [In Arabic]
Afzali, R. (2019). Najaf Ashraf: Politics, religion and identity in contemporary Iraq. Tisa Publishing. [In Persian]
Al-'Alawi, H. (2015). Al-marja'iyyah al-shi'iyyah fi al-'Iraq: al-sira' 'ala al-wilayah (1992–2003) [The Shia marja'iyya in Iraq: The struggle over guardianship (1992–2003)]. Al-Markaz al-'Arabi lil-Abhath. [In Arabic]
Al-'Aliyawi, H. (2019). Al-intifadah al-sha'baniyyah wa tahawwulat al-sultah: dirasah fi du'f al-mashru'iyyah [The Sha'baniyya uprising and transformations of power: A study in the weakness of legitimacy]. Al-Markaz al-'Arabi
lil-Abhath. [In Arabic]
Al-Hashimi, A. (2004). Rajul al-fikr wa al-maidan [The man of thought and the field]. Baqiyat Allah Foundation. [In Arabic]
Al-Mawla, M. (2018). Al-khitab al-Saddami: Tahawwulat al-aidyulujiya wa idarat
al-azamat [Saddamist discourse: Ideological transformations and crisis management]. Al-Mustansiriyya li al-Dirasat al-'Arabiyya wa al-Dawliyya, (42), pp.110-129. [In Arabic]
Al-Musawi, M. (2003). Minbar al-jumu'ah: Majmu'at khutab al-jumu'ah allati kana yulqiha al-sayyid al-shahid al-sadr fi masjid al-kufah [The Friday pulpit: A collection of Friday sermons delivered by Sayyid al-Shahid al-Sadr in the Kufa Mosque]. Dar al-Adwa'. [In Arabic]
Al-Sadr al-Sani, M. (1992). Mawsu'at al-Imam al-Mahdi [Encyclopedia of Imam
al-Mahdi] (Vol. 4). Dar al-Ta'aruf lil-Matbu'at. [In Arabic]
Al-Sadr al-Sani, M. (2007). Al-Qanun al-Islami: Wujuduhu, Su'ubatuhu, Manhajuhu [Islamic law: Its existence, difficulties, and methodology] (A. S. Ansari, Ed.). Publications of the Library of al-Shahid al-Sadr. [In Arabic]
Al-Wa'ili, A. A. (2013). Al-marja'iyyah al-diniyyah fi al-Najaf: al-dawr al-siyasi wa al-ijtima'i (1991-1999) [Religious authority in Najaf: The political and social role (1991-1999)]. Center for the Study of Najaf Ashraf - University of Kufa. [In Arabic]
Al-Zubaidi, K. (2017). The manufacturing of maraji': The Ba'ath and the management of the Shia file. Dar al-Tanweer. [In Arabic]
Bengio, O. (1998). Saddam's word: Political discourse in Iraq. Oxford University Press.
Carapico, S. (1998). The impact of sanctions in Iraq. Middle East Report, (207),
pp. 60-107.
Gharah Daghi, K. (1998). Min al-Kho'i ila al-Gharawi [From al-Khoei to al-Gharawi]. Al-Hayat Newspaper, 16(63), pp.17-32. [In Arabic]
Giddens, A. (2005). The constitution of society: Outline of the theory of structuration (H. Qazian, Trans.). Nashr-e Ney. [In Persian]
Habib, K. (2020). Muhammad Muhammad al-Sadr: al-mashru' al-mahdawi alladhi arbaqa al-ba'th [Muhammad Muhammad al-Sadr: The Mahdist project that confounded the Ba'ath]. Dar al-Murtada. [In Arabic]
Kavin, J. (2022). Saddam's faith campaign: Religion and politics in Ba'thist Iraq. Syracuse University Press.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics