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Iraq, Past and Present (International Relations)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. Since the emergence of the earliest human settlements in history, Iraq (known as “Mesopotamia” in Greek) has played a decisive role in the Middle East. Iraq and its greater hinterland is often called “the Fertile Crescent” as it has fertile lands located between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. It is also aptly called “the cradle of civilization” because of the earliest foundation of cities as well as some of the most important inventions, such as writing and the creation of laws. Besides these references, the land was named “Iraq” before the Islamic conquest. Although the meaning of the term Iraq remains obscure, some claim it is a reference to the country’s ancient name Araqi, meaning “on the land of the sun,” while others believe that the name of the country is the Arabized version of Irah, which means “sea coast” or “riverside” in the ancient languages of the region. One of the greatest empires, the Abbasid, was established in Baghdad and established its realm from western China to the tip of northwest Africa. Iraq remained a disputed land between the Ottomans and Safavids throughout the 16th and 17th centuries due to its strategic position on trade routes spanning the Mediterranean to Central Asia. Iraq was considered crucial by the British on their way to India and thus was jealously protected from other European powers, such as France, Germany, and Russia. Rich with its oil resources, Iraq was occupied by the British in 1914 and after World War I was under the leadership of King Faisal, while the mandate system was established and remained in place until 1932. Afterward, the Kingdom of Iraq became formally independent and was accepted into the League of Nations. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup led by Abd al-Karim Qasim and Abd al-Salam Arif. Saddam Hussein obtained the presidency in 1979. The following year, he declared war on Iran, a conflict which came to an end in 1988. On 1 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and by the beginning of 1991 an international coalition led by the United States launched a military campaign against Iraq and liberated Kuwait. Once the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed and he was captured by the end of the same year and was executed in 2006. In January 2005, the first elections took place to form a government that would draft a new constitution. After eight years of occupation, the US government decided to end its presence in Iraq. In June 2014, Islamic State captured the northern Iraqi city of Mosul and the leader of the group proclaimed himself the worldwide caliph. Beyond its historical significance and meaning, the country is strategically located on the crossroads between the Arab, Turkish, Kurdish, and Persian worlds. With its Shiʿa and Sunni population Iraq represents the frontier of a land of transition between the two largest sects of Islam. The population of Iraq is divided between ethnic communities with Arabs making of 75–80 percent, Kurds making of 15 percent, and the rest consisting of Assyrians, Turkomans, and other small minorities such as Armenians, Circassians, Yazidi Kurds, Shabakis, and Iranians. Iraq is also a religiously diverse country with a population that is 95 percent Muslim and 5 percent of Christian, Yarsan, Yezidi, and Mandean. The percentages of Shiʿa and Sunni populations are 65 and 35 percent, respectively.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. General and introductory studies in the West have appeared since the Gulf War of 1991. There are several excellent overviews of the country. Marr 2012 and Tripp 2007 are the best survey books on modern history of Iraq. Dawisha 2013 is focused on the modern period as well, but it presents a history of state governance, development of democratic institutions, and the creation of a national identity. Based on the long-term expertise and the knowledge of the greater Middle East, Polk 2006 starts from the time of ancient Iraq and continues to the US invasion in order to allow the reader to comprehend the complicated past of this nation.
  8.  
  9. Dawisha, Adeed. Iraq: A Political History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2013.
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  11. One of the best works on the historical development of state structure and political identity in Iraq.
  12. Find this resource:
  13.  
  14. Marr, Phebe. The Modern History of Iraq. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2012.
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  16. A comprehensive account of modern Iraqi history written for general readers and students of Middle Eastern history. Focuses on the formation of national identity, economic development, and social change.
  17. Find this resource:
  18.  
  19. Polk, William R. Understanding Iraq. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 2006.
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  21. Written by a long-time expert on the Middle East, this highly readable work provides the turning points in the history of Iraq from the first Sumerian settlements, the arrival of Islam, invasion of Mongols, long administration of the Ottomans, to the unsettled 20th century and the post-American invasion administration.
  22. Find this resource:
  23.  
  24. Tripp, Charles. A History of Iraq. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  25. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511804304Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  26. An accessible and excellent survey of Iraq’s history from the advent of the Ottomans until the American invasion.
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  28.  
  29. Reference Resources
  30.  
  31. Ghareeb and Dougherty 2013 treat Iraq in a single-volume dictionary with a useful timeline and overview of Iraq’s history. Erwin 2004 is a useful handbook for colloquial Arabic in Iraq. Mustafa 2008 is one of the few anthology works for contemporary Iraqi fiction, which includes selections from all groups of people. Reference works on the Saddam Hussein administration and post-US invasion are abundant, both online and in print. Most such works consist of translated and original primary-source documents as well as speeches, statements, letters, and resolutions. Auerswald 2009 provides thousands of diplomatic documents from various countries, including Iraq, as well as Arab and Western states. The Hoover Institution is a depository of millions of documents with a comprehensive online catalogue. Beyond political papers, there are digital sources on the Iraq War such as videos, images, and audio files. The Iraq War Collection offers a catalogue of Internet sources for such information. The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook presents hundreds of documents and images from the National Security Archive on the relations between the Saddam Hussein administration and the United States. Black, et al. 1992 offers a dictionary of ancient Mesopotamia with many illustrations. The website Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML) is an informative source on the excavation sites of Iraq. Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals (IASJ) is an indispensable database of most journals and articles published by Iraqi academic institutions.
  32.  
  33. Auerswald, Philip E., ed. Iraq, 1990–2006: A Diplomatic History through Documents. 3 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
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  35. A compilation of four thousand speeches, statements, transcripts, letters, resolutions, and other primary source documents from the international community including Iraq, Arab, and European states. All documents are in English.
  36. Find this resource:
  37.  
  38. Black, Jeremy A., Anthony Green, and Tessa Rickards. Gods, demons, and symbols of ancient Mesopotamia: An illustrated dictionary. London: British Museum Press, 1992.
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  40. An illustrated introductory guide on the beliefs and customs of ancient Mesopotamia from 3000 BCE to the Common Era.
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  42.  
  43. Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML).
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  45. Originally prepared by Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands for the US Army personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan in order to train them about archaeological sites. The website provides maps, precise satellite images, and descriptions of Iraq’s most significant ancient and Islamic sites and monuments.
  46. Find this resource:
  47.  
  48. Erwin, Wallace. A Short Reference Grammar of Iraqi Arabic. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004.
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  50. A useful reference book on the dialect of Iraqi Arabic spoken in Baghdad. It includes phonology, morphology, and syntax as well as a guide for pronunciation, forming words, and constructing sentences.
  51. Find this resource:
  52.  
  53. Ghareeb, Edmund A., and Beth K. Dougherty. Historical Dictionary of Iraq. Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow, 2013.
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  55. A comprehensive dictionary of the history of Iraq from 6500 BCE until 2012. A concise history of Iraq is provided at the beginning of the work. The dictionary includes short descriptions of significant people, places, and events, ancient civilizations, political parties, and institutions.
  56. Find this resource:
  57.  
  58. Hoover Institution.
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  60. A catalogue of millions of digitized records at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on the Saddam Hussein administration and the Baath Arab Socialist Party of Iraq.
  61. Find this resource:
  62.  
  63. Iraqi Academic Scientific Journals (IASJ).
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  65. An online open-access source supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Iraq comprising hundreds of journals and thousands of peer-reviewed academic articles published by Iraqi academics.
  66. Find this resource:
  67.  
  68. The Iraq War Collection.
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  70. A compilation of thousands of videos, audio files, texts and images from Internet archive users on the Iraq War and events surrounding it.
  71. Find this resource:
  72.  
  73. Mustafa, Shakir, ed. and trans. Contemporary Iraqi Fiction: An Anthology. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2008.
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  75. First of its kind in the West, a selection of fictive works by Iraqi women, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim writers.
  76. Find this resource:
  77.  
  78. The Saddam Hussein Sourcebook.
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  80. Declassified official sources from the national security archives sheds light on Saddam Hussein and the US-Iraq relations.
  81. Find this resource:
  82.  
  83. Non-Print Media
  84.  
  85. There are many online newspapers and news magazines in Iraq, and the number of such news sources increased especially after the collapse of Saddam’s regime. Most are available in Arabic, Kurdish, and other local languages. The National Iraqi News Agency, Rudaw, and Niqash are somewhat reliable news sources for those who seek news updates in English.
  86.  
  87. National Iraqi News Agency.
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  89. An independent news agency in English and Arabic. Provides up-to-date news source, short and to-the-point articles. It includes one of the best security sections.
  90. Find this resource:
  91.  
  92. Niqash.
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  94. A weekly news source run out of Berlin, it features original and translated in-depth articles written by Iraqi journalists on the economy, politics, security, and society.
  95. Find this resource:
  96.  
  97. Rudaw.
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  99. One of the most reliable news sources on social, political, cultural, and economic issues in Iraqi Kurdistan and beyond. Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic, and English.
  100. Find this resource:
  101.  
  102. Journals
  103.  
  104. There are many academic journals, both in and outside of Iraq, publishing articles on a variety of issues. However, there are few journals that focus only on Iraq’s ancient and modern history. Both Iraq and International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies fill the gap in this field with an international perspective and cutting-edge research.
  105.  
  106. International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies.
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  108. A peer-reviewed, tri-annual academic journal dedicated to the study of modern Iraq, including politics, economics, society, religion, history, and ethnic and religious minorities.
  109. Find this resource:
  110.  
  111. Iraq. 1934–.
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  113. Published annually by the British Institute for the Study of Iraq (BISI) since 1934, this academic journal covers history, art, archaeology, religion, and the economic and social life of the land from the earliest times to about 1750 CE. Despite its wide range of time frame, the journal focuses mostly on the art and archaeology of Mesopotamia and Assyria
  114. Find this resource:
  115.  
  116. Politics
  117.  
  118. Because of Iraq’s unstable past most of the studies included into this article, especially the ones on the history of Iraq, are related to politics. As the institutions for a democratic state are either weak or in their nascent stage, studies in this domain have been scarce. Those that focus on politics either present the Western states’ policy toward Iraq’s democratization and initialization or pay attention to the dictatorial administrations, such as Saddam Hussein’s government, and non-state actors such as Islamic State. From this perspective Peevers 2014 scrutinizes the British approach concerning the Iraq War and its effort to justify it, while Davis 2005 analyses the Baath (Baʾath) regime’s efforts at restructuring the past. Both Atwan 2015 and McCants 2015 tell the story of the Islamic State (IS) based on field research and doctrinal religious texts.
  119.  
  120. Atwan, Abdel Bari. Islamic State: The Digital Caliphate. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015.
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  122. An extensive account of the Islamic State by a well-known Palestinian journalist based on field research and interviews with IS insiders.
  123. Find this resource:
  124.  
  125. Davis, Eric. Memories of State: Politics, History, and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
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  127. A political analysis of the Baath regime through interviews with Iraqi intellectuals of the period.
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  129.  
  130. McCants, William. The Isis Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2015.
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  132. A well-informed history of Islamic State built on primary sources in Arabic. Analyzing ancient religious texts and describing the millenarian beliefs of IS.
  133. Find this resource:
  134.  
  135. Peevers, Charlotte. The Politics of Justifying Force: The Suez Crisis, the Iraq War, and International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
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  137. Based on primary sources such as archival documents, parliamentary debates, personal memoirs, and declassified materials, it examines the British discourse of the Iraq War and the deployment of political language in justifying the war before the international community.
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  139.  
  140. International Relations
  141.  
  142. Since the early 1990s Iraq’s international relations have been shaped by the West, predominantly the United States, and its internal partners, the Shiʿis and the Kurds. In this sense, Khadduri and Ghareeb 2001 present Iraq’s Kuwait policy and its containment by the West in the aftermath of the Gulf War. Weiss, et al. 2004 places Iraq in a broader strategy of US foreign policy during the Bush administration while Gibson 2015 presents a similar work for an earlier period, during the Cold War between 1958 and 1975. While these works offer America’s approach to the whole of Iraq, Charountaki 2010 focuses on the history of relations between the United States and the Kurds in Iraq.
  143.  
  144. Charountaki, Marianna. The Kurds and US Foreign Policy: International Relations in the Middle East since 1945. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
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  146. A detailed analysis of US–Iraqi Kurdistan relations since World War II.
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  148.  
  149. Gibson, Bryan R. Sold Out? US Foreign Policy, Iraq, the Kurds, and the Cold War. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
  150. DOI: 10.1057/9781137517159Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151. Positions Iraq within America’s broader Cold War strategy between 1958 and 1975. Questions widely believed accusations such as the CIA’s alleged involvement in the 1963 Baathist coup and selling out of the Kurds in 1975.
  152. Find this resource:
  153.  
  154. Khadduri, Majid, and Edmund Ghareeb. War in the Gulf, 1990–91: The Iraq-Kuwait Conflict and Its Implications. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  155. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  156. Explores the Gulf War from all perspectives, including the historical background of Iraq’s claim on Kuwait, the war and its aftermath, the UN sanctions, and the absconding of Saddam’s inner circle.
  157. Find this resource:
  158.  
  159. Weiss, Thomas George, Margaret E. Crahan, and John Goering, eds. Wars on Terrorism and Iraq: Human Rights, Unilateralism, and U.S. Foreign Policy. New York and London: Routledge, 2004.
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  161. A collection of essays on human rights, US foreign policy during the Bush administration, and unilateralism.
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  163.  
  164. History
  165.  
  166. From the first settlements of humankind until today, Iraq has always been an important land. The memory of the people of Iraq has been shaped and restructured with their history through thousands of ancient sites surrounding them. Like the ancient past the current history of violence has also shaped them. Beyond what the people of Iraq have experienced, the rulers of the country have employed Iraqi history for their own purposes through national education with the Baath ideology. Thus, the history of Iraq with its artifacts and myths has always been alive among the people of the country as well as in politics. With its political, social, and cultural aspects the history of Iraq is one of the richest in the world. Therefore studies on Iraq have been abundant. Some of the best works are presented under General Overviews. Fattah and Caso 2009 with its rich visual material and useful appendices of basic facts, chronology, and suggested reading is a must for the newcomers to Iraq’s six thousand years of history. Abdullah 2014 is more focused on the political history from the arrival of Islam to the American hegemony.
  167.  
  168. Abdullah, Thabit. A Short History of Iraq. New York: Routledge, 2014.
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  170. A short history of Iraq from the advent of Islam until today.
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  172.  
  173. Fattah, Hala M., and Frank Caso. A Brief History of Iraq. New York: Facts on File, 2009.
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  175. Focusing mainly on societies, peoples, and cultures of the country and less on the rulers and tyrants, this work surveys the history of Iraq from the first establishment of states in ancient times until post-US invasion. Includes several maps for various periods, many illustrations from the Babylonians to the present era, and extracts of several import texts.
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  177.  
  178. Ancient Period
  179.  
  180. Some of the most import civilizations in history were established in Iraq: Sumerian, Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian. There are many studies on these civilizations in various Western languages. Many of those sources in German and French have been translated into English. Translated from German Van Soden 1994 is an authoritative account of Mesopotamia, whereas two French works on the history of writing in Mesopotamian, Bottéro 1992 and Charpin 2010, were translated for Anglophone readers. Oppenheim and Reiner 1977, Roux 1992, and Van de Mieroop 2016 present highly readable surveys on ancient Iraq. Kuhrt 1995 is a reference work on the history of Mesopotamia in two volumes with an exhaustive bibliography. Beside printed works, there are some excellent online resources (see Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands (CEMML), cited under Reference Resources). The ETANA (Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives) Project offers a searchable database of a wide range of primary and secondary sources for archaeological studies. Archive of Mesopotamian Archaeological Reports (AMAR) of SUNY-Stony Brook University is an outstanding depository of reports for excavation sites. Fordham University’s Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia includes links for ancient texts of Babylonia, Chaldea, and Assyria.
  181.  
  182. Archive of Mesopotamian Archaeological Reports (AMAR).
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  184. Contains more than five hundred digitized reports describing archaeological excavations in Iraq aimed at providing basic sources of information to archaeologist in Iraq and beyond.
  185. Find this resource:
  186.  
  187. Bottéro, Jean. Mesopotamia: Writing, Reasoning and the Gods. Translated by Zainab Bahrani and Marc Van De Mieroop. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
  188. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  189. English translation of Mésopotamie: l’écriture, la raison et les dieux, first published in 1987. A collection of some of the seminal papers written by leading French scholar Jean Bottéro. Some of the reflections by the author may raise objections but they provide critical insights into social aspects of Mesopotamian civilization.
  190. Find this resource:
  191.  
  192. Charpin, Dominique. Reading and Writing in Babylon. Translated by Jane Marie Todd. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010.
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  194. English translation of Lire et écrire à Babylone, first published in 2008. This work presents vital information about the workings of Mesopotamian civilization with a focus on the history of writing, archives, and the master-apprentice tradition underlying Mesopotamian texts used for the ancient history of the Near East.
  195. Find this resource:
  196.  
  197. The ETANA (Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives) Project.
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  199. A digital archive and search tool holding searchable databases of excavation sites, translations of important texts from Mesopotamian civilization, cuneiform text publications, archaeological reports, and dissertations.
  200. Find this resource:
  201.  
  202. Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Mesopotamia.
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  204. Fordham University’s online history sourcebook contains English translations of most of the texts on ancient Mesopotamia.
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  206.  
  207. Kuhrt, Amélie. The Ancient Near East, c. 3000–330 BC. Vol. 2. London and New York: Taylor & Francis, 1995.
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  209. This book is published in two volumes with a vast bibliography. The volumes divide the Near East into periods and regions. Some of the historical scenarios are hypothetical but no doubt this book is an important reference for any reader of pre-Hellenistic Near Eastern history.
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  211.  
  212. Oppenheim, A. Leo, and Erica Reiner. Ancient Mesopotamia: Portrait of a Dead Civilization. Rev. ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1977.
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  214. Written by one of the most distinguished Assyriologists and revised by another, this book remains a classic for anyone wishing to understand the basics of Mesopotamian civilization. The summaries are informative and yet explicitly cautious. The book provides a general outline of various aspects of Mesopotamia and complements other volumes dedicated to a more chronological account of the Near East. Originally published in 1964. Revised edition completed by Erica Reiner.
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  216.  
  217. Roux, Georges. Ancient Iraq. 3d ed. London: Penguin, 1992.
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  219. An all-inclusive introductory book on the political, cultural, and socioeconomic history of ancient Mesopotamia from the ancient period to the Common Era and beyond.
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  221.  
  222. Van de Mieroop, Marc. A History of the Ancient Near East ca. 3000–323 BC. 3d ed. West Sussex, UK: Blackwell, 2016.
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  224. Van de Mieroop has written a succinct survey of political history in the ancient Near East with a focus on Mesopotamian history. The book is geared toward undergraduate students and the interested layperson with no prior knowledge of ancient Near Eastern history. The choice of ending the book with the rise of Alexander indicates the pre-Hellenistic focus of the volume.
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  226.  
  227. Van Soden, Wolfram. The Ancient Orient: An Introduction to the Study of the Ancient Near East 1994. Translated by Donald G. Schley. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1994.
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  229. English translation of Einführung in die Altorientalistik, first published in 1985. Written by one of the leading names in Assyriology, the book presents a summary of Mesopotamian civilization with a cautious but knowledgeable presentation.
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  231.  
  232. Islamic Period
  233.  
  234. Centuries after the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians, Iraq regained its glory by becoming the center of another great civilization with the Abbasids. From the 8th to 10th century, Baghdad experienced its “golden age.” Although weakened afterward, the legacy of these times continued for centuries until the Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258. Therefore, Iraq with its center Baghdad always became a subject of study both by Eastern and Western scholars. One of these works is Le Strange 1905, which was published more than a century ago but remains unsurpassed as an overview. Kennedy 2005 presents the lavish life of Abbasids and their entourage based on the famous work of al-Tabari on history. Young, et al. 1991 presents the works of the literati class while the collection Ashtiany 1990 offers the glimpses of poets and literary people. As a supplement to the aforementioned works, Gutas 1998 provides an excellent survey of works translated from Greek. The personal account of a European––an Italian Dominican––in the late 13th century is presented in Tvrtković 2012. Al-Tanukhi 2016 is another firsthand experience, by a local judge in an earlier period.
  235.  
  236. Ashtiany, Julia, ed. Abbasid Belles-Lettres. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
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  238. A collection of articles by experts on the Arabic literature covering prose and poetry in the center and provinces of the Abbasid Empire from the mid-8th to the 13th century. This volume in the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature series covers artistic prose and poetry produced in the heartland and provinces of the Abbasid Empire during the second great period of Arabic literature, from the mid-8th to the 13th centuries CE.
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  240.  
  241. Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ʻAbbāsid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th Centuries). London: Routledge, 1998.
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  243. A well-documented survey of the translation movement from Greek into Arabic in Baghdad during the first two centuries of Abbasid rule.
  244. Find this resource:
  245.  
  246. Kennedy, Hugh. When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam’s Greatest Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2005.
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  248. A skillfully written account of the height of the Abbasids and its heartland Baghdad with rich details of the palace life, the caliphs, viziers, generals, eunuchs, and women of the harem.
  249. Find this resource:
  250.  
  251. Le Strange, Guy. The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1905.
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  253. A groundbreaking work from the early 20th century still not surpassed on the Abbasid Empire. Based on Arabic and Persian sources of the period, the first four chapters provide important information on Iraq during the Abbasid period. Reprinted in 2011.
  254. Find this resource:
  255.  
  256. al-Tanukhi, Abu ʿAli al-Muhassin ibn ʿAli. Everyday Life in Medieval Baghdad. Edited and translated by Robert Irwin. London: IB Tauris, 2016.
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  258. This work provides glimpses of the vanities and amusements of life and celebrity in medieval Baghdad through the collection of anecdotes by a personality of the period, judge and litterateur al-Tanukhi.
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  260.  
  261. Tvrtković, Rita George. A Christian Pilgrim in Medieval Iraq: Riccoldo da Montecroce’s Encounter with Islam. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2012.
  262. DOI: 10.1484/M.MV-EB.5.106132Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. This book analyzes the times and experiences of an Italian Dominican with the Muslims in Baghdad. Besides the critical discussion of his account, this volume includes two remarkable texts of Riccoldo da Montecroce: “The Book of Pilgrimage” and “Letters to the Church Triumphant.”
  264. Find this resource:
  265.  
  266. Young, M. J. L., J. D. Latham, and R. B. Serjeant, eds. Religion, Learning and Science in the ‘Abbasid Period. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
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  268. Part of the Cambridge History of Arabic Literature series, this volume surveys some of the most important writings ranging from theology, philosophy, law, grammar, and administration to mathematics, astronomy, astrology, geography, alchemy, and medicine.
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  270.  
  271. Ottoman Period
  272.  
  273. The Ottomans established one of the longest reigns, close to four hundred years of administration in Iraq until the British occupied it in 1914. With the exception of few Iranian occupations, the Ottoman rule was uninterrupted. During this period, the Ottomans divided Iraq into three main provinces: Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra. Baghdad always remained the most important province with its political power, geographical position, and volume of trade. Once in a while the Kurds dominated politics in Baghdad. Other times, especially between 1750 and 1831, the Mamluks and their protégés, who originated from Georgia, became de facto rulers of the province as well as the whole of Iraq. Al-Azzawi 1935–1956 and al-Wardi 1969–1976, both written by Iraqi scholars, are major multivolume works on this period of Iraq’s history. Al-Wardi 2010 is a translation of just one of eight volumes by an author who is one of the most notable sociologists in the country. Nieuwenhuis 1981 covers the last three decades of the Mamluks. Khoury 2002 and Olson 1997 focus on Mosul province during the early modern period. Longrigg 1925 is still a seminal study of this period with an excellent annotated bibliography of primary sources. Schofield 1989, which focuses on the Iran-Iraq border, is a multivolume collection containing British government documents from the 19th and 20th centuries. Ceylan 2011 describes the change and continuity in Iraq after the centralization policies of the Ottomans. The last decades of Iraq under the Ottomans is covered in Çetinsaya 2006.
  274.  
  275. al-Azzawi, Abbas. Tarikh al-Iraq bayn al-Ihtilalayn. 8 vols. Baghdad: Trading and Printing Company, 1935–1956.
  276. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  277. (History of Iraq between two occupations). A comprehensive multivolume work on the history of Iraq from 1258 to 1914.
  278. Find this resource:
  279.  
  280. Çetinsaya, Gökhan. The Ottoman Administration of Iraq, 1890–1908. London: Routledge, 2006.
  281. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  282. Based on Ottoman sources, this is a solid study of three provinces of Iraq under Sultan Abdulhamid II.
  283. Find this resource:
  284.  
  285. Ceylan, Ebubekir. Ottoman Origins of Modern Iraq: Political Reform, Modernization and Development in the Nineteenth Century Middle East. London: I. B. Tauris, 2011.
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  287. A scholarly history of the Ottoman Iraq based on Ottoman and British archives. Focuses on the application of reforms and consequences of the centralization policies in the provinces of Iraq during the second half of the 19th century.
  288. Find this resource:
  289.  
  290. Khoury, Dina Rizk. State and Provincial Society in the Ottoman Empire: Mosul, 1540–1834. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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  292. Presenting a new approach to the relations between the center of the Ottoman Empire and the frontier city of Mosul during the early modern period. Based on Ottoman tax documents the author asserts that the system of tax farms and entitlements, contrary to the accepted view, led the relations to grow further between the provincial gentry in Mosul and the Ottoman state structure.
  293. Find this resource:
  294.  
  295. Longrigg, Stephen Hemsley. Four Centuries of Modern Iraq. London: Garnet, 1925.
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  297. The most comprehensive single volume work published in a Western language on the Ottoman period. Very descriptive and contains many valuable details based on local sources.
  298. Find this resource:
  299.  
  300. Nieuwenhuis, Tom. Politics and Society in Early Modern Iraq: Mamluk Pashas Tribal Shayks and Local Rule between 1802 and 1831. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1981.
  301. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  302. Based on French and British archival documents, this work provides a detailed account of the last period of Mamluk governors in Ottoman Baghdad.
  303. Find this resource:
  304.  
  305. Olson, Robert W. The Siege of Mosul and Ottoman-Persian Relations. London: Taylor & Francis, 1997.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. Shows the intricate relations between the provincial government of Mosul, the Ottoman capital, and the ruler of Iran, Nadir Shah, during the siege of Mosul by the latter in the first half of the 18th century.
  308. Find this resource:
  309.  
  310. Schofield, Richard, ed. The Iran-Iraq Border, 1840–1958. 11 vols. Farnham Common, UK: Cambridge Archive Editions, 1989.
  311. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  312. Consisting of thousands of primary documents and maps from British government files this multivolume collection focuses on the diplomatic process of creation of the Iran-Iraq boundary. The collection includes treaty texts in facsimile and detailed accounts of negotiations between British, Russian, Turkish, Persian, and recently Iraqi sides.
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315. al-Wardi, Ali. Lamahat Ijtima’iya min Tarikh al-Iraq al-Hadith. 8 vols. Baghdad: Maṭbaʻat al-Irshad, 1969–1976.
  316. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  317. (Social glimpses of modern Iraqi history). Considered one of the most important works in Arabic on the history and culture of Iraq. An encyclopedic work by a prominent Iraqi sociologist, covering Iraqi history and society from the Ottoman rule to the modern period. More accessible and analytical than the work of Abbas al-Azzawi.
  318. Find this resource:
  319.  
  320. al-Wardi, Ali. Social Glimpses of Modern Iraqi History. Vol. 1, The Ottomans, Safavids and Mamluks. Translated by Hayder al-Khoei. Saarbrücken, Germany: LAP LAMBERT Academic, 2010.
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  322. Written by a prominent Iraqi sociologist under the influence of Ibn Khaldun, William Ogburn, and Robert MacIver, this work analyzes the politics, history, culture, and society of the region based on the competition between the Ottomans, the Safavids, and the local Mamluks. This is a translation of al-Wardi’s first volume of Lamahat Ijtima’iya min Tarikh al-Iraq al-Hadith, first published in 1969.
  323. Find this resource:
  324.  
  325. British Mandate Period
  326.  
  327. The British were present in Iraq throughout of the 19th century and they intensified their dominance at the beginning of the 20th century before they occupied it in 1914. With this, the British documented various aspects of Iraq and left many records, which provide a rich archive forstudies on 19th-century Iraq and the British Mandate period. Rush 2001 presents thousands of documents covering this period in a multivolume work. Simon and Tejirian 2004 brings together different perspectives on the creation of Iraq under the British Mandate while Rutledge 2015 focuses on the Arab revolt of 1920–1921. Sluglett 2007 presents a complete history of the British Mandate. Tauber 1991 analyzes the creation of the Iraqi-Syrian frontiers. Allawi 2014 presents a comprehensive biography of King Faisal I. Archaeological excavations and artifacts in Iraq were for a long time a part of the British administration’s sphere. Gertrude Bell Archives contains many archaeological notes, photos, drawings, and other items on the social and political life of Iraq while Bernhardsson 2005 focuses on the relation between nation-building and archaeological heritage.
  328.  
  329. Allawi, Ali A. Faisal I of Iraq. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. The most comprehensive biography of King Faisal, the founding father of modern Iraq.
  332. Find this resource:
  333.  
  334. Bernhardsson, Magnus Thorkell. Reclaiming a Plundered Past: Archaeology and Nation Building in Modern Iraq. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2005.
  335. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  336. This work provides entangled relations between politics and archaeology in the British Mandate and independent Iraq until the beginning of World War II. A growing sense of nationhood among Iraqis led them to confront the British over archaeological excavations and findings.
  337. Find this resource:
  338.  
  339. Gertrude Bell Archives.
  340. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  341. An online archive of Gertrude Bell’s (1868–1926) thousands of archaeological and travel photos, personal correspondence, diaries, and other items, such as Review of the Civil Administration of Mesopotamia (1920), notebooks, obituaries, lecture notes, and miscellaneous reports.
  342. Find this resource:
  343.  
  344. Rush, Alan de L., ed. Records of Iraq 1914–1966. 15 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Archive Editions, 2001.
  345. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  346. Consisting of thousands of British archival documents, these records are indispensable for those who study the formation and development of modern Iraq.
  347. Find this resource:
  348.  
  349. Rutledge, Ian. Enemy on the Euphrates: The Battle for Iraq, 1914–1921. London: Saqi, 2015.
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  351. A definitive account of the Arab revolt of 1920–1921 against the British rule in Iraq.
  352. Find this resource:
  353.  
  354. Simon, Reeva S., and Eleanor Harvey Tejirian, eds. The Creation of Iraq, 1914–1921. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004.
  355. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  356. A compilation of various articles by leading scholars, focusing on the establishment of Iraq from different points of views, such as the Great Powers and Iraq’s regions and neighbors.
  357. Find this resource:
  358.  
  359. Sluglett, Peter. Britain in Iraq: Contriving King and Country. London: I. B.Tauris, 2007.
  360. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  361. A comprehensive history of the British Mandate in Iraq by one of the most authoritative experts on modern Iraq.
  362. Find this resource:
  363.  
  364. Tauber, Eliezer. “The Struggle for Dayr Al-Zur: The Determination of Borders Between Syria and Iraq.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 23 (1991): 361–385.
  365. DOI: 10.1017/S0020743800056348Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  366. Shows that the border between Syria and Iraq was determined after World War I by the Iraqi officers serving in the Syrian army, not by the British and French diplomats in Europe.
  367. Find this resource:
  368.  
  369. After Independence
  370.  
  371. Faisal I was selected by the British administration as the king of Iraq in 1920 and remained in power until one year after the independence of Iraq. Once Faisal negotiated the independence of Iraq in 1932, Iraq was accepted into the League of Nations. In 1958, the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup led by Abd al-Karim Qasim and Abd al-Salam Arif. Iraq joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960 and in 1963 Qasim was removed by a revolution organized by Baath officers. Khadduri 1960 covers the first three decades of Iraq’s history after its independence. Al-Hassani 1953–1961 presents an exhaustive history of the Hashemite monarchy in a multivolume work. Based on secret government records, Batatu 2001 focuses on various social classes and their successors. Haj 1997 explores the effects of socioeconomic development on politics. Bashkin 2008 explores the world of Iraqi intellectuals and questions their reaction to Arab and Iraqi nationalism. Eppel 2004 reveals the creation process of the Baath Party that later laid the foundation for Saddam Hussein’s regime. Ismael 2008 presents the story of the Communist Party of Iraq from the beginning until recently. With an innovative approach, Baram 1991 examines the formation of the Baath ideology through culture and history. Taking readers through the British Mandate and focusing more on the Hashemite period, Efrati 2012 pays attention to the social and political situation of Iraqi women.
  372.  
  373. Baram, Amatzia. Culture, History and Ideology in the Formation of Ba’thist Iraq, 1968–89. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 1991.
  374. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-21243-9Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. A scholarly analysis of the formation of the Baathist ideology through culture and the reinterpretation of history among diverse ethnic and religious communities of Iraq.
  376. Find this resource:
  377.  
  378. Bashkin, Orit. The Other Iraq: Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.
  379. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  380. Narrating the rise of the public sphere from 1921 to 1958 this informative work reveals that the world of Iraqi intellectuals was more pluralistic and they had more ideas about the commons than previously thought.
  381. Find this resource:
  382.  
  383. Batatu, Hanna. The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq: A Study of Iraq’s Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of Its Communists, Ba’thists, and Free Officers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2001.
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  385. An indispensable work on the analysis of the traditional elites and their successors. Draws on thousands of secret government documents and interviews with key figures.
  386. Find this resource:
  387.  
  388. Efrati, Noga. Women in Iraq: Past Meets Present. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.
  389. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  390. The first social and political history of women in Iraq during the British Mandate and the Hashemite monarchy (1917–1958). The work underscores the relations between the memory of oppression in the past and the current struggle for gender equality.
  391. Find this resource:
  392.  
  393. Eppel, Michael. Iraq from Monarchy to Tyranny: From the Hashemites to the Rise of Saddam. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. Analyzing Iraq’s history from 1941 to 1968 this work presents the formative years of the Baath Party and social and ideological climate that resulted in the establishment of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
  396. Find this resource:
  397.  
  398. Haj, Samira. The Making of Iraq, 1900–1963: Capital, Power, and Ideology. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1997.
  399. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  400. Focusing on the failed revolution of 1958, the author examines socioeconomic transformations and the emergence of new classes and political alliances in Iraq.
  401. Find this resource:
  402.  
  403. al-Hassani, ʿAbd al-Razzaq. Tarikh al-Wazarat al-Iraqiya. 10 vols. Ṣayda, Iraq: Maṭbaʻat al-Irfan, 1953–1961.
  404. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  405. (History of Iraqi ministers). Another multivolume work by a prominent Iraqi scholar, focusing on the Hashemite monarchy. Includes numerous documents and their review.
  406. Find this resource:
  407.  
  408. Ismael, Tareq Y. The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Iraq. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  409. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  410. A solid and comprehensive work on the history of the Communist Party of Iraq from its creation in 1934 until the US occupation of the country.
  411. Find this resource:
  412.  
  413. Khadduri, Majid. Independent Iraq 1932–1958: A Study in Iraqi Politics. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1960.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. One of the most important works on Iraq’s political development in the first three decades of its independence. Written by an American-Iraqi scholar who served in Iraq’s government in high-level positions in the 1940s.
  416. Find this resource:
  417.  
  418. Saddam Hussein Period
  419.  
  420. Saddam Hussein gained power through the presidency in 1979 and a year later declared war on Iran. The war lasted until 1988. In the last stage of the Iran-Iraq War, the Anfal campaign resulted in the death and disappearance of thousands of the Kurds and other minorities. The most dramatic episode of this campaign took place in the Kurdish town of Halabja where more than five thousand Kurds were killed in one day as the result of a chemical attack. On 1 August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait and by the beginning of 1991 an international coalition led by the United States launched a military campaign against Iraq and liberated Kuwait. From that year until March 2003, when Iraq was occupied by the US forces, Iraq remained under heavy UN sanctions while the US declared “no-fly” zones in the Kurdish and Shiʾi regions. Soon after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed and he was captured by the end of the same year. In June 2004, the sovereignty of Iraq was transferred to an interim government, which initiated the trial of Hussein and executed him on 30 December 2006. Drawn from a wealth of documents seized at the central headquarters of the Baath Party, Faust 2015 analyzes the process of Iraq’s Baathification. Sassoon 2011 presents the formation of Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Baath Party via its network of informers. Makiya 1998 focuses more on the Baath regime and the rise of Saddam Hussain in politics. Chubin and Tripp 1988 brings together the expertise of two specialists on the immediate effects of the Iran-Iraq War on politics while Murray 2014 presents a complete and recent study of the same war. The Digital Archive of the Woodrow Wilson International Center provides access to many translated documents on the war and Hussein’s Iraq. Musallam 1996 focuses on the reasons behind the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Hiltermann 2014 skillfully examines the indirect role the United States played in Iraq’s killing of thousands of Kurds by chemical weapons in Halabja. Although few in number, some studies explore the role of Iraqi women during the period and offer a different perspective on Saddam Hussein’s regime. In works of fiction, Zangana 2006 brings together the voices of five Iraqi women, while Al-Amir 1994 focuses on one woman’s experience during Hussein’s regime and the Lebanese Civil War.
  421.  
  422. Al-Amir, Daisy. The Waiting List: An Iraqi Woman’s Tales of Alienation. Translated by Barbara Parmenter. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.
  423. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  424. English translation of ʿAla laʾihat al-intizar, first published in 1988. Tale of an educated, affluent, and divorced woman living under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and living through the Lebanese Civil War.
  425. Find this resource:
  426.  
  427. Chubin, Shahram, and Charles Tripp. Iran and Iraq at War. London: I. B. Tauris, 1988.
  428. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  429. Written during the last phase of the Iran-Iraq War this work covers the strategies of both countries in the war and its impact on the politics, the economy, and the society.
  430. Find this resource:
  431.  
  432. Faust, Aaron M. The Ba’thification of Iraq: Saddam Hussein’s Totalitarianism. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015.
  433. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  434. An analysis of Baathification of Iraq, arguing that Hussein employed classical totalitarian means with distinctly Iraqi methods to transform state, society, and cultural institutions.
  435. Find this resource:
  436.  
  437. Hiltermann, Joost R. A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439. A scholarly account on Iraq’s deployment of chemical weapons told through a heart-aching story of the chemical attack on Halabja, a town in Iraqi Kurdistan.
  440. Find this resource:
  441.  
  442. Makiya, Kanan. Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1998.
  443. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  444. One of the most acclaimed books on Baath politics and Saddam Hussein’s regime focusing on the period between 1968 and 1980.
  445. Find this resource:
  446.  
  447. Murray, Williamson. The Iran-Iraq War: A Military and Strategic History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  448. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781107449794Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  449. Built on extensive government records, this is a complete account of the Iran-Iraq War and the military strategy of the Iraqi regime.
  450. Find this resource:
  451.  
  452. Musallam, Musallam Ali. The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait: Saddam Hussein, His State and International Power Politics. London: British Academic Press, 1996.
  453. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  454. Examines several theories, including the personality of Saddam Hussein, the structure of the Iraqi state, and the workings of the international political system, which endeavor to explain the underlying causes of the war.
  455. Find this resource:
  456.  
  457. Sassoon, Joseph. Saddam Hussein’s Ba’th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
  458. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781139042949Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  459. A detailed account on formation of Saddam Hussein’s regime focusing on the innermost workings of the Baath Party’s Revolutionary Command Council.
  460. Find this resource:
  461.  
  462. Woodrow Wilson International Center. Digital Archive.
  463. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  464. An open-access digital archive of translated documents on the Iran-Iraq War and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
  465. Find this resource:
  466.  
  467. Zangana, Haifa. Women on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London. Translated from the Arabic by Judy Cumberbatch. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.
  468. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  469. English translation of Nisa ala safar, first published in 2001. A novel by a Kurdish-Iraqi writer on five Iraqi women, who were exiled, displaced, tortured, and grieving. The Iraqi and Western powers are critiqued for their violence toward ordinary people.
  470. Find this resource:
  471.  
  472. Iraq War of 2003 and the United States
  473.  
  474. Accused of possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), Iraq was invaded by the United States in March 2003. A few weeks after the invasion, Saddam Hussein’s regime collapsed and he was captured by the end of the same year. In January 2005 the first elections took place for a government to draft a new constitution. On 15 October 2005, more than three-quarters of the population voted in favor of the new constitution and later a new government was elected under the leadership of Nouri al-Maliki. Since the invasion by the United States, insurgent attacks on the population have often taken place, and there has been a rise of terrorist groups and sectarian violence between the Shiʾis and Sunnis. In August 2010, the US government ended its military presence in Iraq with the departure of the final combat troops. In June 2014, Islamic State captured Mosul and the leader of the group proclaimed himself capliph of a worldwide Islamic caliphate. The period since the 2003 invasion of the country has been very volatile. The heavy involvement of the West in forging this recent history has resulted in a vast amount of publications by academics, soldiers, diplomats, journalists, as well as the people of Iraq. Sifry and Cerf 2003 provide some of essential readings through the perspective of various experts; Feldman 2005 and Al-Ali 2014 offer engaging first-hand perspectives on politics and power relations. Anderson 2011 delivers a solid account of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Enloe 2010 presents the stories of women, who experienced the Iraq War from a gendered perspective, while Riverbend 2005 offers a girl’s eyewitness account. Zedalis 2014 examines the legal dimension of postwar Iraq’s economic outlook. Greenberg and Dratel 2005, the Institute for the Study of War, and the website Iraq: The Human Cost describe the violence caused by the war and the consequences for the Iraqi people through a number of detailed reports.
  475.  
  476. Al-Ali, Zaid. The Struggle for Iraq’s Future: How Corruption, Incompetence and Sectarianism Have Undermined Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2014.
  477. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  478. A rich and first-hand account of an Iraqi lawyer on the political struggle to redefine the relations between the political structure and society in the wake of the Iraq war and the Arab Spring.
  479. Find this resource:
  480.  
  481. Anderson, Terry H. Bush’s Wars. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  482. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  483. A highly readable history of Operation Iraqi Freedom and its consequences.
  484. Find this resource:
  485.  
  486. Enloe, Cynthia. Nimo’s War, Emma’s War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
  487. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  488. A feminist theoretical approach to the Iraq War through the experiences and comparison of various Iraqi and American women.
  489. Find this resource:
  490.  
  491. Feldman, Noah. What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005.
  492. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  493. Advising on Iraq’s new constitution, the author offers insights on power relations between the American and Iraqi administrators.
  494. Find this resource:
  495.  
  496. Greenberg, Karen J., and Joshua L. Dratel, eds. The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
  497. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  498. A documentary sourcebook consisting of US government memos and reports on the torture in Afghanistan, Guantanamo, and Abu Ghraib.
  499. Find this resource:
  500.  
  501. Institute for the Study of War.
  502. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  503. Releases useful “Iraq Situation Reports” on the latest security incidents and weekly in-depth reports on violence in Iraq.
  504. Find this resource:
  505.  
  506. Iraq: the Human Cost.
  507. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  508. A well-informed website on the consequences of war for the people of Iraq. The website presents empirical reports, studies, photos, and many statistics.
  509. Find this resource:
  510.  
  511. Riverbend [pseud.]. Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq. New York: Feminist Press at CUNY, 2005.
  512. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  513. An eyewitness account of a young Iraqi girl through an Internet blog on the everyday realities of the war and occupation. The author’s follow-up volume is Baghdad Burning II: More Girl Blog from Iraq (New York: Feminist Press at CUNY, 2006).
  514. Find this resource:
  515.  
  516. Sifry, Micah L., and Christopher Cerf, eds. The Iraq War Reader: History, Documents, Opinions. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
  517. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  518. Contains valuable essays and documents on the Iraq War.
  519. Find this resource:
  520.  
  521. Zedalis, Rex J. The Legal Dimensions of Oil and Gas in Iraq: Current Reality and Future Prospects. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014.
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523. First and only analysis on the legal dimensions of governing the oil and gas industry in Iraq.
  524. Find this resource:
  525.  
  526. Ethnic and Religious Groups
  527.  
  528. Iraq is made up of several ethnic and religious groups. The largest ethnic group is Arabs with 75 percent of the population; the Kurds are second with 15 percent, and the remaining population consists of Assyrians, Turkomans, and other much smaller minorities such as Mandeans, Armenians, Circassians, Shabakis, and Sabeans. Two-thirds of the population is Shiʿa, the largest religious group in the country, followed by Sunni Kurds and Arabs, who represent a little less than one-third of the total population. There is a small minority of Christians, Mandeans, Yazidis, and Shabaks. Haddad 2014 is the first and probably only comprehensive work on this diverse society.
  529.  
  530. Haddad, Fanar. Sectarianism in Iraq: Antagonistic Visions of Unity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  531. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  532. The first comprehensive analysis of sectarian relations and sectarian identities in Iraq. Explains sectarianism through economic competition and contested cultures by focusing on the events that unfolded after 1991 and post-2003 as well as the ongoing civil war.
  533. Find this resource:
  534.  
  535. Shiʿis
  536.  
  537. The largest religious group in Iraq, the Shiʿis were nevertheless suppressed by the Sunni minority before prevailing in Iraqi politics. Nakash 2003 is a standard textbook on the 19th- and early-20th-century history of Shiʿis from various perspectives, including the formation of society, their relations with the state, the transformation of religious practices, and financial institutions. Litvak 2002 analyzes the Shiʿi leadership through the 19th-century religious scholars of Najaf and Karbala. Mallat 2004 offers a complete biography of famous 20th century Shiʿi scholar, Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr. A complementary work to Mallat is the translation As-Sadr 2014, a famous text on Islamic jurisprudence. Campbell 2005 consists of several traditional stories, which reflect the characteristics of a traditional society, from Shiʿi tribes gathered in the early years of modern Iraq.
  538.  
  539. Campbell, C. G., ed. and trans. Folktales from Iraq. Illustrated by John Buckland Wright. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
  540. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  541. Traditional stories collected in Shiʾi regions of Iraq in 1940s, each accompanyied by special drawings with various themes including action, adventure, love, and humor.
  542. Find this resource:
  543.  
  544. Litvak, Meir. Shi’i Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq: The “Ulama” of Najaf and Karbala’. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
  545. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  546. Examines the sociopolitical dynamics of the Shiʾis through the historical development of the community’s leadership in 19th-century Ottoman Iraq.
  547. Find this resource:
  548.  
  549. Mallat, Chibli. The Renewal of Islamic Law: Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr, Najaf and the Shi’i International. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
  550. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  551. A well-written biographical study on one of the most important Shi’i scholars of Iraq, Muhammad Baqer as-Sadr, who became very influential on the rise of political Islam in the Middle East, thus on Iran revolution of 1979 and its aftermath.
  552. Find this resource:
  553.  
  554. Nakash, Yitzhak. The Shi’is of Iraq. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.
  555. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  556. The most authoritative work on the Shi’s of Iraq focusing on the social transformation of this community in the 19th century and its search for political representation in the 20th century.
  557. Find this resource:
  558.  
  559. As-Sadr, Muhammad Baqir. Lessons in Islamic Jurisprudence. Translated by Roy Mottahedeh. London: Oneworld, 2014.
  560. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  561. English translation of Durus fi ilm al-usul, first published in 2001. A famous text on Islamic jurisprudence by one of the most revered Iraqi Shiʿa clerics and philosophers. Translated from Arabic and introduction by a well-known historian of Islam.
  562. Find this resource:
  563.  
  564. Kurds
  565.  
  566. Located mostly in the northeast of the country, in a region called Kurdistan, the Kurds are ethnically the largest minority group in Iraq. With its quasi-independent government that includes its own president and parliament, the Kurdistan region is the most prosperous and stable part of Iraq. Many studies, academic and non-academic, have been devoted to this region and its people. Both Bengio 2012 and Natali 2010 are devoted to the subject of state-building in Kurdistan; the former focuses on the relations between the Kurds and the Iraqi government while the latter analyzes the history of direct foreign aid to Kurdistan and its impact on the legitimization of local partners as state actors. Romano 2006 analyzes Kurdish national movements in Iraq and Iran through social movement theories. Rafaat 2016 compares and contrasts the Kurdish and Iraqi nationhood project. Offering a gendered perspective Hardi 2012 pays attention to the experiences of Kurdish women in mass killings and their survival strategies toward the end of Iran-Iraq War. King 2013 investigates the relation between the Kurdish people’s patrilineal descent and its reflection in politics. Burdett 2015 presents more than eight thousand British government documents mostly on the Kurds of Iraq from the 1830s until the 1970s. Relying mainly on the British documents McDowall 2004 offers an excellent account of the Kurds in Iraq and surrounding states. Black 1993 documents the systematic killings of the Kurds during a series of military campaigns in 1988, with a report for Human Rights Watch.
  567.  
  568. Bengio, Ofra. The Kurds of Iraq: Building a State Within a State. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2012.
  569. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  570. Examines the history of relations between the Kurds of Iraq and the state from the Baath regime to the present government.
  571. Find this resource:
  572.  
  573. Black, George. Genocide in Iraq: The Anfal Campaign against the Kurds. New York: Human Rights Watch, 1993.
  574. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  575. Based on hundreds of in-depth interviews with Kurdish survivors, a series of forensic examinations of mass graves, and the study of captured Iraqi intelligence archives by Human Rights Watch this report presents an appalling account of the Anfal campaign, also known as the Kurdish Genocide––a series of Iraqi military actions conducted between 23 February and 6 September 1988 against the Kurds.
  576. Find this resource:
  577.  
  578. Burdett, A. L. P., ed. Records of the Kurds: Territory, Revolt and Nationalism, 1831–1979. 13 vols. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Archive Editions, 2015.
  579. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  580. Focusing on the Kurds, this extensive collection of British archival documents provides vivid details on the political history of Iraqi Kurds.
  581. Find this resource:
  582.  
  583. Hardi, Choman. Gendered Experiences of Genocide: Anfal Survivors in Kurdistan-Iraq. Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2012.
  584. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  585. Based on the testimonies of Kurdish women, this work focuses on the Iraqi government’s systematic killing of thousands of civilians in 1988, which was known as the Anfal (“the spoils of war”) campaign. Hardi, a well-known Kurdish poet and writer, highlights the survival strategies of these women and reconstructs the tragedy through a gendered perspective.
  586. Find this resource:
  587.  
  588. King, Diane E. Kurdistan on the Global Stage: Kinship, Land, and Community in Iraq. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013.
  589. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  590. Built on extensive fieldwork, this work analyzes state and society relations in Iraqi Kurdistan through patrilineage.
  591. Find this resource:
  592.  
  593. McDowall, David. A Modern History of the Kurds. London: I. B.Tauris, 2004.
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  595. The most comprehensive work on the modern history of the Kurds from the beginning of the 19th century to the present. Besides the history of the Kurds in Iran, Turkey, and Syria the author gives wide coverage to the political history of the Kurds in Iraq.
  596. Find this resource:
  597.  
  598. Natali, Denise. The Kurdish Quasi-State: Development and Dependency in Post-Gulf War Iraq. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2010.
  599. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  600. This is a study of state-building in Iraqi Kurdistan through analysis of several decades of foreign aid.
  601. Find this resource:
  602.  
  603. Rafaat, Aram. “The Fundamental Characteristics of the Kurdish Nationhood Project in Modern Iraq.” Middle Eastern Studies 52.3 (2016): 488–504.
  604. DOI: 10.1080/00263206.2015.1124415Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  605. This article surveys two separate parts of Iraq, the Kurdish and the Arab, and examines the Kurdish nationhood project through relations with the greater part of the country.
  606. Find this resource:
  607.  
  608. Romano, David. The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization and Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
  609. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511616440Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  610. Analyzes the structural conditions, political opportunities, and resource mobilization of Kurdish national movements in Iraq and Iran through social movement theories.
  611. Find this resource:
  612.  
  613. Yazidis
  614.  
  615. Yazidis are a syncretic minority group of Kurdish origin located in northern Iraq. The founder of this religion is Sheikh Adi, who is buried in Lalesh in the north of Iraqi Kurdistan. Formerly a larger group, Yazidis have been reduced to a much smaller group today, probably less than 5 percent of Iraq’s population, because of persecutions and mass killings by the local population and by the state. Guest 2012 is a complete history of the Yazidis. Fuccaro 1999 focuses more on the social history of Yazidis, while they were transformed from a tribal society during the Ottoman Empire into citizens of the modern state under the British Mandate.
  616.  
  617. Fuccaro, Nelida. The Other Kurds: Yazidis in Colonial Iraq. London and New York: I. B. Tauris, 1999.
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619. A scholarly social history of Yazidis in Iraq from the late Ottoman Empire to the British Mandate period.
  620. Find this resource:
  621.  
  622. Guest, John S. Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis. London and New York: Routledge, 2012
  623. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  624. A well-written history of the Yezidis from the 13th century to early 20th century, including primary sources of Yazidi tradition.
  625. Find this resource:
  626.  
  627. Jews
  628.  
  629. Jews existed in Iraq for more than two thousand years. The population of the community was around 150,000 in 1950, most living in Baghdad. After the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, most immigrated to the newly found Jewish state, and there remained no more than one thousand Jews in Iraq. Rejwan 2004 presents the memoirs of an Iraqi Jewish man who grew up in Baghdad in the 1920s and departed for the new state of Israel in 1951. Bashkin 2012 focuses on Jews and the emerging Arab nationalism of the 1940s.
  630.  
  631. Bashkin, Orit. New Babylonians: A History of Jews in Modern Iraq. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012.
  632. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  633. Chronicles the experience of the Jews of Iraq in the 1940s and 1950s, at a time when they contributed to the discussion of Arab nationalism and communism.
  634. Find this resource:
  635.  
  636. Rejwan, Nissim. The Last Jews in Baghdad: Remembering a Lost Homeland. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004.
  637. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  638. A vivid memoir of an Iraqi Jewish man, who spent his childhood and youth in Baghdad from 1920s through 1951. Noteworthy for the author’s relations with the country’s leading intellectuals and literary personalities, the political mayhem he witnessed during the establishment of Israel, and the confusion he experiences when he bids a last farewell to Iraq and arrives in the new state of Israel.
  639. Find this resource:
  640.  
  641. Christians
  642.  
  643. One of the oldest continuous Christian communities in the world, the Assyrians make up the vast majority of the Christian population in Iraq. The rest of the Christian minority is made of Chaldeans, Armenians, and Protestants. The number of Christians in Iraq’s total population decreased over the decades from 10 percent to less than 1 percent. Most of remaining Christians lives in the Kurdish part of the country now. Despite the long history of Christian minorities few scholarly studies have been produced in Western languages. Donabed 2015 examines the role the Assyrian people played in shaping modern Iraq. Petrosian 2006 focuses on the identity issue of the Assyrians and their political representation in Iraq. Sengstock 2005 presents the story of Iraqi Chaldeans in the United States and shows that the memories of Iraq are still alive among the following generations despite a century in diaspora.
  644.  
  645. Donabed, Sargon. Reforging a Forgotten History: Iraq and the Assyrians in the Twentieth Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015.
  646. DOI: 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748686025.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  647. Placed in the polical history of modern Iraq this is the first comprehensive account of the Assyrians’ experience during the creation of the modern state.
  648. Find this resource:
  649.  
  650. Petrosian, Vahram. “Assyrians in Iraq.” Iran and Caucasus 10.1 (2006): 113–148.
  651. DOI: 10.1163/157338406777979322Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  652. Examines the question of Assyrian identity, their relations with the Kurds, and their status in Iraqi Kurdistan.
  653. Find this resource:
  654.  
  655. Sengstock, Mary C. Chaldeans in Michigan. Detroit: Michigan State University Press, 2005.
  656. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  657. A close examination of the Chaldean community, who immigrated a century ago from northern Iraq to the United States.
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