2005 News
Fellowship Recipients
Dr. Mark Altaweel, Argonne National Laboratory
"Development of Ancient Settlements in Northern Iraq"
Dr. Mariana Giovino, Independent Scholar
"Publication Preparation of Interpretations of the Assyrian Sacred Tree, 1894–2004"
Ms. Bridget Guarasci, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Eden Again: The Technologies of Nostalgia and Reconstruction in Iraq’s Marshes”
Ms. Yasmeen Hanoosh, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
“Chaldeans between Iraq and America: Shifting Spaces of a Christian Minority’s Discourse”
Ms. Lisa Lital Levy, University of California, Berkeley
“Jewish Writers in Iraq, 1870–1950”
Mr. John Nielsen, University of Chicago
“A Comprehensive Editing of All Babylonian Economic Tablets Dated from 747 to 626 B.C. Located in Collections in Great Britain”
Professor Neal Walls, Wake Forest University
“Reading Gilgamesh: A Critical Introduction to the Epic of Gilgamesh”
Summary of Amman conference, January 2005
This report is a summary of an important conference entitled "Iraq: Notions of Self and the Other since the Late Ottoman Era" that took place in Amman, Jordan, from January 5–7, 2005. It was organized by Dr. Hala Fattah for the Jordan-based Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies, with the co-sponsorship of the Japan Foundation and the Goethe Institute. The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII), a relatively new non-governmental organization that intends to establish a center in Iraq as soon as it is feasible, became aware of the conference and asked to be allowed to become a co-sponsor. Its funds helped defray expenses of invited Iraqi participants. Nine Iraqi scholars, representing several universities and institutions of research, attended the meeting and delivered papers. In this account, we are deliberately avoiding naming any of the participants from Iraq, mindful of their safety. Twenty-five scholars from universities in Europe, the U.S., Canada, the Arab world, and Japan also made presentations.
The conference took place in the Marriott Hotel, Amman, Jordan, from the 5th to the 7th of January, 2005. The introductory session featured Dr. Fattah, Mr. Koichi Obata, Ambassador of Japan in Jordan, and Dr. Thomas Lier, Director of the Goethe Institute in Amman, but was highlighted by an address by His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal.
The first panel, chaired by Professor McGuire Gibson from the University of Chicago, U.S., gave some background on the ancient and Islamic past of Iraq, and stressed the unity of culture in ancient Iraq, despite some periods in which the area was broken into disparate kingdoms. Dr. Magnus Bernhardsson, from Williams College in Massachussetts, U.S., delivered a paper on the role of archaeology in creating the ideas of nationalism in Iraq from 1921–2003.
The early Ottoman era was seen in light of relationships between tribes and the central government, with such papers as Professor Dina Rizk Khoury's (George Washington University, U.S.) "Writing Genealogies of Arab Tribes: Two Narratives from Early Nineteenth Century Baghdad" that showed surprisingly rich and barely tapped sources for local Iraqi history. In contrast to the tribes, Edouard Metenier (Universite d'Aix en-Provence, France) discussed the "Ottomanization" of two important Arab bureaucrat/historians. An Iraqi scholar traced the threads of Iraqi awareness of its character within the empire. Dr. Christoph Herzog (Heidelberg University, Germany) traced the provinces as seen by the Ottoman administration, showing that the province of Baghdad could include areas in what is now Iran, as well as the three provinces of Iraq itself. He also related the history of military and non-military schools set up by the Ottomans in the mid-1870s, showing the importance of Iraqis in the military of the empire.
Professor Gokhan Cetinsaya (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey) discussed reform in the last part of the Ottoman Empire, showing that there was a conscious effort to refocus the Muslims of the empire on the Sultan and the caliphate. Sunni Muslims were seen as the bulwark against the West. This gave a special importance to the Arabs and Kurds, who ruled through local notables. Importance was placed on contact with Sufi orders such as the Qadiriyya in Mosul and in Baghdad and the Rifa'iyya in Basrah. There are dozens of reports in the Ottoman archives in Istanbul dealing with Iraq in this period, seeing the provinces of Baghdad and Basra as important for agriculture, leading to marsh-drainage projects, dredging the rivers for navigation, and the establishment of a railroad. There was also a policy of settling tribes. And it is clear that Iraq was to be governed as one province, not three. But lack of funds made most of these reforms and plans unattainable, and there were increasing security problems throughout Iraq, especially from the tribes. In these "reforms" and the resistance to them lie many of the roots of problems that occurred under British rule and the Kingdom.
The British colonial period and the Kingdom were covered in sessions that were probably the liveliest. In the audience were numerous examples of living history. In attendance were sons and daughters and widows of several ministers and directors general in the time of the kingdom. One or two were descended from the last Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Caliph. The daughter of Rashid Ali al-Gailani was also there, as was her husband, the son of Sati' al-Husary (Iraq's most important interwar intellectual). In addition, there were persons who had been officials in the time since 1958. These people made pointed comments on personalities, relationships, genealogy, and party politics. Covered in this session were the emergence of the Iraqi state and the emergence of Iraqi identity, the deleterious effect of the early death of King Faisal I on the monarchy and the political system, seen from the point of view of a former Iraqi diplomat. Dr. Peter Wien (Al-Akhawayn University, Morocco) outlined authoritarian approaches to forming the nation in the 1930s and 1940s. Professor Keith Watenpaugh (LeMoyne College, Syracuse, U.S.) put Rashid Ali al-Gailani's 1941 coup in the context of early pan-Arabist thought.
There followed a session on the roots of religious minorities in Iraq, a theoretical comparison between Russia and Iraq by Peter Gran, (Temple University, Philadelphia, U.S.), and Professor Peter Sluglett's (University of Utah, U.S.) discussion of the evolution of parliamentary government in the period 1921–1931.
Of very great interest were several presentations on Islamic movements in Iraq. Dr. Silvia Naef (University of Geneva, Switzerland) discussed the surprising concept of Najaf as a center of radical secularism among the students of religion in the early twentieth century, in part because this was the least expensive place to study in Iraq. David Patel (Ph.D candidate, Stanford University, U.S.) laid out the differences in religious authority among the Shiites, showing the broad and deep support that Ayatollahs such as Sistani have. These persons, through disciples spread around the country, can marshal support whenever they wish. Ayatollahs also have financial support from tithes and other fees at shrines. Muqtada Sadr has been unable to retain his father's following and has no good means of financial support, so he must resort to extreme language and actions to gain adherents.
Kaiko Sakai (The Institute of Developing Economies, Japan) gave a very important paper, showing that the split between Sunni and Shia is not a strict division. People have not identified as Shia or Sunna until lately. There was a major Sunni component in the Baath, but it was not so marked until the 1991 uprisings. Identity was controlled by the Baath party. She has studied the CVs of the candidates for the national assemblies from 1980 on, and she saw very intriguing trends, with more and more candidates mentioning tribal affiliation in the 1990s. In 1996, several candidates, to show their qualities as leaders, cited their role in mediating conflicts within and between tribes. Paradoxically, in the south, party identification was a stronger identification than in the north, but after 1991, tribal identification spread in the south also. She sees the re-tribalization policy of the 1990s as a move to frustrate the Ulama in Najaf. Shiites were represented in the Baath regime, but the delegates were not allowed to mediate between the party and the people in the south, whereas tribes in the north were able to do so. This difference was not because of religion but because of the evolution of the south due to historical events.
Juan Cole (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, U.S.) dealt with the central role of Ayatollah Ali Sistani at the present time. His views on religion and politics are very different from Khomeini's. He has stressed the love that Shia must have for the Sunna and condemned Shia attacks on Sunni mosques. His view is that Iraq is for the Iraqis. He wants legitimate government, and the Occupation is not legitimate. He calls for unity of the Sunna and Shia. He calls for pluralism: all Iraqis are equal. He is nationalistic. He believes in an "Arab nation" and he wants to avoid the mistakes of Iran with its clerical rule. There is a role for clerics in social issues but not in politics. He says that the parliament derives from the will of the people, and that there needs to be one person/one vote in the election. Such a democratic hawza would be unique in Islamic history, says Cole.
One panel was devoted to music, literature, art, and women's issues. Dr. Scheherazade Hassan (WIKO, Berlin, Germany) detailed the Iraqi maqam (traditional music). She traced the Iraqi maqam to its present form to the 19th century. Maqam is a strong cultural marker that unites all groups. But the Iraqi maqam is also part of other maqam traditions; maqam is supra-national and supra-religious. Turkish and other traditions still interact with Iraqi maqam. During the Ottoman period, Iraqi maqam was recognized as an entity, and one Mosul performer was known all over the empire. Among Kurds, the Failis were very good. But Albanians, Armenians, and Persians all sang Iraqi maqam compositions. A wide variety of craftsmen played, and some upper class people (e.g., Nuri Said) performed. In discussion, one participant questioned the 19th century origin of maqam, asserting that it had begun earlier. Dr. Hassan indicated that the evidence exists of oral transmission, but that there was no written treatment of the subject until the 1930s.
Professor Nada Shabout discussed Iraqi identities as revealed in iconography and perception of self in visual arts. The 1950s combined tradition and modernity in art.
Professor Nadje Al-Ali outlined the role of women in modern Iraq, discussing women in the work-place, and women as "the Other." Her discussion of the hardship suffered by women as an effect of the loss of husbands and therefore financial support in the Iran–Iraq War led to lively discussion. One participant indicated that as the soldiers came home from the war, they found few jobs, and that women were gradually shifted out of positions. The 1990s saw a great shift in the role of women, again due to financial problems under the sanctions, and this time there was the added element of religion. A female observer made the point that in the first laws of the nascent Iraqi state, women were given equal status.
One of Iraq's leading poets elaborated on the roots of modern poetry in Iraq. The fall of Baghdad in 1917 had a great effect on poetry. One poet at that time, Jamil Sidqi Al- Zahawi, expressed a conviction that Iraq needed not tools and new industry, but new infusions of thought from abroad. Ali Al-Sharqi was identified as the person who introduced modern verse to Iraq. Iraqi poetry includes free verse and blank verse as well as traditional forms.
Following was a session on the Kurds, with the lead paper given by a Kurd from Iraq. He outlined the history of Kurds in Iraq as first part of Iran, then part of the Ottoman Empire. He called for semi-autonomy in the present situation. He gave a history of revolts. But he stressed the cooperation of all groups in a united Iraq. This presentation reflected a motif that ran throughout the conference, in which Shia-Sunna differences were seen as exaggerated or political invention. It was often remarked, especially in private conversation around the conference, that Iraqis have been, historically, so intermarried, with Shia and Sunni Arabs and Kurds, as well as Turcoman strains in many families, that there was little conscious division on a day-to-day basis. It was pointed out that the largest Sunni city is Baghdad, the largest Shia city is Baghdad, the largest Kurdish city is Baghdad, the largest Christian city is Baghdad, etc., and that Basra province has a million Sunnis living in it.
An Iraqi economist detailed the politics of opposition in Baathist Iraq. Parties were eliminated. The bureaucracy and the regime had an existence of their own and there was no longer an arena of conflict or exchange, which makes up politics. But that does not mean that the Baath regime defied social analysis, as is often asserted. In such works, Saddam is portrayed as not in a political struggle but acting as a dictator seeking fictitious goals. Such works just repeat ideology, they don't analyze. Scholars with a better grasp of Iraq agree that politics in Iraq were leading to alienation of the people, who turned to tribal or religious opposition.
The final session, given to a discussion of all themes, led to lively comments not only from the academic participants, but also from the audience.
It was decided that there is a need to form an International Association of Iraqi Studies. In addition, at the meeting, some Iraqis passed around information and membership forms for a new organization called the Friends of the Iraq Museum, which is to help support, not only the Museum, but the entire Antiquities organization.
In discussion with Hala Fattah and others after the formal sessions, it was decided that TAARII would take a leading role in creating a project to gather the oral history of the hundreds of invaluable witnesses of Iraq's history. This project will take place initially in Amman, where many older Iraqis live in exile, as well as in Beirut, London, and in several centers in the U.S. Eventually, it will be centered in Iraq itself.
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