Includes bibliographical references (p. [289]-302) and index.

The Making of Iraqi Shii Society -- Iraq the Frontier -- The Shrine Cities -- The Conversion of the Tribes to Shiism -- The Nature of the Conversion -- Years of Upheaval -- The Impact of Two Revolutions -- Muslim Unity and the Jihad Movement -- The 1919 Plebiscite -- The 1920 Revolt -- Exercising Social Control -- Containing the Mujtahids -- Managing the Tribal Shaykhs -- Baghdad and the Shrine Cities -- The Blow to the Status of Persians -- Human Dilemmas -- The Search for Political Representation -- Recognizing the State -- The 1935 Revolt -- The Bid for Power -- The Radical Options -- The Commemoration of 'Ashura' -- The Nature of the Muharram Observances -- The Mujtahids and the Muharram Observances -- The State and 'Ashura' -- Pilgrimage to the Shrine Cities and the Cult of the Saints -- Foreign Pilgrimage -- Internal Visitation -- The Corpse Traffic -- Development and Socioeconomic Functions -- The Religious Creed versus the Social Order -- The State and the Corpse Traffic -- Shii Money and the Shrine Cities -- The Building of an Economic Base -- The Oudh Bequest -- The Consequences of Dependency on Foreign Funds -- The Shii Madrasa in Iraq -- Features and Functions -- Signs of Decline -- A New Iraqi Shii Madrasa -- Epilogue: The Gulf War and its Aftermath -- The Constitution of the Buraq Quarter of Najaf -- Important Shii Shrines, Tombs, and Holy Sites in Iraq -- Shii Holy Burial Sites.

Iraqi Shiis, the country's majority group, are nevertheless politically disinherited, as was vividly demonstrated in the aftermath of the Gulf War. Here Yitzhak Nakash provides a rich historical background for understanding their place in today's Sunni-dominated Iraq. The first comprehensive work on the Shiis of Iraq, this book challenges the widely held belief that their culture and politics are a reflection of Iranian Shiism. In examining the years between the rise of the Shii strongholds Najaf and Karbala in the mid-eighteenth century and the collapse of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958, Nakash shows that the growth of Iraqi Shiism was closely related to socioeconomic and political developments in the nineteenth century. The strong Arab values of the sedentarized tribes who converted mainly in the nineteenth century made Iraqi Shiism very different from that of Iran, as did differences in rituals and religious organization and in the nature of the Iraqi and the Iranian state. Nakash sees the rise of the modern state as a development that pulled Iraqi and Iranian Shiites further apart in the twentieth century: the policies of Iraq's Sunni rulers and the Pahlavis in Iran dealt a blow to the position of Shii Islam in Iraq and facilitated its rise in Iran in the twentieth century. In exploring this topic, Nakash elucidates Shii political aspirations and the position of Shii Islam in contemporary Iraq. An epilogue discusses the impact of the Gulf War on Iraqi Shiism, pointing to the challenges now facing people in Iraq and the opposition in exile.