Jamā'at al-Ulamā: the Reviver of the Iraqi Shiites' Political Identity

After the First World War when Iraq gained its independence from Ottoman Empire, all subsequent governments which came to power in Iraq, despite their various forms and attitudes, failed to prepare the ground for all sections of society to participate in sociopolitical activities. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the fact that shi'ahs constituted the majority of population and that they made considerable effort to gain and ensure independence, Shiites were less favored than any other group. The revolution of 1958 AD by Abdul-Karim Kassem and implementation of some reforms by him as well as the diffusion of non-religious ideologies, including communism, provoked Shi'ah clerics to react . It seems that this reaction has had a considerable impact on the revival of Shi'ah political identity in Iraq in that period and afterwards. In the meantime, Jamā'at al-Ulamā was one of the first groups playing an invaluable role in this regard. In the present paper, writer has tried to consider and study the role played by this group in the political evolutions of the Shi'ah community in Iraq while investigating the conditions leading to the emergence of Jamā'at al-Ulamā.