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State and Sufism in Iraq is the first comprehensive study of the Iraqi Bäth regime's (r. 1968-2003) entanglement with Sufis and of Sunn¿ Sufi Islam in Iraq from the late Ottoman period until 2003 and beyond.
For far too long, the secular and authoritarian Bäth regime has been reduced to the dictator Saddam Husayn and portrayed as antireligious. Its growing political employment of Islam during the 1990s, in turn, has been interpreted either as an abstract Bäthist-nationalist Islam or as an ideological U-turn from secularism to a form of Islamism that ultimately contributed to the spread of Islamist terrorism after 2003. Broadening the narrow focus on Saddam Husayn, this book analyses other leading regime figures, their close entanglement with Sufis, and Bäth religious politics of a state-sponsored revival of Sufi Islam and Iraq's broad and distinct Sufi culture. It is the story of a secular regime's search for "moderate" Islam in order to overcome the challenges of radical Islamism and sectarianism in Iraq.
The book's two-pronged interdisciplinary approach that deals equally with politics and Sufi Islam in Iraq makes it a valuable contribution to scholars and students in Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Anthropology and Sociology, Political Science, and International Relations.
List of contents
Introduction
Part I: Sufi Islam and the Challenges of the Modern Iraqi Nation State (1876-1979) 1. Islam and the Decline of Sufism After the End of the Ottoman Empire 2. The Rise of the Bäth Party and its Early Nationalization of Islam 3. Sufis Under the Early Bäth: First Links to the Regime
Part II: State Patronage of Islam During the Iran-Iraq War and Beyond (1980-1989) 4. The Religious Propaganda of a Secular Regime 5. The New Prominence of Sufi Scholars 6. New Opportunities for Sufi Orders
Part III: The Faith Campaign and the State-Sponsored Revival of Sufism (1993-2003) 7. Sufism to Counter Moral Decay and Wahhabism 8. Sufi Ecumenism Against Sectarianism 9. The Entanglement of Sufis with the State Elite Conclusion Afterword: The Naqshband¿ Army and the Legacy of the Bäth Regime's Sufi Revival After 2003 Bibliography Index
About the author
David Jordan (Ph. D. 2019 Hamburg) is Research Associate for Islamic Studies at Bochum University. His research focusses on Sufism and the entanglement of religion and politics in the early modern and modern history of the Middle East. His publications include: "
Jaysh rij¿l al-¿ar¿qa al-naqshband¿ya: The Sufi Resistance of the Former Bäth Party in Iraq" (2020).
Summary
State and Sufism in Iraq is the first comprehensive study of the Iraqi Ba?th regime’s (r. 1968–2003) entanglement with Sufis and of Sunni Sufi Islam in Iraq from the late Ottoman period until 2003 and beyond.
