Iraq in the Ottoman Empire

Iraq in the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman rule in Iraq began in 1535 and lasted until World War I. During this time Iraq became a central player in Ottoman religious, economic, and political developments, as it was important to Ottoman interests in protecting its lands from the Eastern threats, primarily those of modern day Iran. Also, Iraq helped the Ottoman's to increase economic trade and resist Shiite influence on their own Sunni Muslim population. Thus it was important to Ottoman ends of political security and protection from the Persians and future encroachments, which is reflected in the constant turmoil in the region. It is also noteworthy that the Ottoman's at times struggled to administrate Iraq, and although the Mumlaks encouraged stability, this would not be permanent as the Ottoman ineffectiveness is reflected in the British influence in the area. As World War I drew near and the Ottoman's allied with the Central Powers, it became clear that the British would be at war with the Ottoman Empire. Thus Ottoman interest in Iraq was lost through the war and British colonial interests and military might regain control. But because the Ottoman's had not properly addressed control over Iraq and encouraged divisions among different religious and tribal groups, Iraq continued to maintain a splintered religious and political society that colonialism did not and could not cure. The Ottoman's handed over a territory that could only be ruled through dictatorships and thus political hardships and the Ottoman's rule over Iraq meant that Iraq would be a colonized land in which the problems of political rule would not be addressed. The progression of Ottoman influence in Iraq meant that Iraq was not able to develop as its own political entity resulting in years of political and religious frustrations that are still manifesting themselves today. Iraq came under Ottoman rule in the 16th Century as the Ottoman's brought all the holiest cities of Islam under their domain from the Persians. The conflict over Iraq to the Ottomans was that the Ottoman Empire feared the Persians from East and thus sought to create a Sunni buffer state in opposition to the Shiite Persians of the East. The Ottomans had important territories in what would become modern day Turkey and Syria and Persia posed a direct threat to them. This means that Iraq had a political purpose for the Ottoman Empire and encouraged the Ottomans to take control of the area. Creating a buffer state would not only help with international stability and security, but the political conquest of Iraq would help to cement Ottoman control over Sunni territory and heighten Ottoman influence in the Eastern portion of their Empire while securing their borders from their main Eastern threat. This political purpose spread to the religious sphere as well, as the differences between Sunnis and Shiites influenced Ottoman policy towards Iraq. After Muhammad there was a schism in Iraq, thus causing a split in Islam into two groups that would become known as Sunnis and Shiites. Iran, or Persia in the Ottoman days, was the center of the Shiites and the Arabs were predominately Sunni. While Iraq had a decent sized Shiite population, it was primarily Shiite. And because the Shiites of Persia were the enemies of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottomans feared Shiite influence into their Sunni lands of modern day Turkey, which was a critical area to the Empire. Therefore, having Iraq in its position would not only serve as a political buffer, but a religious buffer whose religious impact spread into the political sphere. Furthermore, early Ottoman control of Iraq also meant economic significance to the Ottoman Empire. Important East-West trade routes passed through modern day Iraq and encouraged the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire to control the land and control trade. According to one estimate, "control of the trade routes passing through the Red Sea and up the Tigris and Euphrates rivers..... was an important element in the Sultan's efforts to ensure that east-west trade would continue to flow through his territories" (Iraq History Page). This was because there were newly opened trade routes through Africa that might pose a threat to Ottoman trade in the East. This shows the economic importance of what would become modern day Iraq for its inclusion into the Ottoman Empire. From the early conquest of Iraq by the Ottoman Empire in the 16 century, there would be a continued conflict between the Safavid Empire in Iran and the Ottomans that would continue to make Iraq an important religious and political entity to the Ottoman Empire. This was because the Safavid Empire in Iran declared Iran to be Shiite and had their eyes set on holy places within Iraq and the prestige from conquering important areas of Islam and Arab culture, such as Baghdad (Library of Congress 2007). This meant that the initial Ottoman conquering of Iraq would not be permanently recognized, but that it was subject to continual threats from Persia such as that in 1623 when Persia conquered Iraq, but were eventually overthrown. But the potential for Persian conquest and a threat to the Eastern half of the Ottoman Empire made Iraq of significance to the Ottoman Empire's political, religious, and economic vitality in the Eastern half of its Empire. Also, because the Ottomans were constantly threatened by the Safavids Persian influence on Iraq, their influence was weakened and they faced a loss of authority in Iraq. In the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was weakened, which allowed for increased independent rule of the Iraqi areas of the Empire. Local Iraqi tribes succeeded in acquiring power, and one man, Afrasiyab purchased the governorship of Basra and allowed Western influence to permeate Iraq through British, Dutch, and Portuguese merchants. This introduction of Red Sea Trade in Basra by the British perhaps influenced the British in their future endeavors and eventual colonization of modern day Iraq. It is also important to note that these local leaders were also responsible for the Persian conquest of most of Iraq as the Baghdad governor Bark Su Bashi revolted and joined with the Safavid in order to strengthen his role in relation to the Ottoman Empire. The result was religious and political conflict in Baghdad which while allowed for Persian control, the Ottomans eventually restored their power to Iraq and they would retain control until modern times by the Treaty of Qasr-i-Shirin which ended the aforementioned conflict between the Sultan and the Persian Empire. However, there would be indirect conflict in the 17th century such as for control over Basra as the Ottoman's were forced to focus much of their attention and resources to Europe where they faced warfare and waning influence as a political Empire.

This notion in which the Ottoman Empire became known as the "sick man of Europe" in which they had lesser political control but significant land holding also was because of and spread to their territory in Iraq. There were weak Sultans such as Ibrahim I whose porous policy spread to Iraq and encouraged the disunity and opposition to Ottoman influence in the region. This contributed to political and economic problems and furthered the chance of religious tension between Shiites and Sunnis. This Shiite and Sunni tension was heightened by the pro-Sunni stance of the Ottomans and the pro-Shiite stance of the Persians and thus the conflict spread to create religious cleavages between the two religious groups. The Persians encouraged the Shiites and the Ottomans the Sunnis and thus when ruled by one group, the opposition was oppressed. This would influence Iraq far into the future and into the modern day. In the 18th Century, Iraq and its relationship within the Ottoman Empire became more stable. A European model of governing influenced the Ottomans and this was carried over to Iraq. The key aspect of this period was that the governor sent to rule Iraq from the Ottomans was Georgian and he established a Georgian Mamluk authority over the Iraqi province. The Mamluks became influential in helping to secure Ottoman influence in Iraq which benefited the Empire and they helped collect tribute which was beneficially economically to the Ottomans. This meant a period of economic and political stability for the Ottomans in Iraq that also included modernizing efforts and military gains (Library of Congress 2007). This helped cement Iraqi incorporation into the Ottoman Empire and alleviate Ottoman concern over the region. The Mamluks had a military in the Empire which made the defense of Iraq not subject to the Ottoman's European campaigns and thus trade routes became a source of revenue that was not at risk. By this time however the Safavid's lost power in Iran and those who took power meant a new threat to the Ottoman's control of Iraq. But through the influence of the Mamluks, the Ottomans were able to retain control, but the Mamluk regime retained greater influence than other regimes prior. During this time the future of Iraq was hinted as the British East India Company established a post in Basra in 1763. The end of the 18th and into the 19th century British influence in Iraq became greater as the British and other European interests began to penetrate further into Iraq. The last Mamluk governor ruled in the 19th century as Europe was increasingly asked for advice, military weapons, and for help to promote trade. The British were the most influential in this regard which indicates an economic viability to Iraq that the Ottomans were either unable or uninterested in pursuing. The Ottomans, as a European Empire, were unable to maintain influence over its own province. After floods and plagues in 1831, the Ottoman's sent a new governor to Iraq that meant "A new era" for Iraq (Iraq History Page). While this was an attempt to regain influence on the area, many tribal competitions and allegiances remained, including the Kurdish problem in the region. The Mamluks had grown increasingly autonomous and the Ottoman's reasserted their authority, but this authority was not inherently stable. IN 1690, Midhat Pasha was appointed governor of Iraq and he attempted to modernize according to a Western model which helped Iraqis to gain power within their own government, but this not enforce the Ottoman Land Law of 1858 which meant that Iraq was now closely tied to the Ottoman central government. The implications of Ottoman re-asserted control were that Sunnis would hold influence on important political positions that would remain until after Ottoman control ended. This means that the Ottomans encouraged the religious divisions not only between the Sunnis and the Shiites, but the Kurds as well that would remain as the religious cleavages were not addressed properly in Ottoman Iraq. As the British had been allowed increasing influence in Iraq, it would remain that way after the Ottoman's lost control in the First World War. Ottoman ties to Germany meant a threat to British interests in the area as the Ottoman's allowed for a German railway. The British, who became aware that there may be oil interests in Iraq, were now fearful of a military threat in the area as the German influence was a competition. Ultimately, the British won out in the ensuing military conflict and thus Iraq's domination by the Ottoman's came to a close, largely because of their ineffective political influence and allowing for British economic interests in the region. But as the Ottoman's lost the war, they also lost their territory to the victors and the future of Iraq would play out in the hands of the Western European colonizers, in this case the British. Thus Ottoman policies ultimately led Iraq into the hands of the British and the British did little to address the underlying issues in Iraq. For example, in 1920 there was a "large-scale Shiite insurgency" meaning that the Shiite and Sunni religious problems existed and would exist through the 20th century and they do exist today in the 21st century (Rayburn 2006). The British were ineffective in fixing Iraqi political problems or granting the Arabs political sovereignty, and it was admitted that by the end of the 1920s, "the Iraqi government had become the exclusive domain of the royal Hashemite family and a few hundred Sunni Arab politicians" (Rayburn 2006). Iraq faced incredible political dilemmas and religious differences that were not addressed in the years following Ottoman rule as colonization re-enforced as the British only pursued their own personal interests in Iraq and, like in the Ottoman years, Iraq was merely a pawn in the much bigger political and economic landscape and its own political and religious concerns were not addressed. According to one study on Iraq, modern day Iraq "as a result of repeatedly being conquered and occupied by foreign powers, did not progress in the four centuries" since the original Ottoman invasion (Shagoury 2003). The Ottoman legacy thus must be seen one as exploitation and failure which led to British colonization and even more failure and ultimately a system that could only be dominated by despotism. The results were despotism after the British left, Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and politician and religious repression and stunted economic growth, and eventually the United States invasion which has opened the doors to renewed ethnic and religious conflict and political squabbles. Even the possibility of democracy has not made possible a change in Iraq as traditional problems now have had room to become. Since the U.S. led invasion, "without a strongman holding Iraq together, rising sectarian violence has brought the country to the brink of civil war" (Roberts 2007). This is an indication of the problems that have existed in Iraq since its inception as a province conquered by the Ottomans. The Ottoman's used Iraq for what it was- a buffer state- and Iraq was only important for the economic and political security it afforded the Empire. The religious divisions in Iraq, for example, were only maintained by the Ottoman Emperor and perhaps encouraged as the Ottomans were interested in the Sunnis and not the Shiites. This is just one of the many conflicts within Iraq that have existed to this day as Iraq has continually been an area of foreign domination and internal disputes that have not helped Iraq, but have only led to problems that have existed throughout Iraq's history until the modern day. Works Cited "Iraq's History Page." 22 Apr. 2007 .