Politics and Society in Early Modern Iraq: Mamlūk Pashas, Tribal Shayks, and Local Rule Between 1802 and 1831

245 Pages·1981·5.463 MB·English

by  Tom Nieuwenhuis (auth.)

POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN IRAQ
STUDIES IN SOCIAL HISTORY
issued by the
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL HISTORY
AMSTERDAM
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SERIES ISBN 9024723477
POLITICS AND SOCIETY IN EARLY MODERN IRAQ
Mamluk Pashas, Tribal Shayks and Local Rule
Between 1802 and 1831
by
TOM NIEUWENHUIS
1982
MARTINUS NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS - THE HAGUE/BOSTON/LONDON
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Nieuwenhuis, Tom.
Politics and society in early modern Iraq.
(Studies in social history ; 6)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Iraq--History--1534-1921. I. Title.
110 Series: Studies in social history (International
Institute for Social History) ; 6.
DS77.N48 955 81-22391
ISBN 90-247-2576-3 AACR2
ISBN-l3: 978-94-009-7490-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-009-7488-3
DOl: 10.1 007/978-94-009-7488-3
Published with financial support from the Netherlands Organization for
the Advancement of Pure Research (z. W. 0.).
Copyright © 1981 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague.
Soflcover reprint oft he hardcover 1st Edition 1981
All rights reserved. No part of th is publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other
wise, without the prior written permission of the publisher,
Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 566,2501 CN The Hague, The Netherlands.
CONTENTS
Preface vn
Glossary xi
List ofm aps and figures
map I Iraq xiv
map II Global indication of the territories of the pashaliks of
Baghdad, Mosul and Sulaymiiniyyah xv
map III Important sedentary agricultural areas between Mosul
and Basra. Beginning of the 19th century xvi
map IV Map of the river Tigris to the North of Baghdad by
Felix Jones, 1850 xvn
map V Global indication of the territoria of the most important
tribal formations in 1812 xvin
figure 1 Primitive lift-irrigation. Tigris-banks to the south of Mosul xix
figure 2 Primitive ploughing. Near Samara xix
I. A LITANY OF DISASTERS
II. THE STRUCTURE OF MAMLUK POWER 13
The Sa'id-Diiwiid Struggle (1815-1816) 16
The build up of Mamliik dominance 24
Aspects of Government 26
Outside Baghdad 30
Military aspects of Mamliik power 34
Revenue and Mamliik power 46
The Marnliiks and Baghdad 59
Religious leaders, military men and the role of the quarters of Baghdad 63
The political position of non-Moslem minorities 71
The Porte and Baghdad 75
The British role 81
Instability and violence in Mamliik politics 87
A short discourse on Mosul 98
vi CONTENTS
III. THE RURAL WORLD 108
The sedentary areas 109
The political position of the villagers 117
The tribal world 121
The large tribal formations: migrations and territorial influence 122
Economics and tribal structure 138
The Tribal Structure 141
Political authority in the tribal world 148
Big shaykhs and the state 158
IV. RESUME. THE BACKGROUND OF IRAQI STATE FORMATION 169
State and countryside 179
The Mamliiks in the history of Iraq 181
Notes 185
Appendix I - The Mamliik pashas 207
Appendix II - Revenues of the pashalik of Baghdad in
1843-1844 and 1845 208
Bibliography 216
Index 224
PREFACE
This study deals with the Mamliik1 period in Iraqi history (1750-
1831), and more particularly with later Mamliik times (1802-1831).
The year 1831 marks the watershed between an era of 'local rule'
and one of restored Turkish centralization. During the Mamliik
period the influence of external powers in Iraq was not excessive;
after that year direct Turkish rule coincided with growing British in
fluence, which increasingly opened the country to the forces of the
world market. As an object of study the period of local rule is inter
esting, particularly because it formed the background to, and in some
aspects also the start of, the modern history ofIraq.
The literature available on Mamliik rule and tribal power is scarce
and unsatisfying in various ways. The best history of 'Ottoman' Iraq
is still that of Longrigg, which was written in the 1920's. However,
although based on an admirable range of sources, it provides the
reader with little more than a political chronology. Generally, the
social and political historian of early modern Iraq is confronted with
a lack of information of a very basic kind - if indeed he can find any
relevant information.2 For example, there is hardly any information
on the Mamliik institution. Only the most scanty evidence exists on
the history of the Yanissaris of Baghdad, or on the socio-political
history of the lower orders of the town. Again, almost nothing is
known about the lower orders of the sedentary rural world. Interest
ing areas of tribal history are largely neglected and many of the con
ditional assumptions about tribal politics and society are ill-founded.
Here Longrigg is a case in point. He correctly saw the tribal question
as the key issue of early modern Iraqi history, but he considered that
tribes had no real history for 'in heart, culture, and interests (they)
varied nothing; their civilization, politics, arms were universal and
static: and this, more even than his lack of records, absolves the his
torian from a narrative of these myriad changes'.
3
viii PREFACE
To go beyond the traditional historiographical approach to Iraqi
history is rather an over-ambitious task for a single historian. Key
questions have to be outlined, a great number of primary and second
ary sources have to be consulted, and (perhaps the most time consu
ming) it is necessary to make a systematic search for scattered and
un catalogued Ottoman and Arab source material. This book is an
attempt to set out parameters of such a project, and provides a fairly
tentative analysis of some of the basic issues involved. It is based pri
marily on the French archives, on travel literature and eye witness
reports and on a great number of secondary sources. It concentrates
on such themes as the sources of Mamliik power, the characteristics
of provincial government and the role of the tribal complex in politi
cal history. Special attention is also paid to such subjects as the role
of plagues, the relationship between economy and politics, the in
stability and violent overtones of politics and the character of tribal
authority. In the last chapter the historical background of modern
Iraqi state formation is outlined.
This latter theme forms a distinctive perspective of this study. In
other studies on the Arab provinces during approximately the same
period (cf. Koury, Bodman and Rafeq) different perspectives are
prevalent. In comparison, the negative aspects of Ottoman and Mam
liik rule in the 18th and early 19th centuries may seem to have been
overemphasized in my book, simply because the potential for
modern state formation was not overwhelming. Modern state forma
tion means the formation of nation states, and this process was sub
stantially obstructed in Iraq's case.
Some remarks about periodization and the territory under consider
ation are necessary here. The period of local rule in Baghdad may be
divided into three parts. It starts with the government of the found
ing fathers of the Mamliik 'dynasty', J;:Iasan Pasha (1702-1724) and
his son Al1mad Pasha (1724-1747). The Mamliik period itself may be
divided into the earlier and the later period. The former starts with
the reign of Sulayman Abu Laylah (1750-1762) and ends with the
crisis years of 1773-1780. The later period starts with the govern
ment of Sulayman the Great (1780-1802) and ends with that of
Dawud Pasha (1817-1831). This is followed by the period of direct
Turkish rule, which ends during the First World War, after which Iraq
became a virtual British colony. Although the study covers the Mam
liik period as a whole, it is primarily concerned with the last three
decades (1802-1831) of the later Mamliik period.
PREFACE ix
The name Iraq refers to a territorial unit that did not exist before
1918, but for simplicity the term has been used for the geographical
area which incorporates Basra, Baghdad and Mosul. (See Maps I and
II). Mosul is dealt with, but the Kurdish areas are left out of con
sideration, largely because of their fundamentally different socio
political structure. Kurdish history connects with that of Baghdad
and Mosul in many respects, some of which are touched upon, but
its study is a separate task.4
A more or less uniform system of transliteration has been used, al
though in some cases names have been spelt in the form in which
they were found. Also, names of institutions or officials have some
times been spelt in Turkish, as is the case with such words as dev~irme,
nizam-l cedit or when the Porte's representatives, such as Halet
Efendi, are concerned. Usually, Arabic is chosen for personal names
even in cases like that of l:Jasan and his son Al)mad Pasha. Words like
'Iraq, Baghdad, etc., have been spelt Iraq, Baghdad, etc. kh, sh and
th have been rejected in favor of kh, sh and th for reasons of con
venience. ' is used instead of ' and'.
Several people deserve special thanks, particularly Dr. Marion
Farouk-Sluglett and Dr. Peter Sluglett, who gave me encouragement,
help, constructive criticism and highly appreciated hospitality. J am
also most grateful for comments and help from Dr. Roger Owen, Dr.
Amal Rassam, Rod Aya, Dr. Fritjof Tichelman, Dr. AI-Humaidan and
Dr. Abdulra:pman (the latter two from the University of Basra).
Percy Kemp kindly gave me a copy of his then unpublished manu
script on Mosul, as well as permission to quote from it.
Iohan de Bakker and Annelies Moors helped with the translation
of Arab books. I should also like to thank Tracy Metz, who trans
lated most of the book into English, Marcia Wyatt, who corrected
the last chapter, and Doenja Verwey, for many kindnesses.
The staff of the Universiteitsbibliotheek of the University of Am
sterdam took care of the delivery of many of the books used; I
should particularly like to mention Mr. R.B. Knottnerus. The Central
Library of the University of Baghdad kindly sent a copy of Nawras'
book.
A major part of the research was done as research fellow of the
Department of Euromediterranean Studies of the University of Am
sterdam. Finally, the Foundation for Cultural Anthropology provi
ded financial support for the translation of Arabic texts.