MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ...

MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY Department of History Hist 413 – History of the Modernity in the Middle East Recep Boztemur

One State, Countless Origin

By

Zeynep PAMUKCU 1651421

2012 - Summer 01/08/2012

ONE STATE - COUNTLESS ORIGINS! The countries, which are both disappeared in the past and still existed today, have different histories behind them. This differentiation can be made according to the longevity of the counties‟ history. For instance, some countries, which are in the Middle East or Eastern Mediterranean like Iraq, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and Turkey, have a better known and long history than other countries like USA. On the other hand, we cannot just limit history according to the borders of countries because unlike their names such as Turkey and the politics that some of them follow; they are not shelter just for the one nation, or one ethnic origin. Although there are many examples for this situation, one of the biggest is Iraq, which includes mainly Arabs and Kurds and as minority Turkmens, Assyrians, and Armenians*. In this paper, I will try to write about ethnicities and the effect of religion on people in Iraq. Before get into the subject, I will give short information about Iraq. Iraq is one of the oldest places in the history. Its importance came from its geographic location and its history. As geographically, Iraq is bordered by Kuwait, Persia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The capital city is Baghdad and the other significant cities are Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk, Sulaymaniyah, and Erbil*. As language, they do not use one language. Officially, Arabic and Kurdish, but in dialect they also use Turkish, Assyrian and Armenian*. Brief historical information will be more explanatory. Before the effective Europe emergence and the discovery of America, Iraq had an important role on trade with its position. The main trade roads were the Silk and Spice, which had a major effect on the old world‟s trade because almost everything was distributing to world through them and Iraq was the crossover. The other significance came from its soil; in other words, Iraq is in the position of Mesopotamia, so it has very fertile soil. Another aspect is petrol, or oil that makes Iraq special, but this includes more recent history about it. Because of fertile soil, trade and oil, Iraq has never been a stable country in terms of many aspects such as people, who live on it, relations with other

countries, regime, politics, religion and so on. As well as ethnicity, religion also has still a crucial effect; it contains many different religions such as majorly Muslims and Christians, and as minority Yazidis, Bahaists, Zoroastrians, and Mandeans*. From now on, I will directly and one by one focus on the ethnicities and different kinds of religions. The first ethnic origin that I will concentrate on is Arabs in Iraq community. Arabs constitute 75-80% of the Iraq population and living primarily in the central and southern parts of the country (Brancati, 2004, p.8)*. According to the Erkmen‟s article „Political life after the invasion and the 2010 Parliamentary Elections in Iraq‟, the cities that majority of the Arabs live are 14 cities except Duhok, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk (2010, p.111). There are different reasons why Arab population in Iraq distributed like this. One of the reason is that the clan understanding. Arabs give importance to the clan that they belong to and they also settle according to it. This strong belongingness also may come from their nomadic customs, which are also called Bedouin. For example, Marsh Arabs, also known as Mi‟dan, live in Marshlands near the border of Iran and Iraq (Ochsenschlager, 2004, p.27). Another example from East-West and it gives a settled clan, which name is Sunni Arab Elbu Nasır (Boztemur, 2006, p.72). The other reason for the distribution is the differentiation of sects for Muslim ones and the religion. Muslim Arabs mainly divided as Sunni and Shi‟a. As further information, both of them are also separated in itself. Sunni has four parts, which are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi‟i and Hanbali and Shi‟a has four parts, which are Twelvers, Ismailis (the Druze and the Alawis), Fivers and the Ibadhis. They live in different cities of Iraq as majority. For instance, while the majority of the Sunnis live in Baghdad and Mosul, Shi‟as live in Basra (Sluglett & Farouk-Sluglett, 1978, p.80). The inhabitants are constituted by 60-65% Shi‟a and 32-37% Sunnis in Iraq*. Through this, their life styles and occupations show differentiations. Most of the Shi‟as work on lands and little of them dealt with trade. Moreover, some cities of the Iraq like Najaf, Karbala and Kazimayn are sacred for Shi‟as. On the other hand, Sunni

population work on administration, or governmental organizations, or as instructors, especially in the Ottoman Empire period (Sluglett & Farouk-Sluglett, 2001, p.192). However, this system generally changed ruler to ruler in Iraq, so it has been changing gradually. In spite of these differences, they speak Arabic and it is their one of the official languages. Iraq does not have just Sunnis Arabs and Shi‟as Arabs, it includes also other different minorities in terms of religions. One of them is Christian Arabs. Like Sunnis and Shi‟as, the Christian Arabs are another big group; however, they are not crowded as much as Muslims in the Iraq. Christianity has different sects, which are mainly Orthodox, Catholicism and Protestantism, like Islam and it also affects the people in terms of living spaces, but there is not a clear distinction where the which sect live in Iraq. Nevertheless, according to Held‟s article, we know that a variety of sects of Christians dwell in northern and northeastern Iraq (1994, p.88). The second ethnic origin is Kurds, which are the second crowded group after Arabs in Iraq. Kurds comprise 15-20% of the Iraq population*. With respect to this majority, Kurdish is another official language of the state*. Nagel‟s (1978) study found that: Kurdish social organization was largely tribal and semi-nomadic with various tribes occupying territories within one or more nations and moving across national boundaries seasonally. As the Kurdish population spread into towns and cities, the incessant tribal squabbles were complicated by disputes between tribal and detribalized Kurds (p.13). Since Kurds settled, they mainly live in centre of Iraq Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk. However, their position is different than Arabs because they are varied in terms of many things such as religion, tribal understanding and their political view. All of these affect Kurds lifestyles. One of the major factors is religion and Kurds are the wealthiest group with regarding to it. Furthermore, Kurds position has changed and been changing according to which religion that

they believe and the governor of the territory. According to the findings of O‟Leary, the majority of Kurds are Sunni Muslims. There are also Shi‟a and Yezidi Kurds, as well as Christians who identify themselves as Kurds. Yezidis are Kurds who follow a religion that combines indigenous pre-Islamic and Islamic traditions. The once thriving Jewish Kurdish community in Iraq now consists of a few families in the Kurdish safe haven (2002, p.17). Sunni Kurds are the ones who have advantages time to time in the history because the administrators of Iraq are composed of largely Sunnis especially Sunni Arabs. They are not comfortable as Sunni Arabs as; however, they live more comfortable life than other Kurds. Especially in the times of Ottoman Empire, they were able to get their education in the Kurdish medreses such as Kurdish Naqshbandiyya Shaykh Mawlana Khalid al-Kurdi and also as an occupational subject they could reach military and political positions (Natali, 2005, p.5). Because of these conditions, Sunni Kurds lived in the Baghdad. The other group of Kurds are Shi‟as, who also known as Faylis. The study of Bruinessen indicates that “The Faylis are a large and prosperous Shi‟a community of west Iranian descent, most of them lived in Baghdad and other major cities of western central Iraq. There is a Fayli dialect, related to southern Kurdish, but many Faylis only know Arabic. Most Faylis do not have Iraqi citizenship, although they have lived in Iraq for generations. In the 1970s and 1980s, over a 100,000 Faylis were outcaste to Iran. Faylis held leading positions in the Iraqi Kurdish movement, and rich Faylis made important contributions to financing the movement (1994, para.31).” Christian Kurds are another group of people in Iraq. However, it is hard to find about them because since the Saddam Huseyin regime, their population had been decreased*. There are also other ethnicities such as Yazidis, Turkomans, Assyrians, Mandeans, and Chaldeans. The first group of ethnicity is Yazidis. Their emergence goes back to 292 A.D. This date is also the same as the death of Mani. Thus, according to some researchers, historians, or theologians, this is an interesting coincidence. Another claim about Yazidis is

that Yazidism has a relation with Yazid; hence, it is believed that Yazidis are from the oldest Muslims. However, Yazidis believe that they are from the only boy of Adam, Sahid Carrah, who is the founder and he is the restorer and refresher of the sect. Yazidis are not stable society, some are nomadic and majority of them are settled. It is believed that Yazidis born in the period of Umayyad and at the end of the 14th century, the period of Timur, they moved Basra, lower Euphrates, Sincar and Kurdistan. They did not move as colonies, thus the ones who move Sincar and Kurdistan show lots of similarities with Kurds in terms of both appearance and the lifestyle. For example, they both live as tribes and have leaders at the head of tribes. Other than Kurds, interestingly the tribes of Yazidis do not have any similarities. Although they are scattered, they have main area, which is Mosul. Furthermore, their political leader lives there. The movement of liberty and freedom of Yazidis is indicated by Cebel Sincar. Today, they are spread, so we can see them either as majority or minority in different cities like Diyarbakır, Aleppo, Kilis, Gaziantep, Ermenistan, Caucasus (especially in Tibilisi) and Persia. The main lands that they live in is Iraq and their population approximately 35 thousands. The language of the Yazidis is close to Persian language, but to understand each other clearly, they need another language as promoter. This promoter language change according to where they live. For example, Sincar Yazidis speak Arabic, or the ones who live in Gaziantep speak Turkish. In terms of religion, Yazidis are known as Devil worshipper and light extinguisher in some societies because they give importance to the angels more than God. Their religion and practices are also composition of features of other religions such as Persia-Zoroastrianism, Mâni Religion, Judaism, Christianity specially Nasturi, Islam and Shamanism. It includes at least one similar practice with other religions. For instance, in terms of fasting, circumcision, pilgrimage and pray; they are like Muslims. Different than them, they fast between 3 and 5 September, this is performed by society. Another type of fast lasts 80 days and it is performed by religious commissary. Moreover, Yazidis pray three times a

day whereas Muslims do five times a day. Like Shamans, they bury their deaths, or analyse dreams, dance. Like Christianity, they go churches for weddings, or drink wine and they baptize their new born children. However, to baptize, they dowse their children to Zemzem. They have a holy day, Eid, which is also the New Year for them, April 1. They have more than one scripture, which are Kitab al-Jilwah and Mishaf Rash. Kitab al-Jilwah was written by Malak Ta'us. For Yazidis, Malak Ta‟us is the Peacock Angel. On the other hand, Mishaf Rash is manmade and it means black book. They believe that black is something that should be respected sense. Their way of life is also different than usual societies like their religion. They believe that they are the superior ones than other communities, religions and everything. According their belief, to be Yazidi, the person should be born from a Yazidi mother. They have rule on marital status. The Yazidi men cannot marry more than one woman except the Amir. Sides, man or woman, have the right of divorce. In addition, they have strict cast system in their society; it has also an effect on the marriage (“Islam Ansiklopedisi”, 1986). Another ethnicity is Turkomens in Iraq. They are also known as Mosul and Kirkuk Turks. They settled in the cities such as Kirkuk, Erbil, Diyola, Sulaymaniyah, Baghdad (Karakol, Azamiye, Rahibe Hatun) in the north of Iraq. They did not live a stable life; their life conditions changed and have been changing according to the politics of the ruler of the Iraq. Abdüsselam Ârif, who became the president of the Iraq in February 1963, followed moderate approach to Turkomens. For example, they organize education congress by the Turkomens educators about living their culture and speaking their own languages, Turkoman August 28-30, 1968. At the end of the congress, they took decisions and they offer them to the government. They got the results and the radio channel of the Baghdad broadcasted a program in Turkoman for half an hour in a day. Meanwhile, Turkoman Brotherhood Corp made important progress. For instance, they published the first magazine, “Brotherhood Magazine”, with two languages, which are Turkoman and Arabic, in May 1961. Beside these, the life was

not easy for them especially during the Gulf War. The major problem of Turks was with the Kurds. Turkomens were pressured by the Kurds. After the failure of the Gulf War, the Iraq government was weakened. The army thought that Turkomens take advantage of the situation and rebelled. Thus, the army killed approximately a hundred of Turkomens in the morning. After that, most of them left Iraq. About 15 thousands refuged to Şemdinli and Yüksekova, another 5 thousands to Persia (“Islam Ansiklopedisi”, 1999). The other ethnic origin is Chaldeans in Iraq. Chaldean has two references, which are ethnic and religion. The name „Chaldean‟ was first appeared in the Old Testament. Chaldean means that the people who live in Iraq and the region itself. Moreover, Chaldean is used for Nestorians, who joined Rome Catholic Church in 1552. Chaldean Church was not mentioned in the first consuls of Christianity because they were born in Nestorian Church. Nestorians refuse to attach Papa authority; however, Chaldeans accept it and they are also known as Nestorians who accept the authority of Papa. Chaldeans, who live in the east, are the first church that attach to the Papa of Rome in the history. The first theology of schools was established by them. Chaldeans do their rituals with the language of the region that they live; nevertheless, they generally use their traditional language of Chaldeans, which is also known as East Syriac. They have 16 liturgical books for worship, rituals, and general prays. Their reverends wear white sudra with three Red Cross, which is more like the east and west synthesis. Catholic Church has 18 rituals from canonical numbers and one of these rituals is Chaldeans‟ ritual. They have five different type of fasting, which are big fast, followers fast, the mother Mary fast, Noel fast, and Nineveh and abundance fast. Every Wednesday and Friday is also one of their fast types that they do. The Patriarch of Chaldeans is also officially named as the Patriarch of Babylon and lives in Baghdad. Furthermore, the countries; Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Persia and Turkey, are in his jurisdiction. The motif of cross has a significant place in both Church and Chaldeans‟ normal life. Today, they live and have bishopric in

Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk, Erbil, Zaho, Tehran, Aleppo, Beirut, Cairo, Detroit, and Istanbul. The centre of the Patriarch of Chaldeans is in Baghdad since 1947. Their population as whole is approximately 1 million (Gündüz, 2007, p.150-153). Another ethnic origin is Assyrians in Iraq. They were an ancient Semitic people who settled in northern Mesopotamia as early as 3000 B.C. They settled in the upper Tigris River. First, Assur was the capital city, but after they changed it to Ninevah, which is also near to Baghdad. By 625 B.C. Assyrians had established the greatest empire. They had Mesopotamia, most of Palestine and Egypt. They are the first used iron as weapon. They surrendered Ninevah to the Chaldeans, who were assisted by the Medes and the Persians and in a final battle at Carchemish, they were defeated by Nebuchadnezzar. Present-day, Assyrians are a few thousands and they speak Neo-Syriac, a branch of Aramaic. Moreover, Assyrians Islam and Arab civilization affected them and some converted to Islam. They belong to a Christian sect founded by the Patriarch Nestor, which is now the Oriental Orthodoxy. With the emergence of World War I, they located in Turkey, Iraq and Persia. However, after the uprising against Turkish government, most of the Assyrians moved to Russia and Persia. When the Russians collapsed the British helped them and settled about 1 million 500 thousand Assyrians in Iraq. In 1993 some of the Assyrians who live in Syria, tried to return to Iraq, but it did not come true. Later, Iraq army killed about 600 unarmed Assyrians at Simel and elsewhere(“Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa”, 1994). The other ethnicity that I will mention is Mandaeans. They are also known as Sabaens. They are a sect as well as an ethnic group and they live in the towns and villages of lower Iraq. They are mistakenly known by Westerns as “Christians of John the Baptist” since they practice the rite of Baptism. Mandaeans have another name, which is said them by natives, Subba (baptizers). They mostly prefer Mandaeans. They are mentioned in the Quran. They worship a Supreme Being, practice baptism (masbuta) by immersion in the river every

Sunday and special festival days. Mutilation is forbidden; thus, they do not circumstance. Their estimated number is 20 thousands in 1970 and their leader was Sheikh Dakhil of Nasiriyyah (“Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa”, 1994). There are also two ethnic origins, which are Syrians and Armenians. First, Syrians are also known as West Jacobean. Their main lands are in Persia, but little of them can also be seen Iraq. Their effect on Assyrians cannot be underestimated. Furthermore, Assyrians speak Neo-Syriac. The second group is Armenians, who are Christians. Although they live as minority in Iraq, they can be seen in other states as minorities, but Armenians also have their own lands and state, Armenia (Gündüz, 2007, p.145-150). All in all, Iraq is a shelter to many different origins and religions. The main reason is that its fertile soil. Therefore, Iraq has a complicated and still active history. Because of that, there was and are many different origins and religions lived and still live in. Today, its importance not just about ethnicities, but also it is holy for many different religions. However, Iraq has not been in peace since its foundation. Despite all of these, it achieved to keep Arabs, Kurds, Yazidis, Turkomens, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Mandaeans, Armenians and Syrians; moreover, the most widespread religions like Islam, Christianity and Judaism and the little known like Yazidism. I mentioned all of them, but unfortunately there is not enough or detailed information about them. The vivid country of Middle East can be the perfect metaphor to describe Iraq.

References O‟Leary, C. A. (2002). The Kurds of Iraq: Recent History, Future Prospects. Middle East Review of International Affairs , 6(4), 17. Adıvar, A., & Arat, A. (1999). Türkmenler. In Islam Ansiklopedisi (Vol. 19, pp. 99-103). Istanbul: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı. Adıvar, A., & Arat, R. (1999). Yezidiler. In Islam Ansiklopedisi (Vol. 13, pp. 415-423). Istanbul: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı. Brancati, D. (2004). Can federalism stabilize Iraq?. The Washington Quarterly, 27(2), 8. Bruinessen, M. v. (1994). Kurdish Nationalism and Competing Ethnic Loyalties. Kurdish Nationalism and Competing Ethnic Loyalties, 68(69), para. 31. Erkmen, S. (2010). Irak‟ta Işgal Sonrası Siyasal Yaşam ve 2010 Parlamento Seçimleri. Ortadogu Etutleri, 2(3), 111. Farouk-Sluglett, M., & Sluglett, P. (1987). The Shi‟i Opposition. Iraq since 1958: from revolution to dictatorship (p. 192). London: KPI. Gündüz, S. (2007). Süryaniler ve Ermeniler. Yaşayan Dünya Dinleri (pp. 145-150). Ankara: Diyanet Işleri Başkanlığı Yayınları. Gündüz, S. (2007). Keldaniler. Yaşayan Dünya Dinleri (pp. 150-153). Ankara: Diyanet Işleri Başkanlığı Yayınları. Iraq. (n.d.). U.S. Department of State. Retrieved January 8, 2012, from http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/6804.htm Mattar, P. (1994). Mandeans. In Ecyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa (Vol. 3, p. 1479). Boston: Macmillan Reference USA. Mattar, P. (1994). Assyrians. In Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa (Vol. 1, p. 326). Boston: Macmillan Reference USA. Nagel, J. (1978). The Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq. The Conditions of Ethnic Separatism,

37, 13. Natali, D. (2005). Late Imperial Period: Large Political Space. The Kurds and the state: evolving national identity in Iraq, Turkey, and Iran (p. 5). Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press. Ochsenschlager, E. L. (2004). The People of Al-Hiba. Iraq's Marsh Arabs in the Garden of Eden (p. 27). Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Boztemur, R. (2006, Dec. - Jan.). Irak Milliyetçiliği: Toplumsal Bütünleşmede Ordunun Rolü ve Devletin Meşruluk Temelleri. Doğu Batı Düşünce Dergisi (Milliyetçilik II.), 39, 72. Sluglett, P., & Farouk-Sluglett, M. (1978). Some Reflections on the Sunni/Shi'i Question in Iraq. British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, 5(2), 80.