State and Sufism in Iraq

Building a "Moderate Islam" Under Saddam Husayn
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-032-11821-5
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 310 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 477 g

Reihe: Routledge Sufi Series

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.

For far too long, the secular and authoritarian Ba'th 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 Ba'thist-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 Ba'th 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.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Jordan, David

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein Politische Studien zu einzelnen Ländern und Gebieten
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Naher & Mittlerer Osten
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Stadt- und Regionalsoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Religionssoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islam & Islamische Studien
• Geisteswissenschaften Islam & Islamische Studien Islamische Gruppen: Sufis

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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 Ba'th Party and its Early Nationalization of Islam 3. Sufis Under the Early Ba'th: 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 Naqshbandi Army and the Legacy of the Ba'th Regime’s Sufi Revival After 2003 Bibliography Index

Über Autor(innen)

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 rijal al-tariqa al-naqshbandiya: The Sufi Resistance of the Former Ba'th Party in Iraq" (2020).