This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 26 UK High Commissioner for Iraq Sir Cox created provisional Iraqi govt in response to 1920 Revolt

1915 UK Mesopotamia cmdr Gen Nixon ordered advance on Baghdad no later than Nov 14

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 25 Jaafar Askari made Defense Min Began creation of Iraqi army

1920 Jaafar al-Askari former Ottoman officer Faisal’s military commander during Arab Revolt

and officer in Arab Kingdom of Syria made Defense Minister Used 10 officers including brother in law Col Nuri al-Said to begin creation of new Royal Iraqi Army

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq Between the Two World Wars, The Militarist Origins of Tyranny)

This Day In Iraqi History Oct 24 – Iraq said it took Khorrmanshahr major city in south Iran Was supposed to be taken in first week of war Took 1 month

1915 UK cmdr in Mesopotamia Gen Nixon told to march on Baghdad Gen Townshend said

he couldn’t advance without more supplies

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

Review David Siddhartha Patel, Order Out Of Chaos, Islam, Information, And The Rise And Fall Of Social Orders In Iraq, Cornell University, 2022

  

There has been some very original work done by Iraq scholars recently and David Sidhartha Patel's Order Out Of Chaos, Islam, Information, And The Rise And Fall Of Social Order In Iraq can be counted as one of them. Patel spent time in Basra City in 2003-04 and 2011 doing research and interviews with locals. He wanted to explain how social order was created in Iraq immediately after the invasion when the government collapsed and the Coalition was barely present. He argues that mosques run by Ayatollah Sistani and Moqtada al-Sadr were able to form community out of their followers where one had not existed before.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 23 UK picked Abd al-Gaylani to be Iraq’s first prime minister

  

1915 UK cabinet ordered UK cmdr Gen Nixon to take Baghdad

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 22 Report Iranian Rev Guard set up crisis cell in Baghdad to put down protests

1920 Iraq High Commissioner Sir Cox asked Jafaar al-Askari to return to Baghdad Would become

1^st Defense Minister Askari ex-Ottoman officer Was Faisal’s military commander during Arab Revolt

PM Zaidi’s Cabinet Almost Completed With New Positions Created For Patronage

  

Iraq’s parliament recently completed most of Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s cabinet. It represents Iraq’s version of power sharing not where parties are to be equals and balance each other out but rather where each winning party gets positions based upon the number of seats in parliament they win.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 21 UK decided to seize Baghdad during WWI Would say would be there temporarily but created Iraq as a British mandate

1914 Ottoman Basra Governor demanded UK withdraw warship from Shatt al-Arab docked in

            Persia to protect oil concession Ottomans began shooting at ship UK agreed

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In World War I, From Ottoman Rule to British Conquest)

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 20 Iraqi forces and Peshmerga fought in Kirkuk in aftermath of Kurdish independence referendum

1922 Interior Min Sadoun told governors to start preparing for parliamentary elections and to

            urge voters to only elect candidates who would back Anglo-Iraq Treat

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 19 Saddam said Iraq couldn’t win Iran-Iraq War because outnumbered

1830 Daud Pasha’s Mamluks assassinated governor sent to replace him in Baghdad Sultan

Mahmoud declared Daud a rebel and appointed another governor

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 18 ISI held march in Ramadi to declare it capital of its caliphate

1920 Najaf surrendered to British in 1920 Revolt Was one of the centers of rebellion

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 17 Zarqawi pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and his group became Al Qaeda in Iraq

1909 Mosul representatives to new Ottoman Assembly left for Istanbul Was part of Young Turks’

reforms

Review Dunya Mikhail, The Beekeeper of Sinjar, Serpent’s Tail, 2018

  

The Beekeeper of Sinjar is full of heartbreaking stories of mostly Yazidis who were victims of the Islamic State takeover of northern Iraq in 2014. Author Dunya Mikhail befriended a Yazidi man named Abdullah who was helping women escape from the militants. He told her of some of the people he assisted. Many of the tales are similar but they need to be told as the community faced genocide during the war.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 16 Govt forces took south Kirkuk and Kirkuk city after fighting Peshmerga Aftermath of KRG independence referendum

1914 UK convoy with 16^th Indian Bgd on way to Egypt told it was being sent to Persian Gulf to

            secure Persian oil fields and occupy Basra

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq In World War I, From Ottoman Rule to British Conquest)

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

Musings On Iraq In The News

  

I was quoted by Paul Iddon in this article “Could the US exit from Iraq fuel an Islamic State resurgence?” in The New Aab.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 15 UN inspectors found Iraq worked on hydrogen bomb

1905 British Amb to Turkey O’Connor sent memo written by Sir Sykes to Foreign Office detailing oil

deposits in Mosul vilayet

Iraq Devalues Dinar Again To Maintain Bloated Govt Budget

  

Iraq devalued the dinar for the second time since 2020. Both times the government claimed this was a necessary reform but failed to bring about any positive results. Rather this is simply a way to maintain the budget.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 14 Oil discovered in Kirkuk

1920 UK military took Kifl railway station Major transportation hub in mid-Euphrates during

            1920 Revolt

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 13 Al Qaeda in Iraq became the Islamic State of Iraq

1920 UK military relief force fought rebels outside Samawa Rebels withdrew during night

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

Iraq’s Oil Revenues Hit 13 Month High

  

As the Iran conflict wanes Iraq has been able to slowly boost its oil exports for the last four months. This is welcomed news for the most oil dependent country in the world.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 12 Dawa Party founded

1920 Tribes lost Rwairij to British during 1920 Revolt Led to clerics in Karbala to begin to surrender

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 11 Turkish Pres Erdogan said didn’t need permission to operate in Iraq Told PM Abadi he needed to stay in his place

  

1920 UK military force set out from Hillah to relieve garrison at Kufa Burned houses of Fatla tribe

along the way during 1920 Revolt

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 10 UK said it was destroying villages in southern Iraq and killing the residents as punishment for 1920 Revolt

1393 Baghdad surrendered to Tamerlane rather than fight and have city sacked

Review Weam Namou, Iraqi Americans Witnessing A Genocide, Hermiz Publishing, 2015

  

Iraqi Americans Witnessing A Genocide by Weam Namou is an attempt to record the author’s response to what happened in Iraq after 2003 as well as how the Iraqi Christian community in Michigan reacted to the war with the Islamic State in 2014. It reads like a journal of Namou’s thoughts on her former motherland jumping from topic to topic.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 9 Nuri al-Said became PM 4th time Went after his opponents imprisoning 100s

1941 Nuri al-Said became PM 4^th of 9 times Went after supporters of former PM Gaylani Purged the

military and civil service Gave prison sentences to 100s

(Musings On Iraq Revolutionary Times, Gen. Qasim And Iraq’s 1958 Coup, Interview With Western Kentucky’s Prof. Juan Romero)

(Musings On Iraq Is Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki More Like Premier Nuri al-Sa’id Than Saddam? An Interview With Historian Phebe Marr)

(Musings On Iraq review The Chatham House Version and other Middle-Eastern Studies)

(Musings On Iraq review A History of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review ‘Independent Iraq’ The Monarchy & British Influence, 1941-1958)

(Musings On Iraq review Iraq’s Democratic Moment)

(Musings On Iraq review Rashid Ali al-Gailani, The Nationalist Moement in Irq 1939-1941)

(Musings On Iraq review The Other Iraq, Pluralism and Culture in Hashemite Iraq)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 8 US UK France sent troops to Persian Gulf after Saddam sent his forces to Kuwait’s border because he felt Iraq was being ignored

1915 UK cabinet met Wanted to move on Baghdad but needed to send another division as reinforcements

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 7 Baathist assassination attempt on Gen Qasim failed

  

1920 UK forces defeated insurgents in Hindiya south of Hillah during 1920 Revolt

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 6 Iraq sent forces to Syria while Iraqi jets in Egypt bombed Israeli targets in the Sinai as 1973 Arab-Israeli War began

1915 Sir Percy Lake new Chief of General Staff in India said UK must take Baghdad because

it would be turning point in war in East

(Musings On Iraq review When God Made Hell, The British Invasion of Mesopotamia and the Creation of Iraq, 1914-1921)

Musings On Iraq In The News

  

I was quoted in this article “A New Chapter for Sinjar” by Wladimir van Wilgenburg for the Kurdish Center for Studies.

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 5 King Faisal accepted Anglo-Iraq Treaty that put Iraq under British hegemony for decades

1915 6^th Army created by Ottomans under command of German Gen von der Goltz to defend

Mesopotamia from British

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 4 Saddam ordered unilateral ceasefire in Iran-Iraq War 2 wks in as invasion plans went wrong

1920 All of Upper Euphrates modern day Anbar was under British control during 1920 Revolt

(Musings On Iraq review Reclaiming Iraq, The 1920 Revolution and the Founding of the Modern State)

(Musings On Iraq review Enemy On The Euphrates, The Battle For Iraq 1914-1921)

This Day In Iraqi History - Oct 3 Iraq gained independence from the British

1920 Gertrude Bell called Shiite clergy a group of popes standing in the way of UK plans Claimed

Shiites were problem in Iraq Said Sunnis should rule Iraq because Shiites would impose a religions state That was why Mosul province had to be included in Iraq to add more Sunnis Said that British were looking for Iraqi to be new ruler but couldn’t find one so had to pick a son of the Sharif of Mecca

(Musings On Iraq review The Shi’is Of Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell And Iraq)

(Musings On Iraq review Gertrude Bell, Explorer of the Middle East)

(Musings On Iraq movie review Letters from Baghdad)

(Musings On Iraq review The Letters of Gertrude Bell Volumes I and II)

(Musings On Iraq review Desert Queen, The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell: Adventurer, Adviser to Kings, Ally of Lawrence of Arabia)

(Musings On Iraq review A Quest in the Middle East, Gertrude Bell and the Making of Modern Iraq)

Review Hanna Batatu, The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movements of Iraq, A Study of Iraq’s Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba’thists and Free Officers, SAQI Books

  

Hanna Batatu’s The Old Social Classes and the Revolutionary Movement of Iraq, A Study of Iraq’s Old Landed and Commercial Classes and of its Communists, Ba’thists and Free Officers is an all-time classic in Iraqi history. It is one of the early attempts to apply modern social science to the country. Batatu had extensive access to British, Iraqi government, Communist and Baathist papers along with interviews. Not only that it was published in English so it was accessible in the West. His main thesis was that the entrance of European capitalism into Iraq forever changed the economy and politics of the country and shaped the major events up the 1970s when his work ends.