Abstract

This article examines the Shiite ulama's social and economic organization, which established its presence in the Atabāt region, its political and activist groups, and the factors that facilitated their emergence. The research investigates the perception of the Sunni state in the late Ottoman Empire and the reasons behind the spread of Shiism in southern Iraq, which became a dominant power in the region. In doing so, the focus was on the state's reactions to the spread of Shiism, which were analyzed from the Sunni state's perspective. The scope of the research focuses on the period between the Qajar Dynasty (1796) and the First World War. In the early days of the Ottoman Empire, people of different religions and sects lived in the border regions. With the opening of madrasahs and the rise of the ulama, the state turned to a more madrasah-based Islam. The socio-cultural divide between the center and the periphery widened as Sunni authoritarianism gained influence in the center. Some Anatolian Turkman communities became part of the Safavid State. In the eastern part of the empire, this situation was exploited to the advantage of the Safavid Dynasty (1501–1736). Early in the 16th century, the Safavids crystallized Ottoman Sunnism and established Shiism as the official state religion. Thus, the two states engaged in fierce battles as they sought to present themselves as global empires and the sole defenders of Islam. This process influenced the stability of sectarianism in both nations, the legitimacy discourses they employed, and their attitudes in forming their communities. The Safavids continued their theological conflict until 1722, when the Afghans decisively defeated them. The subsequent period saw extensive negotiations regarding the Sunni-Shia war between Mahmud I (1730–1754) and Nadir Shah (1736–1747). However, Shiism was not recognized as a Sunni sect. The conflict between Sunnis and Shiites, which had been absent from the agenda for a long time, entered a new era with the establishment of Shiite ulama as dawah (invitation) centers in Atabāt al-Āliyah (Najaf, Karbala, Kazmiyya, and Samarra) and the rise to power of the Qajar Dynasty (1796-1925) in Iran in the early 19th century. The sources for this research include Ottoman archival documents, British archival documents, and secondary literature on the topic. In the relevant archival documents, it is possible to observe the Ottoman state's Sunni reactions and the Iraqi Shiite ulama's emergence as a dominant force in the region.