A (Very) Brief History of the Middle East Part 3

I'm back. I hope you've found the posts so far to be informative, insightful, or at least laughably inaccurate. Today let's look at the events post-WWI leading up to the invasion of Kuwait.

The Fall of the Caliphate (WWI), Etc.

I keep throwing the term “Caliphate” around, but don’t know that I’ve adequately explained it, so let me give it a shot. The “Caliphate” is simply the Islamic form of government. They are not advocates of the separation of church and state, and the Caliph, or successor to Muhammad’s authority, is both a political and religious figure. The Sunnis believe this should be an elected official, the Shiites believe it should be an Imam from the Muhammad bloodline.

In the years leading up to WWI (and when I say years I mean years – 15th-20th Centuries) the Caliphate was held by the Ottoman Empire, centered in Istanbul. After the end of WWI (and the fall of the Ottoman Empire) Turkey became a republic and the first president (Mustafa Kemal Ataturk) constitutionally abolished the Caliphate institution.

In the years following the fall of the Caliphate attempts were made to revive the institution, but all were unsuccessful. The nations of the Middle East settled into various forms of monarchy, tyranny, anarchy, oligarchy, democracy, etc. This lasted for decades, with Sunnis and Shiites living in relative peace, though maintaining separate lifestyles and religious practices.

The Iranian Revolution took place in 1979. I touched on this earlier, but will now go a little more in depth. Until 1979 Iran was a monarchy, ruled by a succession of Shahs. The Revolution was a revolt by the urban, educated, middle-class, largely (90%) Shiite majority against corruption, extravagance at the expense of the poor, and the economic and cultural exploitation of Islam by foreigners (ie the west). The revolution didn’t directly call out for a return of the Caliphate, but it did install a Theocratic Constitution (a government informed by Islam).

The majority of leadership in nations surrounding Iran was Sunni (notably Saddam Hussein) and they found the revolution quite alarming. The new Iranian Islamic Republic was calling for an overthrow of monarchies (which most surround nations were in one form or another – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq for all practical purposes) and an installation of Islamic republics. In 1980 Hussein and Iraq, seeking power and regional dominance, invaded Iran to seize the oil-rich province of Khuzistan and destroy the revolution. By 1982 the Iranians had repelled Iraq with an impressive display of nationalist pride, but the Iranian government insisted on destroying the Iraqi’s, resulting in 6 more years of static warfare and reigniting sectarian conflicts.

As an interesting side note, America supported Iraq during this war, fearing the spread of Islamic republics. We provided Hussein with aid, approved $200 million of arms sales, and gave them biological agents (anthrax). Oops.

In August of 1990 Hussein, as power hungry as ever, ordered his troops to invade Kuwait…to be continued.

I’m going to stop here. Call it a cliffhanger. Basically the years to come are complicated, and I’m tired. I’ll be back with a new post on Monday talking about the Anfal genocide, Operation Desert Storm and the years leading up to our current predicament. I know you’re still wondering about that promised who’s who. The best I can offer are my strongest assurances that it is forthcoming. And I bet you’re curious about what the rest of the Middle East was up to during the ‘90s. Glad you asked, I’ll find out. Do we feel a little bit closer to understanding the world around us?

Thanks for reading.