Iraqi Revolt Against The British - Background

Background

After World War I the idea of the League of Nations creating Mandates for the territories of the defeated Central Powers began to take shape after the Peace Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The idea was based on the principle that the territories would eventually become independent but under the tutelage of one of the victorious Entente countries. People in Ottoman provinces began to fear the Mandate concept since "it seemed to suggest European imperial rule by another name."

At the San Remo Conference in April 1920, Great Britain was awarded the Mandate for Iraq, (called Mesopotamia in the Western world at the time) as well as the Mandate for Palestine. In Iraq the British got rid of most of the former Ottoman officials and the new administration was composed of mainly British officials. Many people in Iraq began to fear becoming part of the British Empire. It was at this point that one of the most eminent Shia mujtahid, Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi al-Shirazi, issued a fatwa "declaring that service in the British administration was unlawful." There was growing resentment to new British policies such as new land ownership laws, which upset tribal leaders, and especially for the new tax which people had to pay to be buried in Najaf, where Shia from all over the world came to be buried. Meetings between Shia ulema and tribal leaders discussed strategies for peaceful protests but they did consider violent action if the peaceful demonstrations failed to get results.