Encyclopedia of Islam

Twelve-Imam Shiism

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favored building bridges with Sunni Muslims 

with respect to law and doctrine, his success was 

seen as a political threat by Sunni leaders in Saudi 

Arabia, Bahrain, and Iraq. Indeed, these govern-

ments, together with that of Pakistan undertook 

repressive measures against Shii organizations 

and subjects, and Iraq entered into an eight-year 

war of attrition with Iran in 1980–88, supported 

by an alliance of Sunni Arab governments. At the 

same time, although Shii militant and political 

organizations favored the establishment of Islamic 

governments based on the 

sharia

, many did not 

accept Iranian-style rule by the mullahs.

In Iraq, Shii authorities had cooperated with 

the Ottomans in the 19th century to promote 

tribal settlement and agricultural development, 

one result of which was conversion of many of 

these Arab tribes to Shiism. Iraqi Shiis joined with 

Sunni tribes in 1920 to oppose the British occupa-

tion and mandate authority that they established 

at the end of World War I. The revolt failed, and 

the British retaliated by giving the Sunnis political 

dominion of the country and engaging in policies 

designed to alienate Arab Shii ulama from their 

Iranian co-religionists. The rise of socialist and 

Marxist movements in Iraq and Iran attracted 

urban Shii youth, especially after World War II 

and the end of British colonial influence. The 

Iraqi Shii clergy, experiencing a decline in status, 

regarded leftist movements and secular national-

ism with suspicion and countered by organizing 

their own religio-political parties and movements, 

the foremost of which are the d

aaWa

  p

arty

 and 

the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in 

Iraq. These organizations were persecuted by Sad-

dam Husayn’s Baathist government, and many of 

their leaders were imprisoned and executed.

Lebanon became another center of Twelve-

Imam Shii political activism, particularly through 

the influence of a young Iranian Shii mullah from 

Najaf, Musa al-Sadr (d. 1978), who won Leba-

nese Shii support among those who had become 

disenchanted with secular Arab nationalist and 

leftist movements. In 1975 he formed the Amal 

militia, which became a Shii fighting force in the 

Lebanese civil war and which trained other Islamic 

militias, including the Revolutionary Guards of 

Iran. Another Shii militant organization, h

izbUl

-

lah

, superseded Amal in the 1980s and remains a 

leading force in Lebanese politics today. In addition 

to its militancy and political strength, which were 

inspired by Khomeini’s success in Iran, it has also 

become active in providing needed social services 

and financial aid to Lebanese Shiis. It operates one 

of the major Arabic language satellite television 

stations in the Middle East. However, several gov-

ernments, including those of the United States and 

Israel, regard it as an Islamic terrorist organization.

When the United States and coalition forces 

overthrew the Baathist government of Saddam 

h

Usayn

 in 2003, they created conditions that 

made it possible for Iraq’s Shii majority to estab-

lish the Arab world’s first modern Shii state, which 

is now in the hands of competing, and sometimes 

clashing, political parties. The wider Middle East 

region as a consequence is witnessing significant 

Shii political activism and Iranian influence, as 

well as violent confrontations with Sunni govern-

ments and Islamist groups such as 

al

-q

aida

 and 

the  t

aliban

. These conflicts are already spilling 

beyond the Middle East to Afghanistan and Paki-

stan, and they are likely to complicate efforts to 

stabilize the region for years to come.

See also 

aUthority

; 

batin

; 

colonialism

; 

commU

-

nism

; 

constitUtion

; F

adlallah

, m

Uhammad

 h

Usayn

; 

g

hadir

 k

hUmm

; g

UlF

 s

tates

; g

UlF

 W

ars

; 

husayni

-

yya

; 

imam

;  m

UJahidin

-

i

  k

halq

; 

politics

 

and

  i

slam

; 

reneWal

 

and

 

reForm

 

movements

; 

sayyid

; 

tafsir

.