Confessional factor in the 1920 anti-British uprising in Iraq

The article is devoted to a problem that is little studied in Russian historiography – the study of the influence of the confessional factor in the 1920 Iraqi Revolt, which triggered a change in the British strategy in this mandatory state, as well as in the entire Middle East. Based on the study of academic literature and historical sources, among which the diaries and personal letters of Gertrude Bell, an employee of the British colonial administration in Iraq, occupy an important place, the author highlights the specific features of two closely interrelated issues – British policy towards tribes and the Shi’ite population of the country, and also analyzes the region-wide context in which the Iraqi events developed, that eventually ended in the uprising of 1920. It is noted that revolutionary sentiments in Iraq were fueled by the results of the “Arab Revolt” of 1916–1918 in the Hejaz, the successes of the national liberation struggle against Great Britain in Egypt, as well as events in neighbouring Syria, Iran, and Turkey. The article points to the leading role of Shi’ite theologians (mujtahids) in the uprising of 1920, who managed to consolidate the oppo-nents of the occupation regime in Iraq, temporarily unite the Sunnis and Shi’as, as well as various tribes of the Middle Euphrates during the events of 1920. The author reveals the consequences of the 1920 uprising. The most important were the radical revision of the British strategy in Iraq – the abandonment of the “Indian model” of government in favour of the gradual transformation of Iraq into a self-governing independent state, as well as the return to the Ottoman model of Sunni dominance in Iraq. © 2021, Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.