| The Ottoman Empire occupied the provinces of Mosul,Baghdad and Basra in the16 th century,thus beginning four centuries of rule over the Iraqi region.In the first two centuries,the Ottoman Empire was not able to exercise effective rule in Iraq due to the constant border conflicts with the Persian Safavid dynasty until the Treaty of Zuhab was signed in 1639,which defined the border between the two countries,but the Persian Safavid dynasty still invaded the Iraqi region four times between 1732 and 1743.For the Ottoman Empire,the Iraqi region was the front line of its border conflict with the Persian Empire,and by the mid-18 th century,border security was gradually achieved without the need to spend money on it.The Ottoman Empire,which valued the Balkans and Anatolia more than anything else,was overwhelmed by the high administrative costs of running Iraq,and used local celebrities to rule indirectly because of the remoteness of the region and the fact that Baghdad was no longer in its former glory.In the 1830 s,Sultan re-established his authority in the three Iraqi provinces and then extended the modern reforms of Tanzimat to Iraq,thus beginning the Empire’s direct rule over Iraq.In the process of restoring imperial dominance and establishing its authority,Iraq’s powerful tribal organizations became a major obstacle to modernization and reform.The existence of these semi-autonomous tribes was seen by the empire as a permanent threat to law and order,a resistance to tax collection and conscription,and an obstacle to the establishment of effective governmental authority.To deal with the tribal problem,the Ottoman Empire sent dozens of governors to address the Iraqi tribes,proposing solutions and implementing tribal policies,which were honey-coated poison or,one might say,carrots with sticks.The frequent change of governors made it difficult to sustain the tribal policies of the empire.The policies of different governors vary greatly,either from the direction of the tribal Sheikh,bribing the tribal Sheikhs,stirring up animosity between the tribal Sheikhs and the tribesmen;or focus on creating inter-tribal,internal and external conflicts;the most important of which is the land reform and tribal settlement policy implemented by Midhat Pasha,which has dealt a heavy blow to the tribal structure.After the short years of Midhat’s tenure,which injected fresh energy into the modernization and reform of Iraq,Sultan Hamid II abolished the proven tribal policies in order to achieve autocracy,used the new land policy to occupy land and enrich himself,and pursued a policy of pan-Islamism among tribes in response to the Shiite tribal issue.It is important to mention that when these reform policies failed,the Ottoman Empire often fought with the tribes.In the second half of the 19 th century,conflicts between the government and the tribes were frequent,and the cohesion of tribes such as the Shamar,Muntafiq,and Hamawand was greatly weakened.After the polishing and remediation of Ottoman policies,Iraqi tribes ceased to have a purely tribal identity,but retained their tribal identity while integrating into the modernization process and playing an important role in the construction of the modern Iraqi state. |
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