Abstract

The city of Karbala embraced a number of ideological trends which appeared in different forms as a result of the social and political developments; some of these are reformative and calling for the concepts of renewing and modernism, and leaving traditional matters, looking for change and development and forgetting about ignorance and retardation. Those ideological lines was the outcome of awareness in the society in terms of religious, literary and intellectual tendencies, not to mention the pioneering figures in modernism, thinking, and change. Those lines participated not only in changing the social circumstances, but also the political events in Iraq; for they rejected the old traditions and rotten conventions, old teaching systems and the oppression practiced against people in general and woman in particular; the bad economical conditions were all rejected. As for politics and its affairs, the ideological trends found the urgent need to participate in its affairs because politics influences the society, and thus rejecting the political initiations influencing the society negatively. For this reason, politics was an active factor in the programmes of the reforming trends in kerbala.

The phenomenon of reform in kerbala is a natural issue and it needs documentation; for it is the city where the word ”reform” was used by IMAM HUSSEIN PBUH and his martyrdom, let alone that the city is one of science, discussion, and dialogue along with the high academic status and versatile

schools of religion. It had the elite of scientists and thinkers; and as for the scholars of religion and the elite of intellectuals, it had distinctive figures like shaikh Muhamed Bagher AL-Waheed. In this city, there used to be ideological debates and literary and scientific discussions. It was the city which school pioneered the thinking movements in Iraq and shiate all over the world. It had outstanding figures in the field of the reformation movement looking which was for the better and prosperity of the society. The historic event represented by the oppression practiced by the Othman Empire brought about the eruption of the reformation activities along with the international atmosphere (the constitutional revolution in Iran) was a supporting factor for those trends of reformation. This influenced the reformers in karbalaa. The year 1932 witnessed the most prominent historical event in the history of modern Iraq when Iraq joined the international league and that is the beginning of a new era of political events. I wrote this topic because of the following five points. First, the lack of enough academic studies about this holy city; for its history is not completely written in order to cover all the political and ideological developments, not to mention the other sides like translations. Although the city is very important in the history of modern Iraq, I didn’t find enough books about this city in comparison with other Iraqi cities like Najaf which was studied thoroughly.

Secondly, it is necessary to shed light on the ideological movements in the Iraqi cities particularly those having direct impact on the society and the political developments; for it is a pioneering city in the cultural and religious values. Thus, it is quite natural to have the appearance of the ideological trends which try to better the circumstances and knowing the activities of

thinkers, men of letters, intellectuals, and documenting their activities and programmes in academic studies. Third,

encouraging the researchers to write about the history of the holy city of kerbala is one of the reasons, On one hand, and other ideological lines on the other; and the influence of these points in different developments. Along with the encouragement to write the history of Iraqi cities known for their ideological tendencies like Basra, Baghdad, Mosul, Babylon and other cities; and also understanding the relationship among those cities for reformation lines in karbala had a mutual impact along with the awareness in Basra, Baghdad, and najaf which resulted in the making of the history of modern Iraq.

As for the fourth reason, it is showing the role of the holy city in the making of the history of Iraq by motivating part of its society and its relation with other cities, and the appearance of motivation and enthousiacim on the part of reformers in their attempt to approach modernism and change the political reality; and the appearance of a group of reformers who became leaders of the society as they were open minded and knowledgeable and due to this they were responsible for the society, especially after influencing ideological and political developments encountered by the neighboring countries. So, in 1906, it was the city which hoisted the flag of reformatin against the oppression practiced the Othman Empire. The fifth motive is knowing the relation of this city with other Iraqi cities particularly, and its historic weight, in the political and ideological activities. The researcher desires to enhance the values of reformation and the concepts of modernism and explaining them along with their historical role in the making of the events

and reminding people that the city is pioneering in reformation. The study is devided into an introduction, historical preface, four chapters, conclusion, indexes, a list of references, and an abstract in English. The introduction is about the situation in the city and

reformation in the arab world; it is a study about the city and the influences of reformation movements on it. The first chapter is concerned with the concept of reformation, and the internal and external factors that lead to its appearance. The second chapter studied the reformation in kerbala and its ideological aspects like the appearance of kerbalai reformers and their use of their own tools like religious sermon, literature, journalism, in expressing their activities. As for the third chapter, it discussed the way reformation in karbala looked at the social and economical conditions between 1906-1932. This helped in improving the social conditions, moving the society, enlightening it and directing it towards the right path. The fourth chapter sheds light on the role of reformation in the holy city of karbala and the way they look at the political developments between 1908-1932, and because of the Karbalai reformers, their city interacted with other Iraqi cities and became pioneering city in Iraq, particularly as far as the 1920 revolution. As for the conclusion, it shows the main findings reached by the researcher; the indexes were mainly related with the study. The academic problems encountered by the researcher are the diffilculty of writing in the history of ideological movements particularly those dealing with reformation, and the rarity of ideological books dealing with the reformation movements in kerbala .