| 1915 uprising in Karbala | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the Mesopotamian Campaign | |||||||||
 Aerial view of Karbala, 1918 | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
Rebels
|  Ottoman Empire | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| No centralized leadership | Unknown | ||||||||
  Location within Iraq | |||||||||
The 1915 uprising in Karbala was an Arab uprising against the Ottoman Empire that took place in June 1915.
Earlier, the Ottoman defeat in the Battle of Shaiba had damaged the authority of the Ottomans in the eyes of the Arabs, [1] and this was exacerbated by the successful ousting of the Ottomans in an uprising in Najaf, which showed the residents of Karbala the potency of a revolt, which they were willing to participate in since the Ottomans had been plundering food, money, and possessions from Karbalans to support the war effort. [2] Emissaries from Najaf had also begun encouraging an uprising in Karbala. [3] The successful ousting of the Ottomans in Najaf had also turned a potential revolt into a matter of civic pride: popular rhetoric included questions such as "Are the people of Najaf better than us, or braver, or more manly?". [4]
The uprising began on 27 June 1915, [5] when the Bani Hasan tribe attacked government buildings in Karbala. [6] Ottoman deserters were also amongst the rebels. [4] The rebel tribesmen, lacking any centralized leadership, [2] burned municipal buildings, government schools, a hospital, and 200 dwellings in the suburbs, most of them belonging to Persians living and trading in the Arab community. [5] Charles R. H. Tripp notes that although the uprising was anti-Ottoman in a broad sense, it was not in support of the British war effort and instead intended to grant the city higher administrative autonomy. [7] The uprising ended with an Ottoman withdrawal, securing a rebel victory and Karbala's independence from the Ottoman Empire. [6]
After becoming independent from the Ottoman Empire, Karbala turned into a place of refuge for Ottoman deserters. [6] However, Karbala suffered from a lack of centralized leadership, and was unable to establish contact with the British forces to the south due to tribes still loyal to the Ottoman Empire separating them. [6] The Ottoman Empire re-established control of Karbala in 1916 following their victory in the Siege of Kut. [6]
Iraq, a country located in West Asia, largely coincides with the ancient region of Mesopotamia, often referred to as the cradle of civilization. The history of Mesopotamia extends back to the Lower Paleolithic period, with significant developments continuing through the establishment of the Caliphate in the late 7th century AD, after which the region became known as Iraq. Within its borders lies the ancient land of Sumer, which emerged between 6000 and 5000 BC during the Neolithic Ubaid period. Sumer is recognized as the world’s earliest civilization, marking the beginning of urban development, written language, and monumental architecture. Iraq's territory also includes the heartlands of the Akkadian, Neo-Sumerian, Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian, and Neo-Babylonian empires, which dominated Mesopotamia and much of the Ancient Near East during the Bronze and Iron Ages.
Najaf or An-Najaf or Al-Najaf or An-Najaf al-Ashraf, is the capital city of Najaf Governorate in central Iraq about 160 km south of Baghdad. Its estimated population in 2024 is about 1.41 million people. It is widely considered amongst the holiest cities of Shia Islam and one of its spiritual capitals, as well as the center of Shia political power in Iraq. It is the burial place of Muhammad's son in law and cousin, ‘Alī ibn Abī Tālib. It is a major pilgrimage destination for Shia Muslims. The largest cemetery in the world (Wadi-us-Salaam) and the oldest Shi'a Islamic seminary in the world are located in Najaf.
Karbala or Kerbala is a city in central Iraq, located about 100 km (62 mi) southwest of Baghdad, and a few miles east of Lake Milh, also known as Razzaza Lake. Karbala is the capital of Karbala Governorate, and has an estimated population of 691,100 people (2024).
Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became highly influential to British imperial policy-making as an Arabist due to her knowledge and contacts built up through extensive travels. During her lifetime, she was highly esteemed and trusted by British officials such as High Commissioner for Mesopotamia Percy Cox, giving her great influence. She participated in both the 1919 Paris Peace Conference (briefly) and the 1921 Cairo Conference, which helped decide the territorial boundaries and governments of the post-War Middle East as part of the partition of the Ottoman Empire. Bell believed that the momentum of Arab nationalism was unstoppable, and that the British government should ally with nationalists rather than stand against them. Along with T. E. Lawrence, she advocated for independent Arab states in the Middle East following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and supported the installation of Hashemite monarchies in what is today Jordan and Iraq.
The Arab Revolt, also known as the Great Arab Revolt, was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I.
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The Iraqi War of Independence or Great Iraqi Revolution began in Baghdad in the summer of 1920 with mass demonstrations by Iraqis, including protests by embittered officers from the old Ottoman Army, against the British who published the new land ownership and the burial taxes at Najaf. The revolt gained momentum when it spread to the largely tribal Shia regions of the middle and lower Euphrates. Sheikh Mehdi Al-Khalissi was a prominent Shia leader of the revolt. Using heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, the uprising was suppressed by the British.
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The 1991 Iraqi uprisings were ethnic and religious uprisings against Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq that were led by Shia Arabs and Kurds. The uprisings lasted from March to April 1991 after a ceasefire following the end of the Gulf War. The mostly uncoordinated insurgency was fueled by the perception that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had become vulnerable to regime change. This perception of weakness was largely the result of the outcome of the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, both of which occurred within a single decade and devastated the population and economy of Iraq.
The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of October 1922 was an agreement signed between the British and Iraqi governments. The treaty was designed to allow for Iraqi self-government while giving the British control of Iraq's foreign policy. It was intended to conclude an agreement made at the Cairo Conference of 1921 to establish a Hashemite Kingdom in Iraq.
The Mamluk dynasty of Mesopotamia was a dynasty of Georgian Mamluk origin which ruled over Iraq in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Shia Islam in Iraq has a history going back to the times of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first imam of Shia Islam and fourth caliph of Sunni Islam who moved the capital of the early caliphate from Medina to Kufa two decades after the death of Muhammad. In 2015, Shia Muslims made up around 68% of the Iraqi population. Iraq is the location of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, pilgrimage sites for millions of Shia Muslims.
The 1935 Rumaytha and Diwaniyya revolt or the 1935–1936 Iraqi Shia revolts consisted of a series of Shia tribal uprisings in the mid-Euphrates region against the Sunni dominated authority of the Kingdom of Iraq. In each revolt, the response of the Iraqi government was to use military force to crush the rebellions with little mercy. The administrative task of this forceful disciplining of the Shi'a tribes fell to General Bakr Sidqi
The Battle of Shaiba took place during World War I fought between British and Ottoman forces, the latter trying to retake the city of Basra from the British.
The Karak revolt was an uprising against Ottoman authority in the Transjordanian town of Al-Karak, which erupted on 4 December 1910. The revolt came after Sami Pasha, the governor of Damascus, wanted to apply the same measures of conscription, taxation, and disarmament to the inhabitants of Al-Karak that previously provoked the Hauran Druze Rebellion.
The Shoubak revolts were a series of uprisings against Ottoman authority in the Transjordanian town of Shoubak that took place in 1900 and 1905. The second uprising started after the Ottoman forces started to put women of the town into forced labor, considered to be a deliberate act of punishment against the inhabitants of Shoubak who were frequently insubordinate. Shoubak rose in revolt and managed to rally the neighboring Bedouins with them; the perpetuators were brutally punished by military force through an Ottoman expedition sent from Al-Karak, just north of Shoubak.
The Oudh Bequest is a waqf which led to the gradual transfer of more than six million rupees from the Indian kingdom of Oudh (Awadh) to the Shia holy cities of Najaf and Karbala between 1850 and 1903. The bequest first reached the cities in 1850. It was distributed by two mujtahids, one from each city. The British later gradually took over the bequest and its distribution; according to scholars, they intended to use it as a "power lever" to influence Iranian ulama and Shia. The attempts by the British to disburse the Oudh Bequest was one of the principle causes of the rise of the Society of Islamic Revival in 1918.
The siege of Najaf was an engagement between the British Army and Iraqi rebels in the city of Najaf during the First World War. The city had fallen under the control of four sheikhs in 1915 after an anti-Ottoman uprising, and was put under British control in 1917. In 1918, as it became clear that the British were aiming to occupy rather than liberate Iraq, an anti-British movement named Jam'iya al-Nahda al-Islamiya was formed in Najaf to oppose British rule. The uprising began on 19 March when a British officer, William M. Marshall was murdered in the citadel of Najaf. The British subsequently laid siege to the city on 23 March, cutting all supply routes to the city before it ultimately surrendered on 4 May 1918. Rebel leaders were sentenced to death on 25 May. The siege is often seen as a precursor to the 1920 Iraqi Revolt. The extent of the rebellion's impact on the development of Iraqi nationalism is disputed.
The 1916 uprising in Hilla or the Akif incident was an Arab uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1916.
Mudbir al-Far'un was a chieftain of the al-Fatlah tribe who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in 1913. British records describe him as having been "one of the best-known men on the Euphrates" in the 1910s.
emissaries from Najaf encouraged similar rebellions in Karbala and nearby Hilla, also predominantly Shi'i.
