Roots of the Great Satan: Here is a bit of history. Save it for future reference. What seems to be common thread among them? For the most parts the unrest was initiated on nationalistic grounds and against corrupt regimes that were pro-western in general and pro-US in particular. They took various forms, but the details were almost immaterial. Note how little is available on Khomeini. This is because he and others like him were not major figures; they just inherited the leadership when all else failed. In particular note that Militant Islamism did not claim the field so long as more reasonable possibilities existed. Everything else failed and only the most virulent deadly Islamists remained. If somehow they were destroyed, so long as the core issues of the people are not addressed, a more deadly force will take its place.
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Mussadegh, Muhammad
Related: Iranian History Biographies
(moohäm´mäd moo´sädag) , 1880-1967, Iranian political leader, prime minister of Iran (1951-53). He held a variety of government posts (1914-25) but retired to private life in protest against the shah's assumption of dictatorial powers in 1925. He returned to government (1944) as a member of parliament and quickly established himself as an opponent of foreign interference in Iranian affairs. He successfully fought Soviet attempts to exploit the oil fields of N Iran and led the movement to nationalize the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. He became immensely popular, and after parliament passed his oil nationalization act (1951), the shah was forced to appoint him prime minister. Mussadegh's refusal to negotiate a settlement with the British alienated the shah and members of Iran's ruling class. A political crisis developed, and in Aug., 1953, Mussadegh's government was overthrown by the shah and his followers. After serving three years in prison, Mussadegh spent the rest of his life under house arrest.
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Khomeini, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Related: Iranian History Biographies
(koma´ne) , 1900-1989, Iranian Shiite religious leader. Educated in Islam at home and in theological schools, in the 1950s he was designated ayatollah, a supreme religious leader, in the Iranian Shiite community. Khomeini's criticisms of Reza Shah Pahlevi led to his exile in 1964. Settling in Iraq, Khomeini continued his outspoken denunciations, developing a strong religious and political following abroad, until forced to leave (1978) by Saddam Hussein ; he then moved to France. Following the revolution that deposed Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi , Khomeini returned triumphantly to Iran in 1979, declared an Islamic republic, and began to exercise ultimate authority in the nation. His conservative ideology opposed pro-Western tendencies. Khomeini's rule was marked by the Iran hostage crisis and the Iran-Iraq War .
Bibliography: See biography by B. Moin (2000).
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Banna, Hasan al-
Related: French History Biographies
(häs´sän äl-bän´ne) , 1906-49, Egyptian religious and political leader; founder of the Muslim Brotherhood . He was involved with traditional Islamic education in Egypt. In 1928 he formed the Society of the Muslim Brothers, which sought a return to original religious precepts. As the organization grew and became militant in the 1930s and 40s, Hasan al-Banna was viewed as a threat by the central government. He was assassinated in 1949.
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Nasser, Gamal Abdal
Related: French History Biographies
(gemäl´ ab´del nä´ser) , 1918-70, Egyptian army officer and political leader, first president of the republic of Egypt (1956-70). A revolutionary since youth, he was wounded by the police and expelled (1935) from secondary school in Cairo for leading an anti-British student demonstration. He attended (1937) law school and graduated from the Royal Military Academy in 1938. In 1942, Nasser founded the secret Society of Free Officers, which fought against political corruption and foreign domination of Egypt. A major in the first Arab-Israeli war (1948), he was wounded in action. In July, 1952, Nasser led the army coup that deposed King Farouk . Gen. Muhammad Naguib became the nominal head of the government, but Nasser held power through his control of the Revolutionary Command Committee. In 1954, following an attempt on Nasser's life, he arrested Naguib and became premier of Egypt. In 1956 he was, unopposed, elected president of the republic of Egypt. His nationalization of the Suez Canal precipitated (1956) a short-lived, abortive invasion by Great Britain, France, and Israel (see Arab-Israeli Wars ). When Egypt and Syria merged (1958-61) to form the United Arab Republic, Nasser served as its president. An opponent of monarchical governments in the Middle East, he sent troops to assist (1962-67) Yemenite revolutionaries in their civil war with Saudi Arabian-backed royalists. In 1967, Nasser precipitated war with Israel by dissolving UN peacekeeping forces in the Sinai and blockading the Israeli port of Elat . He resigned from office following Egypt's disastrous defeat, but massive demonstrations of support forced his return. During his period of rule, Nasser instituted a program of land reform and economic and social development known as Arab socialism; the completion (1970) of the Aswan Dam (see under Aswan ) was the crowning achievement of his regime. More than for his material accomplishments, however, Nasser achieved fame for leading the reestablishment of Arab national pride, seriously wounded by many decades of Western domination. In foreign affairs, he originally assumed a neutralist position, seeking support from both the East and the West to bolster his position in the Middle East. After his nation's military defeat in 1967, however, Nasser became increasingly dependent on the Soviet Union for military and economic aid. A pan-Arabist and advocate of Third-World unity, Nasser was one of the most important Arab leaders of the 20th cent.
Bibliography: See biographies by M. Shivanandan (1973) and J. Josten (1960, repr. 1974); P. J. Vatikiotis, Nasser and His Generation (1978); T. Hasou, The Struggle for the Arab World: Egypt's Nasser and the Arab League (1985).
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Faisal II
Related: Middle Eastern History Biographies
(both: fi´sel) or Feisal II , 1935-58, king of Iraq (1939-58). He ascended to the throne on the death of his father, King Ghazi. After a long regency, Faisal attained his majority in 1953. Regarded as pro-Western in his sympathies, he was killed on July 14, 1958, when a revolution led by Abdul Karim Kassem overthrew the Iraqi monarchy.
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Ba'ath party
Related: Middle Eastern History
(bä´äth) , Arab political party, in Syria and in Iraq. Its main ideological objectives are secularism, socialism, and pan-Arab unionism. Founded in Damascus in 1941 and reformed, with the name Ba'ath, in the early 1950s, it rapidly achieved political power in Syria. In 1958with one of its founders, Salah al-Din Bitar, as foreign ministerit led Syria into the ill-fated United Arab Republic (UAR) with Egypt. The Ba'athists, like most other Syrians, quickly came to resent Egyptian domination, and the Ba'athist members of the union government resigned in Dec., 1959. Syria withdrew from the UAR in 1961.
In 1963 a military coup restored the Ba'ath to power in Syria, and it embarked on a course of large-scale nationalization. From 1963 the Ba'ath was the only legal Syrian political party, but factionalism and intraparty splintering led to a succession of governments and new constitutions. In 1966 a military junta representing the more radical elements in the party displaced the more moderate wing in power, purging from the party its original founders, Michel Aflaq and Bitar.
Subsequently the main line of division was drawn between the so-called progressive faction, led by Nureddin Atassi, which gave priority to the firm establishment of a one-party state and to neo-Marxist economic reform, and the so-called nationalist group, led by Gen. Hafez al- Assad . Assad's following was less doctrinaire about socialism, favoring a militant posture on the Arab union and hostility toward Israel. Despite constant maneuvering and government changes, the two factions remained in an uneasy coalition of power until 1970, when, in another coup, Assad succeeded in ousting Atassi as prime minister. Assad, one of the longest-ruling leaders of the contemporary Middle East, and the Ba'athist party remained at Syria's political helm until 2000, when he was succeeded by Bashar al-Assad, his son.
In Iraq the Ba'athists first came to power in the coup of Feb., 1963, when Abd al-Salem Arif became president. Interference from the Syrian Ba'athists and disputes between the moderates and extremists, culminating in an attempted coup by the latter in Nov., 1963, served to discredit the extremists. However, the moderates continued to play a major role in the succeeding governments. In July, 1968, a bloodless coup brought to power the Ba'athist general Ahmad Hassan al- Bakr . Wranglings within the party continued, and the government periodically purged its dissident members.
Since their inceptions the Ba'athist regimes of Syria and Iraq have often been diametrically opposed. Under Assad in Syria and Saddam Hussein (who succeeded al-Bakr) in Iraq, both nations have moved away from Ba'athist principles.
Bibliography: See M. Khadduri, Socialist Iraq (1978); D. Roberts, The Ba'ath the Creation of Modern Syria (1987); R. Hinnebusch, Authoritarian Power and State Formation in Ba'thist Syria (1989). See also bibliography under Iraq; Syria.
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The Foundations of Modern Syria
During World War I the British encouraged Syrian nationalists to fight against the Ottoman Empire. The ambitions of the nationalists were thwarted in the peace settlement, which gave (1920) France a League of Nations mandate over the Levant States (roughly present-day Syria and Lebanon). From this time the term Syria referred approximately to its present territorial extent. France divided Syria into three administrative districts on the pretext that political decentralization would safeguard the rights of minorities. The Arab nationalists angrily asserted that decentralization was also a means of maintaining French control by a divide-and-rule policy.
The French made some concessions after serious disturbances in 1925, which included a rebellion by the Druze and the French bombardment of Damascus. Lebanon was made a completely separate state in 1926, and after long negotiations a treaty was signed (1936) giving Syria a large measure of autonomy. Anti-French feeling continued as a result of the cession of the sanjak of Alexandretta (see Hatay ) to Turkey, completed in 1939. In the same year the French suspended the Syrian constitution, and in World War II they garrisoned Syria with a large number of troops, most of whom, after the fall of France in June, 1940, declared loyalty to the Vichy government. Relations with Great Britain deteriorated, and when it was discovered that Syrian airfields had been used by German planes en route to Iraq, British and Free French forces invaded and occupied Syria in June, 1941.
An Independent Nation
In accordance with previous promises, the French proclaimed the creation of an independent Syrian republic in Sept., 1941, and an independent Lebanese republic in Nov., 1941. In 1943, Shukri al-Kuwatli was elected president of Syria, and on Jan. 1, 1944, the country achieved complete independence. However, the continued presence of French troops in Syria caused increasing friction and bloodshed and strained Anglo-French relations. It was not until Apr., 1946, that all foreign troops were withdrawn from the country. In 1945, Syria had become a charter member of the United Nations.
A member of the Arab League, Syria joined other Arab states in the unsuccessful war (1948-49) against Israel (see Arab-Israeli Wars ). The defeat at the hands of Israel, coupled with serious internal divisions resulting from disagreements over whether to unite with Iraq (and thus form a “Greater Syria” ), undermined confidence in parliamentary government and led to three coups in 1949. Lt. Col. Adib al-Shishakli led the third coup (Dec., 1949), and he governed the country until 1954. A new constitution providing for parliamentary government was promulgated in 1950, but it was suspended in late 1951. From then until 1954, al-Shishakli ruled as a virtual dictator. In 1953 he issued a new constitution establishing a presidential form of government and was elected president.
Opposition to al-Shishakli's one-man rule led to his downfall in 1954 and the reinstitution of the 1950 constitution. After elections in late 1954 a coalition government uniting the People's, National, and Ba'ath parties and headed by Sabri al-Asali of the National party was established; Shukri al-Kuwatli was again elected president. In the following years the Ba'ath party, which combined Arab nationalism with a socialist program, emerged as the most influential political party in Syria. At the same time, in order to offset growing Western influence in the Middle East (exemplified by the creation in 1955 of the Baghdad Pact alliance, later known as the Central Treaty Organization), both Syria and Egypt signed economic and military accords with the USSR. |
