Assyrians in Modern Iraq
Negotiating Political and Cultural Space

Examines the role of minorities and identity in twentieth-century Iraqi political and cultural history through the relationship between the state and the Assyrians.

Alda Benjamen (Author)

9781108972345, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 4 July 2024

290 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 1.5 cm, 0.44 kg

'This important intervention enriches Iraq's provincial history by offering multileveled approaches that esteem not only rural-urban migration but also urban-rural mobilities and regionalism, and in doing so, Benjamen reorients the history of ethnoreligious communities beyond marginalization.' Sara Farhan, International Journal of Middle East Studies

Examining the relationship between a strengthened Iraqi state under the Baʿth regime and the Assyrians, a Christian ethno-religious group, Alda Benjamen studies the role of minorities in twentieth-century Iraqi political and cultural history. Relying on extensive research in Iraq, including sources uncovered at the Iraqi National Archives in Baghdad, as well as in libraries and private collections in Erbil, Duhok, and Mosul, in Arabic and modern Aramaic, Benjamen foregrounds the Iraqi periphery as well as the history of bilingualism to challenge the monolingual narrative of the state. By exploring the role of Assyrians in Iraq's leftist and oppositional movements, including gendered representations of women, she demonstrates how, within newly politicized urban spaces, minorities became attracted to intellectual and political movements that allowed them to advance their own concerns while engaging with other Iraqis of their socio-economic background and relying on transnational community networks. Assyrian intellectuals not only negotiated but also resisted government policies through their cultural production, thereby achieving a softening of Baʿthist policies towards the Assyrians that differed markedly from those of later repressive eras.

Preface
Introduction: Identity, Urbanization, and Citizenzhip
1. Assyrians and the Iraqi Communist Party
2. The Role of Assyrians and Communists in the Kurdish uprising (1961–1975)
3. Between Reconciliation and Repression: Baʿthist Policies Towards the Assyrians in the 1970s
4. Compliance, Negotiation, Resistance: Assyrian Press and Popular Culture (1970s–1980s)
5. The Re-establishment of the Assyrian Nationalist Political Movement (1970s–1980s)
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Census Data Tables
Appendix 2: The 'Simele' song
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Middle Eastern history [HBJF1]