Anticolonial Resistance in the Post-Ottoman Mashriq: Examining the Iraqi Jazirah

Abstract: The anticolonial uprising in 1920 against the British occupation of the provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra marked an unprecedented escalation in resistance and opposition to the colonial forces. While most narratives of this uprising focus on the more significant events across the lower and middle Euphrates, earlier, unsuccessful episodes of anticolonial resistance also emerged in the Jazirah region of north-west Iraq. This thesis situates these episodes of Iraq’s contentious history within their broader regional context. Iraq’s anticolonial resistance did not take place in isolation; rather I contend that it was part of a broader, regional period of uprisings against the European powers that sought to impose a post-Ottoman order on the Middle East. Through a close analysis of events in the Jazirah region, this thesis argues that anticolonial resistance took the form of revolutionary contentious politics. Utilising a spatial history framework that accounts for the liminal nature of the Jazirah region, this thesis argues that the forms of mobilisation were grounded in and shaped by local realities, while the discourses with which they engaged were both nationally focused and evocative of the Arab nationalist moment in their anticolonialism.