Alawite Praises in Ottoman Iraq: A Study and Analysis

The Ottoman Era is the second period of the Turkish era (or the era of decadence, as some scholars and critics have called it) and it is after the fall of Baghdad in 656 AH, which itself consists of two periods, the first is the Mamluk era and the second one is the Ottoman era. The common saying about calling this age the era of decadence is due to the claim of some literary scholars that the literature of this age, with its two parts, the Mamluk and the Ottoman, is rigid, and has no creativity share in it. But from the point of view of some great critics such as Taha Hussein, this age was not a dark age, and we should not call it the era of decadence. Since this designation may lead to the refusal of literary students to research and delve into the literature of this era, and also this article does not approve of this unfair designation in the field of literary studies and treatments, so it propounds that this specific period coming after the Mamluk era is called the Ottoman era in line with the other historical designations like the Islamic era, the Abbasid era, etc., regardless of whether a judgment, positive or negative, was issued in it. What is important for this article is that every literary historical era, whatever it is, is distinguished by its special characteristics not shared with other eras. What is noticeable in this era is the flourishing of religious literature and the religious feature that surrounded many of the literary effects and productions in the Mamluk and Ottoman eras. In the literature of the Turkish era, especially the literature of the Ottoman era, a lack of research is noticeable on Arabic literature during this period for some reasons. Among the salient features of the literature of this period is that it is imbued with religious flavor and is flourished regarding prophetic praises, including praises of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the infallible Imams (pbut), by some poets who composed great poems about them. Therefore, this article, adopting a descriptive-analytical methodology, aims to characterize the period known as Ottoman Iraq. It also analytically examines most of the prophetic praises and their content addressed by Iraqi poets in general, and Alawite praises in particular, in the Ottoman period to answer the following questions:1) What are the contents used in the Alawite praises of the poets of Ottoman Iraq? 2) What is the main focus of Iraqi Sunni poets in praise of Imam Ali (pbuh) during the Ottoman era? 3) What dimension of the personality of Imam Ali (pbuh) received increasing attention in the Alawite praises of Iraqi poets during the Ottoman period? Some of the most important findings of this article are as follows: poets of the Ottoman Iraq, both Shiites and Sunnis, often compiled Alawite poems that contained contents including: songs about the land of the holy city of Najaf, speeches about the mandate of Imam Ali (pbuh) and the day of al-Ghadeer, and his character and moral virtues. Furthermore, it is impossible or at least difficult for us to prefer some of the virtues and merits of Imam Ali (pbuh) over others in the Alawite praises of the Iraqi poets of the Ottoman period. Also, among the poets of Ahl al-Sunnah whose poems we have studied and analyzed in this article are Abd al-Husayn al-Azri and Abd al-Baqi al-Omari, who composed the virtues of Imam Ali (pbuh). From Al-Omari’s point of view, Imam Ali (pbuh) is the supporter of truth and his assistant, and he is brighter than the sun, which is no doubt about him but he is the same as certainty. In addition to what Al-Azri composed about Imam Ali’s (pbuh) knowledge and his justice, he believes that after the martyrdom of Imam Ali (pbuh), Muslims not only lost him, but also lost his justice too as it appears that Caliph Umar acknowledged Ali’s (pbuh) justice in many places that it was difficult for him, so he always resorted to Ali’s justice in various cases. The poet then deals with the asceticism of Imam Ali (pbuh) as his asceticism did not prevent him from participating in the war and his heroism in it. There are many other topics covered by the poets which indicate their love for Ali (pbuh) even though they are Sunnis. These contents, along with other studies in this field, suffice for us to prove this claim that the love of Ali (pbuh) affects all hearts, centuries, religions and sects.