Shafaqna English- “Atlas of Shia” is a book written by “Rasul Jafarian” in Persian, published in Tehran in 2008. This work, consisting of 743 pages and 12 chapters, aims to present a geographical and historical picture of Shia school of thought in the history of Islam from its inception to the first decade of the third millennium AD. “Atlas of Shia” has won the Book of the Year Award of the Islamic Republic of Iran and has been translated into Arabic as well. Shafaqna International News Cooperation has translated some sections of this book and provided them in English.
Simultaneous with the rise of Marxist–socialist ideologies on one hand and Arab nationalism on the other, the Ba‘ath Party of Iraq managed to seize power through a coup in 1942. However, this power did not fully consolidate in its hands, and only in June 1968 did the party firmly take complete control. In terms of religious policy, the Ba‘ath Party was firstly anti-Islam and secondly anti-Shia. Especially after it entered into border disputes with Iran, its policy was to exclude the Shia Muslims from the political sphere—a continuation of a powerful tradition established in Iraq since the Ottoman era.
The most important Shia authority in Iraq during this period was the Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Mohsen Hakim (d. 2 Rabi-al-Awwal 1390 / June 1970), who, through his cultural policies and his confrontation with both the communists and the Ba‘ath state, managed to mobilize the Shi‘a Muslims. Ayatollah Hakim expanded Najaf’s connections with Arab tribes and began a serious missionary movement in southern Iraq. As a result, the number of Arab students and scholars in Najaf steadily increased.
During this period, the Ba‘ath Party’s policy of suppressing the Shia and limiting their influence became more severe, ultimately heightening sectarian conflict in the country. Most Ba‘ath officials came from Tikrit and other Sunni regions. At the same time, great efforts were made to keep the southern Shi‘a regions underdeveloped.
The Ba‘ath Party faced two major challenges: The Kurds and the Shia Muslims centered in Najaf. The Ba‘athists pursued hostility toward the Kurds more vigorously than before, while also confronting the Shi‘a Islam. In their view, eliminating Najaf’s influence in Iraq mainly required weakening and undermining Ayatollah Hakim, who held the highest Shi‘a authority. A major step in this direction was the expulsion of Iranians, who constituted the backbone of the religious seminary.
The Grand Ayatollah Hakim strongly resisted the Ba‘ath government and even defended the Kurds. However, the Ba‘ath Party did not retreat and continued its hard-line policies. When Ayatollah Hakim passed away on 2 Rabi-al-Awwal 1390 / 11 June 1970, about one million people attended his funeral. Hasan-al-Bakr, then president of Iraq, was also present.
The Ba‘ath Party held a fundamental hostility toward Iran and, by extension, toward Shia Islam. With the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the fear of Shi‘a rising in Iraq, this enmity grew more intense. With the martyrdom of Ayatollah Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Al-Sadr on 09 April 1980—one of the most remarkable Shi‘a thinkers of the modern era—the Ba‘athist hostility toward Iraq’s Shia Muslims became more brutal.
Hizb-ad-Da‘wa-al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Call Party), active since 1958, continued its serious underground struggle against the Ba‘ath regime. At the same time, out of fear of Iran’s growing influence and the empowerment of Iraqi Shia Muslims, the Ba‘athists carried out mass arrests and executions. During the Iran–Iraq War, the Ba‘ath regime also waged ideological warfare against both Shi‘a and Persians, producing books such as Ja’a Dawr-al-Majus (“The Era of the Magians Has Come”), which propagated the idea that Iranian Shi‘a Muslims had never truly embraced Islam.
One of the founders of Hizb-ad-Da‘wa was Ayatollah Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim, who migrated to Iran in 1980. In 1982, together with a group of Iraqi scholars, he established the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), launching a new phase of struggle against the Ba‘ath regime.