A Shi'a Debate on Arabism: The Emergence of a Multiple Communal Membership

This article evaluates the approach of Shi'i clerics of Arab origins towards Arabism, concentrating on the writings of Muhammad Husayn Kāshif al-Ghitā' (c. 1876/1877-1954), the prominent Iraqi mujtahid of his time. Arabism was a key component of the Iraqi Shi'is' cultural heritage. Yet in the transition to the twentieth century, Shi'i affiliation with Arabism signalled a more multiple sense of group membership, in a new interplay between a core sectarian identification and an emerging interaction with Iraqi nationalism, Arabism and pan-Islam. Kāshif al-Ghitā' invested Arabism with a new understanding as a bridge towards the wider Arab-Muslim society and as a manifestation of a nascent sense of political activism among Shi'i clerics. Consequently, Kāshif al-Ghitā' illustrated how an emphasis on a shared progressive worldview could-in theory-lead to a transformation in inter-communal dynamics.