"Time" magazine listed him as one of its "100 People Who Shape Our
World." Newsweek featured him on its cover under the headline "How
Al-Sadr May Control U.S. Fate in Iraq." Paul Bremer denounced him
as a "Bolshevik Islamist" and ordered that he be captured "dead or
alive." Who is Muqtada al-Sadr, and why is he so vital to the
future of Iraq and, arguably, the entire Middle East?
In this compellingly readable account, prize-winning journalist
Patrick Cockburn tells the story of Muqtada's rise to become the
leader of Iraq's poor Shi'ites and the resistance to the
occupation. Cockburn looks at the killings by Saddam's executioners
and hit men of the young cleric's father, two brothers, and
father-in-law; his leadership of the seventy-thousand-strong Mehdi
Army; the fierce rivalries between him and other Shia religious
leaders; his complex relationship with the Iraqi government; and
his frequent confrontations with the American military, including
battles that took place in Najaf in 2004. The portrait that emerges
is of a complex man and a sophisticated politician, who engages
with religious and nationalist aspirations in a manner unlike any
other Iraqi leader.
Cockburn, who was among the very few Western journalists to
remain in Baghdad during the Gulf War and has been an intrepid
reporter of Iraq ever since, draws on his extensive firsthand
experience in the country to produce a book that is richly
interwoven with the voices of Iraqis themselves. His personal
encounters with the Mehdi Army include a tense occasion when he was
nearly killed at a roadblock outside the city of Kufa.
Though it often reads like an adventure story, "Muqtada" is also
a work of painstaking research and measured analysis that leads to
a deeper understanding both of one of the most critical conflicts
in the world today and of the man who may well be a decisive voice
in determining the future of Iraq when the Americans eventually
leave.
General
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