Understanding Iraqi society: Reading Ali Al‐Wardi (1913–1995)

Abstract The present article addresses Al‐Wardi's efforts to study Iraqi society and the foundations he set out to understand Arab society. Al‐Wardi is one of the pioneers of secular intellectuals in Iraq and one of the greatest social thinkers in the Arab world. Al‐Wardi's sociology is a kind of non‐Marxist conflict sociology whose roots can be found in the works of Ibn Khaldun. By reacting to the main issues of his society and conducting research and writing books about them, as a public sociologist, Al‐Wardi provoked many debates and controversies among people and intellectuals. He shows how the foundations of Bedouin culture continue and take on new forms in the modern urban and rural society of Iraq. He considers Bedouin culture to be the foundation of Arab culture. Political repression and censorship in the Baathist regime of Iraq prevented Al‐Wardi from continuing teaching and research and unable to establish a school of thought in Iraq. This issue is considered in the present article under the title of Tragedy of Discontinuity in Middle East sociology. Al‐Wardi's ultimate goal was to develop sociology at the national level and help create an Arab Sociology , which seems to have remained an idea and its future and feasibility cannot be judged.