”The Shi`is of Iraq” provides a comprehensive history of Iraq`s majority group and its turbulent relations with the ruling Sunni minority. Yitzhak Nakash challenges the widely held belief that Shi`i society and politics in Iraq are a reflection of Iranian Shi`ism, pointing to the strong Arab attributes of Iraqi Shi`ism. He contends that behind the power struggle in Iraq between Arab Sunnis and Shi`is there exist two sectarian groups that are quite similar. The tension fueling the sectarian problem between Sunnis and Shi`is is political rather than ethnic or cultural, and it reflects the competition of the two groups over the right to rule and to define the meaning of nationalism in Iraq. A new introduction brings this book into the new century and illuminates the role that Shi`is could play in postwar Iraq.