Description : In this vividly descriptive work, Nicholas Pelham eavesdrops on mullahs and militants, on Presidents and peasants to paint a masterful portait of the passions and politics behind the Middle East sectarian crisis.

Using completely new sources, he offers an inside track on the story of how the Shia took power in Iraq following the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Drawing on his deep personal knowledge of Iraq’s people and history, he explains the cultural and social implications of its shift to becoming a Shia-led state. Talking to shadow sources at the heart of the Shia religious establishment, Pelham shows how the centre of Shia power moved after the invasion of Iraq from Qom in Iran to Najaf in Iraq, and with it from a more spiritual to a more politically active from of Shi’ism. He shows how Sunni reactions to this shift have been exploited by political leaders across the region anxious to contain Iran, creating a dangerously polarised environment in which all manner of personal, political and financial interests are fuelling the fiery opposition between Sunni and Shia.

Pelham, a journalist of many years standing in the region, takes the reader on an unforgettable journey through study sessions, in Iraq’s Shia seminaries, a camel ride in the Jordanian desert and a riot in Gaza City, to show the unravelling of the old Middle East order as it happens, and to make Western readers understand the force with which this unreavelling is being felt in the region, where suddenly a new frontline is opening in every town, city and village.

Contents: Introduction and Acknowledgements • Section 1: Before the Fall • From Trilby to Turbans • Stirring in the Shia Slums • Cracks in the Sunni Bulwark • Section 2: Unravelling Iraq • The Scramble for Shia Succession • Foreigners Come Gobbling • The American Shah of Iraq • The Reconstruction Myth • The Quiet Ayatollah’s Regime-Change • America’s Exiles Carve Up the Spoils • Section 3: Balkanisation of the Broken State • From Baathism to Jihad • The Sunni Arab Emirates • The Local Hero and the Fighting Arm of Hizbollah • Regime-Change and the Baathist Interregnum • The Staying Power of the Shia • The Country Once Called Iraq • Section 4: The Regional Wars of Religion • The Reawakening of Arab Shiism • The Two Stripes of the Arab World: Shia Protestantism and the Sunni Counter-Reformation • Map of Shiites in Selected Countries • Table of Muslim Population in the Middle East by State and Sect • Bibliography • Index

About the Author: Nicolas Pelham has spent 20 years studying, writing and broadcasting in the Middle East and North Africa. He has lived in Damascus, Cairo, Rabat and most recently Baghdad, where he covered the US occupation as a correspondent for The Economist and Financial Times. He now works in Jerusalem as a senior analyst for the Brussels- based think-tank,International Crisis Group.

Target Audience : Scholars of international studies & middle east studies.