ABSTRACT
On becoming a state in 1920, Iraq had a population of 2,849,00c1 In terms of absolute numbers, the majority of the population (about 56 per cent) were Shi'a, while the Sunnis (both Arabs and Kurds) constituted around 36 per cent; the remainder were Assyrians, Christians, Jews, Yazidis and other numerically smaller religious and ethnic groups. Most of the Shi'a population lived in the southern parts of the country, while the Sunni Arabs, the Christians and the Jews lived mainly in the two major urban centres (Baghdad and Mosul). The Kurds were concentrated in the north-east region, and the Yazidis lived in the proximity of Jabal Sinjar, fifty miles west of Mosul. As should become clear in the course of this book it was mainly the Sunnis who provided the cadre for the administration of the country. This was due primarily to the relatively advantageous position they held in the country's social hierarchy, which in turn must have been due to the fact that they had been traditionally more urban and therefore more modern than their Shi'a counterpart; a fact that can be attributed, at least partly, to the Shi'as' more conservative religious doctrine.
