Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi

Who is Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi?

Sheikh Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi was an Iraqi national figure, statesman, poet and educator. A member of the prominent Al-Shabibi family of Najaf he studied religion and literature, and as a young man published poetry in major publications of the Arab World.

He lived from 1889 until 1965, and played a major role for Iraq to achieve independence after World War I. He was the emissary of petitions, letters and messages from Iraqi political and religious figures to Sharif Hussein bin Ali and Faisal I to explain the desire and importance of Iraqis to achieve freedom and independence in 1919.

This was a major step as he publicized formally outside Iraq the desire of Iraq's self-determination and its opposition to British rule after World War I. This was the start of a process that actually led to Iraq's independence on 3 October 1932.

Mohammed Ridha Al-Shabibi also served in parliament from the 1920s through the 1940s and as minister of education in several cabinets. He was elected president of the Iraqi Academy in 1928–1929 and in the 1930s became a member of the Arabic Language Academy in Cairo. He authored a number of books on Iraqi history, the Iraqi dialect, and education.