Iraq’s Shia majority remained subordinate to Sunni rulers for centuries

Evidence

In most Muslim lands, the Shi a were a minority. Even where they became a majority, with the exception of Iran, they remained in a subordinate position. A striking case is that of Iraq, where a Shi ite majority has remained subject to a Sunni ascendancy—to borrow a word from Anglo-Irish history—that can be traced back from the republic regime to the monarchy, the British Mandate, the Ottoman Empire, and beyond into the Middle Ages. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1434

Categorization

• SHARE: The Anglo-Irish ‘ascendancy’ analogy for Sunni rule over Shia Iraq is a sharp comparative point worth sharing with someone working on colonial category transfers.
• XREF: Connects to contemporary Iraq reporting and to broader literature on settler/colonial minority rule (e.g., ‘The Sunni Ascendancy’ as a caste system).