Abdol Aziz al-Hakim

Abdol Aziz al-Hakim
Name	Abdol Aziz al-Hakim
Native name	عبد العزيز الحکيم
Birth date	1 November 1954
Birth place	Najaf, Iraq
Death date	26 August 2009
Death place	Tehran, Iran
Nationality	Iraqi
Occupation	Cleric, politician
Known for	Leadership of Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq

Abdol Aziz al-Hakim was an Iraqi Twelver Shi'a cleric, politician, and leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI/ISCI) who played a prominent role in post-2003 Iraqi politics. He emerged from a family of influential clerics associated with Najaf and Najaf seminaries, became a founding member of a major Shi'a Islamist party, and engaged in negotiations and power-sharing with Iraqi, regional, and international actors during the occupation and transitional period. His career intersected with figures and institutions across Iraq, Iran, the United States, the United Nations, and regional capitals.

Early life and education

Born in Najaf during the Kingdom of Iraq era, he was a scion of a clerical household connected to families prominent in the Najaf seminary tradition, with ties to figures such as Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, Ali al-Sistani, Muhammad Hussain Najafi, Abbas al-Musawi, and Ruhollah Khomeini through ideological and educational networks. He studied at the hawza in Najaf where he took courses in fiqh and usul under teachers linked to seminaries also active in Qom and Karbala. His early milieu included contacts with contemporary clerics like Sayyid Kazim al-Haeri, Abd al-A'la al-Sabziwari, Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr, and students who later became politicians in post-Saddam Iraq such as Nouri al-Maliki, Iyad Allawi, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and Haider al-Abadi.

Religious career and clerical roles

He advanced within the Twelver Shi'a clerical hierarchy, performing roles customary to seminaries in Najaf and engaging with religious institutions including the Hawza, the shrine networks in Karbala and Najaf, and transnational Shi'a organizations in Qom and Tehran. His religious standing linked him to juridical and charitable organizations such as the Islamic charitable foundations associated with the Badr Organization and groups connected to the Iranian Revolution veterans and clerical leadership like Ali Khamenei and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He participated in theological debates and public sermons that intersected with jurisprudential themes addressed by figures like Badi al-Zaman al-Hashimi and legal scholars in the seminaries.

Political career and leadership of SCIRI/ISCI

He was a founding leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), later renamed the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), an organization formed during the Iran–Iraq War era among Iraqi exiles in Iran and linked to actors including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Badr Corps, and political patrons in Tehran. Under his leadership, SCIRI/ISCI developed relationships with Iraqi opposition groups like the Iraqi National Congress, Kurdish parties such as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and international actors including the United States Department of State, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), and representatives of the European Union. SCIRI/ISCI under his stewardship contested elections against parties such as the Da'wa Party (Iraq), the Sadrist Movement, the Iraqi Islamic Party, and alliances like the United Iraqi Alliance, influencing legislative and provincial politics.

Role in post-2003 Iraqi politics and government

Following the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the fall of the Ba'ath Party, he and ISCI became major players in the transitional arrangements supervised by the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council. He participated in constitution-drafting negotiations involving delegates aligned with Jalal Talabani, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Suleiman Al-Khalidi, and representatives from Sunni Arab and Kurdish blocs. His movement's affiliates held ministerial and parliamentary posts in cabinets led by Iyad Allawi, Nouri al-Maliki, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and engaged with security formations such as the Iraqi Army (post-2003) and militias linked to the Badr Organization. He also met with international envoys and diplomats from Washington, D.C., London, and Tehran to negotiate power-sharing, reconstruction, and provincial governance arrangements after elections in 2005 and subsequent political crises.

Views, ideology, and relations with Iran

Ideologically, he advocated a Shi'a Islamist program that combined clerical authority from Najaf with political organization modeled in part on exile movements observed in Tehran after the Iranian Revolution, emphasizing clerical influence in state affairs while engaging in coalition politics with secular and religious rivals. His ties to Iranian institutions and leaders such as Ali Khamenei, Mohammad Khatami, and elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps informed perceptions of Iran–Iraq relations and regional geopolitics involving Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Jordan. He articulated positions on national reconciliation, federalism debates involving the Kurdistan Region, and security arrangements addressing threats posed by al-Qaeda in Iraq, Ansar al-Islam, and other insurgent groups.

Personal life, health, and death

His family included clerical relatives who remained influential in Najaf and factions within ISCI and allied groups such as the Badr Organization; contemporaries and rivals included leaders like Muqtada al-Sadr, Ammar al-Hakim, Adil Abdul-Mahdi, and Iyad Allawi. He suffered from long-standing health problems and traveled for treatment to medical centers in Tehran and other regional capitals, receiving care from specialists connected to hospitals used by political figures from Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council. He died in Tehran in August 2009, after which his funeral and succession dynamics affected ISCI leadership contests and broader Shi'a political alignments in Baghdad, Najaf, and the Iraqi Parliament.

Category:Iraqi politicians Category:Iraqi clerics Category:1954 births Category:2009 deaths