Sadr

Sadr may refer to:

Sadr City

Sadr City (Arabic: مدينة الصدر‎ - Madinat aṣ-Ṣadr) formerly known as الثورة and Saddam City, is a suburb district of the city of Baghdad, Iraq. It was built in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim and later unofficially renamed Sadr City after Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.

Sadr City (or more accurately Thawra District — Arabic: حيّ الثورة‎ - ħayy ath-Thawra) is one of nine administrative districts in Baghdad. A public housing project neglected by Saddam Hussein, Sadr City holds around 1 million residents.

History

Sadr City was built in Iraq in 1959 by Prime Minister Abdul Karim Qassim in response to grave housing shortages in Baghdad. At the time named Revolution City (مدينة الثورة "Al-Thawra"), it provided housing for Baghdad's urban poor, many of whom had come from the countryside and who had until then lived in appalling conditions. It quickly became a stronghold of the Iraqi Communist Party, and resistance to the Baathist-led coup of 1963 was strong there.

In 1982, the district was renamed Saddam City. After the foreign occupation of Baghdad in April 2003, the district was unofficially renamed Sadr City after deceased shiite leader Mohammad Mohammad Sadeq al-Sadr.

Muqtada al-Sadr

Muqtadā al-Ṣadr (Arabic: سيد مقتدى الصدر; born 12 August 1973) is an Iraqi Islamic popular leader.

Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr is one of the most influential religious and popular figures in Iraq, despite not holding any official title in the Iraqi government. He is the leader of a political party, the Sadrist Movement.

Titles

He is of the prominent Sadr family originating from Jabal Amel in Lebanon but later settled in Najaf, his father-in-law being Mohammad Baqir al-Sadr. He is often referred to as Sayyid Muqtada al-Sadr. The title Sayyid ("Mr." or "Sir") is generally used among Shi‘a Muslims related to Mohammed through his daughter Fatimah's marriage with Ali. Thus, a great deal of respect is paid by the Shiite Muslims to the Sayyids throughout society.

Western media often refer to Muqtada al-Sadr as a "anti-american" or "radical" cleric, but his formal religious standing is comparatively low, at a mid-ranking Shia religious rank perhaps reflecting his youth, and he does not claim the title of mujtahid (the equivalent of a senior religious scholar) or the authority to issue fatwas. In early 2008, however, al-Sadr was reported to be studying to be an ayatollah, which would greatly improve his religious standing.