Faisal I of Iraq
Before the creation of the Iraqi state, Iraq’s territory belonged to the Ottoman Empire and was divided up into three vilayets (provinces): Baghdad Vilayet (1869 - 1918), Basra Vilayet (1884 - 1918) and Mosul Vilayet (1878 - 1918). Together, these three vilayets were home to a wide variety of different ethnic and religious groups which all lived in relative tolerance under Ottoman rule, although the Shi'i community was largely excluded from administrative positions and the army. After the First World War, the population of the three vilayets were unified into one nation-state under the British Mandate. In line with the ‘Sharifan Solution’, the British appointed a Sunni as king: Faisal I of Iraq. This decision to implement Sunni leadership, despite a Sunni minority in Iraq, created an exclusion of other religious and ethnic groups such as Shi'ites, Kurds, and other religious minorities.