While Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr has often been portrayed as a fundamentalist or sectarian Islamist, this study repositions the scholar as a revolutionary Shi'i modernist and a critical figure in global intellectual history. Drawing on a range of previously neglected primary sources, Rachel Kantz Feder explores how Sadr synthesized Islamic tradition with Marxist thought, Arab modernism, and global leftist critiques to articulate a distinct vision of religious, political, and cultural renewal. Set against the backdrop of mid-20th century Iraq, the book situates Sadr within broader Arab and Islamic debates on modernity, nationalism, and state-building. It demonstrates how Sadr challenged both secular ideologies and clerical conservatism to promote popular sovereignty, social justice, and individual agency within an Islamic framework. Offering fresh insights into Islamic reform, Shi'i thought, and Cold War-era Arab intellectual history, this is an essential work for scholars and students of Islamic studies, Middle East history, political theology, and religious modernism.

‘A most impressive accomplishment, insightful and illuminating. In Revolutionary Shi'i Modernism in Iraq, Kantz Feder offers an entirely new reading of the life and work of Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr, the most influential Shi'i Iraqi intellectual of the second half of the twentieth century until today. Deconstructing conventional narratives which presented al-Sadr through the narrow lens of Islamic fundamentalism, Kantz Feder presents him as an Islamic modernist, reformist who engaged intensively with Western philosophies and scientific methods, Marxism, nationalism, and democracy. Even following his execution in 1980, he left behind a rich intellectual legacy which became the primary reservoir for Shi'ite thought and activity in Iraq after 2003. A must-read for anyone who seeks to understand contemporary Iraq.’

Israel Gershoni - Tel Aviv University

‘This book is fascinating. It is by far the best work on Muhammad Baqir al-Sadr that exists and is one of the best intellectual histories that I have read on an Islamic thinker recently. It will make an important impact in fields of Middle Eastern intellectual history, religion and politics, and most importantly in history of Iraq and the Shia.’

Samuel Helfont - U.S. Naval War College