Sayyid Ammar al-Hakim ( ar, سید عمار الحكيم) is an Iraqi cleric and politician who led the

Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq The Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI or SIIC; ar, المجلس الأعلى الإسلامي العراقي ''Al-Majlis Al-A'ala Al-Islami Al-'Iraqi''; previously the party was known as the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq ...

, from 2009 to 2017.

Early life

Al-Hakim was born in 1971 in Al-Najaf, the son of

Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim Ayatollah Abdul Aziz al-Hakim ( ; ar, سید عبد العزيز الحكيم; 1952 – 26 August 2009) was an Iraqi theologian and politician and the leader of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a party that has approximately 5% support in the I ...

, who preceded him as leader of ISCI, and the grandson of

Muhsin al-Hakim Muhsin al-Tabatabaei al-Hakim ( ar, محسن الطباطبائي الحكيم; 31 May 1889 – 2 June 1970) was an Iraqi Shia religious authority. He became the leading marja' of Najaf in 1946 after the death of Abu al-Hasan al-Isfahani, and ...

, who led the Iraqi

Marja' Marji ( ar, مرجع, transliteration: ''marjiʿ''; plural: ''marājiʿ''), literally meaning "source to follow" or "religious reference", is a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shia authority, a Grand Ayatollah with the authority giv ...

from 1961. He is a member of the

Hakim family The Hakim family is a prominent family of Shiite Islam scholars from Najaf, Iraq who claim descent from the Islamic prophet Muhammad. They belong to a Tabatabaei branch whose scholarly involvement has revolved around Iraq for centuries. The fam ...

of clerics.

Exile

He went into exile in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

in 1979 with his father after the government of

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolution ...

had executed seven of his uncles and sixty two of his relatives. He attended private schools in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and graduated from the

Islamic Arabic University Islamic Arabic University ( bn, ইসলামি আরবি বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়) is a public university in Mohammadpur Thana of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It operates through a number of ''fazil'' (bachelor) and ''kamil'' (ma ...

in Qom. He taught

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

language,

Islamic jurisprudence ''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh. The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and e ...

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and the science of the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...

at the same university for several years.

Career

He supervises the establishment and management of many organizations, Scientific and Cultural Institution in the exile, including the House of Wisdom for Islamic Science. In 2003 he established the Al-Hakim Foundation under the supervision of his uncle Ayatollah

Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Al-Hakim Ayatollah al-Sayyid Muhammad Baqir Muhsin al-Hakim at-Tabataba'i (8 July 1939 – 29 August 2003; ar, السيد محمد باقر محسن الحكيم الطباطبائي), also known as Shaheed al-Mehraab, was a senior Iraqi Shia Islamic S ...

. The Al-Hakim Foundation later received consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

. Headquartered in Najaf, it is now the largest institution of civil society in Iraq, with over 80 offices in all

Governorates of Iraq Iraq consists of 19 governorates ( ar, محافظة, muḥāfażah; ckb, پارێزگا , parêzgeh), also known as "provinces". Per the Iraqi constitution, governorates can form an autonomous region. Four governorates, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah ...

, and working in the field of humanitarian assistance, development, human rights, and dialogue between religions. The Foundation also oversees several schools, colleges and cultural and scientific centers. The foundation holds numerous symposiums, conferences and social and cultural events, in addition to publishing a number of magazines and specialized publications.

Detainment

On February 23, 2007, he was detained by U.S. forces at a border when he was returning from

for 12 hours and he was released. The U.S. ambassador

Zalmay Khalilzad Zalmay Mamozy Khalilzad ( ps, ځلمی خلیل زاد, prs, زلمی خلیل‌زاد; born March 22, 1951) is an Afghan-American diplomat and foreign policy expert. Khalilzad was appointed by President Donald J. Trump to serve as U.S. Specia ...

apologized for the arrest and stressed that Washington did not mean any disrespect to al-Hakim or his family.

Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq

He succeeded to the leadership of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), a leading Shiite Arab party, on the death of his father,

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim Ayatollah Abdul Aziz al-Hakim ( ; ar, سید عبد العزيز الحكيم; 1952 – 26 August 2009) was an Iraqi theologian and politician and the leader of Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, a party that has approximately 5% support in the I ...

, in 2009. He led the ISCI-led coalition, Citizen Alliance, in the 2014 general elections, gaining 29 seats and becoming the third largest coalition. They joined the government of

Haider al-Abadi Haider Jawad Kadhim al-Abadi ( ar, حيدر جواد كاظم العبادي; born 25 April 1952) is an Iraqi politician who was Prime Minister of Iraq from September 2014 until October 2018. Previously he served as Minister of Communication fro ...

, with senior ISCI member

Adil Abdul-Mahdi Adil Abdul-Mahdi al-Muntafiki ( ar, عادل عبد المهدي المنتفكي, born 1 January 1942) is an Iraqi politician who served as Prime Minister of Iraq from October 2018 until May 2020, hundreds of protestors of ''Tishreen revolutio ...

becoming oil minister. In August 2017, in advance of the upcoming 2018 general elections, he announced his resignation from ISCI and the creation of a new coalition called the

National Wisdom Movement The National Wisdom Movement (Arabic:تيار الحكمة الوطني ''Tayar al-Hikmah al-Watani'') is a political coalition in Iraq that was formed to contest the 2018 general election. It is led by Ammar al-Hakim, who was previously the lead ...

(Al-Hikma). All except 5 of the existing MPs from the Citizens Alliance joined Al-Hikma.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hakim, Ammar 1971 births Living people People from Najaf Al-Hakim family Iraqi Shia Muslims Iraqi Shia clerics