Before I deal with the social and political conditions of life and the influence they have had on modern Iraqi poetry, I should like to give a short and general idea of the troubled period of 1900-1918. In this period the Wali was the absolute ruler of the country the vilayet of the Ottoman Empire, and his administration covered internal affairs, including all the economic aspects of life, military service, tribal organisation, police, in short everything apart from foreign affairs which were managed by the central government in Constantinople.