A Genealogy of Aziz al-Sayyid Jasim’s Theorem It is almost impossible to draw a map of Arab intellectual thought without taking into account dynamic participants who contributed to the makeup of this thought. Writers and thinkers across the Arab region have been aware of each other’s cultural production, and on many occasions exchange ideas in meetings, correspondence, rejoinders, and letters to editors. In his book Mafhum al-Hurriyyah (The Concept of Freedom, 1983) the Moroccan intellectual and thinker Abduallah al-Arwi draws on Aziz al-Sayyid Jasim’s book Al-Hurriyyah wa al-Thawrah al-Naqisah (Freedom and the Imperfect Revolution, 1971). He argues that the latter’s thought reminds him of the young Karl Marx and his emphasis on freedom as a dynamic in revolution. Aziz al-Sayyid Jasims’s concern with freedom remains a constant throughout his writings. Even when he tries to elude censorship through historical writings or critical biographies, his preoccupation with freedom as central to the struggle for justice, remains prominent. His intellectual oeuvre displays a three-stage evolution: Marxism and nationalism, a shift from party politics and state pragmatics to individual freedom and democracy, and a move towards faith as the ultimate recourse in a world forsaken by God. This presentation situates Aziz al-Sayyid Jasim’s thought within a highly polarized, and then absolutist Iraqi system (1960-1968, and 1968-1990) and argues how difficult it was for Iraqi intellectuals to produce a sustained theorem under repressive hegemonic discourse.