Baghdad till 15 years ago was the meaning of caliphs, odalisques, belly dance, wealth, gold, dates, palms. Then, with the first Gulf war (1991), all TVs started to show us everyday death, atrocity, genocides, conventional and nuclear weapons, dictatorship and tyranny.
I'm an electrical engineer (but now I'm in a different business) and I have worked in Iraq from beginning 1979 till May 1985 when I left the country without advise (but this is an another story). As a consultant for one of the Ministry of Iraq I was able to move freely around the country and to visit all cities and places including the ones forbidden to foreigners. My memories are dated back at the day I left Iraq even if I kept some contacts and I got information from my Iraqi friends. My hope is to be able, one day, to return to Iraq and to Baghdad that I think keeps its fascination despite surely it has lost most of its beauties. I hope also that the war and the terrorist daily attacks didn't and will not damage what I'm going to describe you.
My Baghdad was an assembly of old quarters, dated back few centuries, surrounded by refineries, textile factories, tanneries and food canning factories (but inside not always the activity was the one shown outside the building).
Baghdad is divide in two parts by the Tigris river. On the east side lays the quarter of al-Rusafah, while the one on the west side is called al-Karkh. The old small cities of al-A'zamiya and al-Kazamiyah, that were at north of Baghdad, due to the expansion of the city are now just two quarters of Baghdad.
Baghdad has been founded by Abu Jafar al-Mansur, the 2nd Caliph of the Abbasidy descent, in 762 AD, on the west bank of the Tigris river. Baghdad was surrounded by circular walls and for this reason it was known as the "round city". Between the 8th and the 12th centuries Baghdad became the centre of the Arab civilization. The tales told by Scheherezade (One thousand and one night) give us an idea of the court life under the Caliph Harun ar-Rashid. Also during the Middle Ages Baghdad played an import role in the development of the Islamic world.
During 1258 the Mongolians invaded Iraq killing the last Caliph as well all the inhabitants of Baghdad. Also the city was razed to the ground. A similar situation happened in 1401 when the Tamerlane ransacked the city and slaughtered the population. During the Ottoman Empire, Iraq became a cushion between the Empire itself and the Shiite Iran. At the end of the first world war the League of the Nations (the equivalent of ONU at that time) allotted the administration of Iraq to the English that placed on the Baghdad throne a member of the Hashemite family that got the power with the name of King Faisal 1st. The monarchy kept the power till 1978 when a military coup d'état ended the monarchy establishing a republic. In 1963 the Socialist Arab Party for the Revolution, better known as "Baath", got, but not democratically, the power and Saddam Hussein became the "owner" of Baghdad and the whole Iraq.
The oil boom gave a strong impulse to the expansion and development of Baghdad. And adding this to the Saddam mania of grandeur resulted the decision to raze to the ground many parts of the city, and unfortunately the most ancients. Saddam replaced many mosques and houses in English colonial style with skyscrapers, his own palaces and many monuments celebrating his own egocentricity.
Luckily not everything went lost.
At the outskirts of Baghdad, on an hill now called Tell Harmal but in the past its name was Shaduppum and it was the administration centre of the Kindom of Eshunna, there is still a series of small old buildings. During the excavations were discovered several ancient documents. Some small boards with the inscription of mathematical and geometrical problems that are older than the ones found in Greece. Furthermore it has been discovered the "first laws" older than the ones included in the Hammurabi code.
In Aqarquf, another neighbourhood of Baghdad, there is a beautiful ziggurat which origins are dated back to Babylonian age.
As said before, Saddam Hussein built a lot of monuments and statues to celebrate himself and his victories (unfortunately he never built something to remember his victims). Statues, fountains, tombs as well as a personal mosque. For every construction there is a lot of Italian Carrara marble, Murano glasses and over-abundance of gold. I don't wish to explain them in full detail also because most of them are very flashy. So I will just give you a short list: Monument to the Martyrs of Iraq-Iran war, Monumento to the Unknown Soldier (it is like a big sauce boat floating in the air), Arch of the Victory over Iran (I was quite sure that it was a defeat but may be I'm wrong), Arch celebrating the Baath coup d'état. One of the Saddam architect I was in contact with, one day told me that most of the monuments were designed before the event happened and this can be interpreted as the decision to undertake an action was a necessity in order to start the construction of a specific monument.
Baghdad, the one described in the "One thousand and one night", was a charming city, enclosed by circular walls and with inside mosques, minarets, tombs, one university and the Kadhumain mosque. Every where in Iraq the mosques are huge. The walls are decorated with blue tiles and gilded inscription of Koran phrases. The domes are covered with gold.
Saddam Hussein tried, without success, to "cancel" the "Shiites", so in Baghdad there still are a lot of mosques and other religious places. In al-Rusafah, quarter of Bab al-Sheik (called after the chief of the Islamic school Sheik Abdul Qadir al-Ghailani), there is one of the largest mosques in the world. The name is al-Qadiriya. At the beginning was just a simple Koran school built-up by al-Hanbali; then Sheik Abdul Qadir al-Ghailani, who was born near the Caspian sea, arrived in Baghdad to attend the school. Later he became the chief of the teachers and when he passed away, in 1166, all the people of Baghdad attended to his funeral and the school was transformed to a mosque. Inside the mosque there is the tomb of Sheik Abdul Qadir al-Ghailani. The dome of this mosque is the biggest in the whole Iraq.
The mosque with the tomb of Imam al-A'dham is located between the Abu Hanifa and the al-A'dhamiya districts. Beside the mosque lays the al-Khaizaran cemetery with many Imam tombs. The original mosque has been built in 767 AD but during the centuries it has been enlarged and modified. This mosque is a destination for an yearly pilgrimage for Shiites.
Saddam, of course, built-up also some mosques for his own use and to celebrate his exploits (he used to enter his own mosques surrounded by his centurions (body guards) and carry-on his gun despite the Koran forbids this practice. "Unn al-Mahare" or mosque of the Mother of all battles is located on the outskirts of Baghdad. The four external minarets have the shape oh Kalashkinov rifles while the four inside the shape of Scud missiles. The small lake that is in the front of the mosque represent the Arab world. The Iraqi government spokesman said at that time that the Koran phrases on the wall were written with Saddam Hussein blood (it seems that he donated 22 litres in two years…my feeling is that the blood came from his victims).
I remember that there were projects for more mosques (for one the designated name was "Mosque of Saddam the Great") but I don't know if they have been completed.
Of the old city of al-Kazamiyah remains only the mosque. A very nice building with two domes covered with fine gold and four minarets. The mosque has been built, in 799AD, by Imam Al Kazim. Today is the location of one of the most famous Islamic school in the world.
Don't expect to see in Baghdad museums or art galleries. Moving around the city you can see a two lanes roads alternated by narrow dirty alleys; skyscrapers and half-destroyed houses.
I missed the small tea shop where, at any time of the day, was possible to sip the dark e sweet tea, served in small decorated glasses, while attending a backgammon game.
I missed the restaurants along the Tigris river where, every Friday (the equivalent of our Sunday) Iraqui families used to seat and eat "masquf", a delicious fish from Tigris river similar to sturgeon that was cooked in an unique manner.
I missed this city that was alive 24 hours a day. Even during the Iraq-Iran war, despite of curfew, the lights were on. The Iraqi people wanted to live every minute of their life. I guess it was a reaction against the dictatorship of Saddam.
I missed my Iraqi friends that, one day, I left without say hallo and above all without say thank you.
- rating referred to the time I was there
P.S. I'll write on other Iraqi cities in the coming weeks
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