Baghdad: More Than 50 Years Ago

Big Celebrations in Al Adhamiyah

I just had many flash-backs of the old days when I was there, like many I was seeing on television celebrating today the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammed. Sometimes I used to go with a group of friends, another time / another year I used to go with the male cousins, another time on another year I used to take the whole family and we meet with other relatives and friends there. Women, old and young carrying lighten candles, which became a ritual on that day for many to do. Some parents used to buy new clothes for their children, like it was Eid ul-Fitr or Eid al-Adha.

I love the look on people faces then; it used to be joy for some, obedience for others, happiness was the most obvious look. It used to be the moment when people gather from different areas and neighborhood of Baghdad to Al Adhamiyah.

Today the authorities closed the bridge linking Al Adhamiyah and Al Kadhmiyah from cars crossing through between the two neighborhoods. However, pedestrians was included and many from different ages were seen crossing and approaching the site of the celebrations.

The only difference from the old days is that today were a number of passing military barrages in between the thousands of people, and the presence of heavy security. I am delighted to see old and new Iraq comes as one in my eyes and my mind.

Most, if not all of the people interviewed by Iraqi TV stations expressed their relief because of the security. Most of the people, if not all were emphasizing on reconciliation among all Iraqis and that Iraq return to the old days when no different between Shi’a and Sunni or any other ethnic or religious group. I loved the fireworks shot by people to the bright sky, loved the young and old reading poems expressing a feeling of joy on that day.

Al Adhamiyah is bright again, not with big lights surrounding Abu Hanifa mosque and the surrounding, but the brightness and the beauty came from the people celebrating on this blessed day.

Congratulations to all Muslim everywhere and Congratulations to all Iraqis

Central Railway Station in Baghdad

Central Railway Station - Baghdad 1959

Central Railway Station - Baghdad 2003

I have been a number of times to this station, I even mentioned that in on one of my trips when I traveled to the beautiful northern city of Mosul with friends from the neighborhood.

As someone put it "Every single man served in the Iraqi army knows this station".

Baghdad Central Railway station is one the distinguished symbols in Baghdad, one of many in lasting love, Iraq.

Painting Of Old Iraq

Image by: Afghan

Al Rasheed Street

Al Rasheed Street used and still one of the main centers in Baghdad, where retail storage spaces, cafés and restraunts, small and big shops, private and government services buildings, clinics, pharmacies, photography studios, laboratories, record shops, sawing factories, and many more of every profession one can imagine, all interlaced within each other. The same goes for the masses of people of different ages and gender walking on each side of the street, and the hundreds of cars drove by side by side dead slow - from ancient cars (like the Russian Volga) to the most luxurious Alpha Romeo. Any visitor can acknowledge that Al Rasheed Street is just one perfect example of random society classes in one place; where the extremely poor can be seen as well as the lavish rich. There was also time when movie theaters used to show the latest Arab and Western movies, where families became regular visitors to these theaters, but this has been gradually diminished over the years to the level of showing what it used to be called "film every 15 minutes" for teens from surrounding public areas and soldiers from military units located around the capital, who used to seek a cool place so they can have some sleep during the bloody hot summer days. Thus, no interest if the star in the film gets killed or he discovers that the old women found in the abandoned village is in fact his forgotten aunt from childhood!!

The origin of Al Rasheed Street goes back to the Ottoman era who ruled Iraq from 1534 to 1918. During that time, the only known public street in Baghdad was Al Naher Street (Shari al-Naher), which was constructed in 1910, during the rule of Nazim Pasha (1848 - 1912), who governed Baghdad twice: the first in 1908, and the second for 11 months between 1910 and 1911. Al Naher means River - the street is stretching few kilometers along the east banks of the river Tigris and this might be the reason behind its name. However, people used to call the narrow Shari al-Naher with other names, such as Gold Street, because of the countless number of goldsmith and jewelry shops spread on both sides, and Girls’ Street, because the majority of the street’s visitors were females from different ages.

After the defeat of the British by the Ottomans on the 29th of April 1916 in Kut (south of Baghdad), where tens of thousands of Anglo-Indian troops dead or wounded, and thousands more taken prisoners, including their commander, Sir Charles Townshend (It is regarded by many historians as the biggest humiliation in British military history), the military governor of Baghdad, Khalil Pasha (1864 – 1923), decided to honor this victory by giving orders to build the first ever "real" street in Baghdad. Work began in May 1916, after the head of Baghdad’s municipality, Ra’ouf Al Chadirchy met with owners of houses to pay them compensations for the demolition of their houses which will be demolished. The way that street was constructed in the planning phases was very primitive and strange: a long rope was put through on top of the houses from the beginning to the end. Some people sighted the laying robe over the roof of their house as a catastrophe; hence, the rope has been thrown many times from the roof of one house to the other. There were more problems, though: there was the burial place of a religious Imam Taha (where the statue of poet Ma'rouf Al Risafi now stands) and the wall of Haider Khana Mosques. Both were dealt with: The wall was demolished in the middle of the night, and the remains of the Imam Taha also has been extravagated and moved to Salman Pak (west of Baghdad) in the middle of the night.

The street was first opened for the public on July 23, 1916 (the anniversary of declaration of the country’s constitution). The first name given to the street was by Khalil Pasha who named the street “Jadde Si”. The name of the street was written then on a ceramic plate and put on the main wall of Sultan Ali Mosque till mid fifties of the last century. For almost a year, the street was badly maintained, filled with dust, mud, and holes untill the British seized Baghdad on 11 March 1917, when a decision was made to reconstruct the street. The British paved the street and gave it a new name: "New Street" (Al Sahri Al Jadeed). However, the Baghdadis preferred to call it "the Main Street" (Al Jadde Al Umomiyeh).

During the 1920s, people began to identify regular passers and visitors, such as cars where prostitutes sitting in the backseat their covered head - The government during that time made an order that every prostitute must cover their head and body with the common black robe (Abaya, in Arabic) and wear dark blue soaks to diffrintiate them from other women. In the 1930s Baghdadis got used to see every afternoon twice a day two big black Buick seven seats drive by: one of them belonged to the famous estates owner Bahiya Al Urbiya. She used to sit in the backseat and was known for her beautiful smile she greets the pedestrians with when she passes by. The other black Buick belongs to Regina Murad, also a well known estate owner and a woman of power due to her connections with officials such as ministers and political party members. From the 1930s onwards, other streets in the meantime were constructed and re-organization of the great city of Baghdad took place. In addition, many new faces of people from country side moved to the city during the forties and fifties where they brought their own cultures and traditions. All in all gave the street different and unique flavor! On this same street young men and woman from different political parties in the fifties came out carrying their slogans against what they believe wrong. The street also was the theater of political assassination attempts, such as that of the first president of Iraq, Qasim, and confrontation with the British occupation.
There are a lot to talk about Al Rasheed Street, which will remain an eternal spot in the history of Baghdad forever despite attempts to silence its unique music made by its inhabitants.

Al Sarrafiya Bridge

Many Iraqis used to call it the Iron Bridge, but the official name was Al Sarrafiyah bridge. It links al Wazeeriya district east of Baghdad (Risafa) with Al Latifiya district on the west of Baghdad (Karkh).

Al Sarrafiya Bridge was built in 1951by the British when they were occupying Iraq at that time. Some sources indicated that the bridge was meant to be built in Sydney, Australia, but at later date the British decided to build and put the bridge in Baghdad. Some sources indicate that the main purpose for building that bridge was military.

There is who believed that the interlaced steel at the top of the bridge were made to make the shape of the British flag and can be clearly seen from an airplane above! There also some myths about that bridge; that the Imam Al Mahdy had appeared for some people at that bridge. According to historians, Al Sarrafiya Bridge was built on the same location a house for mentally ill people used to be kept in the late 18’th century, and maybe before that date.

The bridge is 450 meter long above the Tigris River and 6 meters wide. There is two meter wide for pedestrians. There is also a railway track on one side of the bridge, and until the 1970 of last century, the train used to pass through crossing between the east and west side of Baghdad. In later years, when railway tracks were suspended, the Iraqi government extended the pedestrian space to include some of that area set for the train tracks.

You Shouldn't Be Proud

“You shouldn’t be proud of your origins” she added: “you are a citizen of another country now, and this is the only nationality you should be proud of!” My friend was almost paralyzed, but replied “How can I ignore 8000 years of history?” She replied back and said “You didn’t make that history. You are not part of it! Therefore you shouldn’t be proud of it”

This was a conversation between a friend at work and her new colleague who settle recently in the Netherlands. The remarks were made by the new colleague after she discovered the Iraqi origins of my friend.

One can wonder if this a sort of stupidity to throw such remarks, or is it a matter of whether someone should either have loyalty to that country or to the other he or she originally came from! Or maybe the loyalty issue is not relevant in the first place in relation to such a debate?

Can my friend ignore the fact that her country is the cradle of all civilizations?

Iraq is the country where wheels and writing were invented. It is where stars were measured for the first time by scientists and it is in Iraq that the first irrigation systems were built on the banks of the river. In Iraq the first constitution in the history of mankind has been written. In addition, according to historians, Iraq is where the first epic movie ever made during the Assyrian Emprie era in its own form: by telling stories through drawing figures on huge vertical cuneiforms telling about events involved heroes, enemies, prisoners of wars, battles, lion hunting and conquerors. All were tales of a mighty empire that stretched from Egypt to Persia in very enjoyable details.

The achievements of Ashurbanipal alone are just one living example of the kind of great leader he used to be. For example, historians and scholars until this day are studying the contents of the Ashurbanipal’s grand library which he built in Nineveh and contained 20 to 30 thousand cuneiforms, put in separate chambers according to subject categories, and varied from languages of different cultures to government matters, politics and military, to science and society.

It was Ashurbanipal’s grand library that introduced us to the first tale ever told in the history of mankind: The "Epic of Gilgamesh".

Scholars and historians gave Baghdad different names: some called it the house of peace, others called it the golden city, and other preferred to call it with the original translation of the word Baghdad, which is derived from ancient Persian language: the gift of god ("bagh" meaning God, and "dad" meaning gift). It is the city where works from other languages such as Greek, Persian and Indian have been translated and made Baghdad during the golden middle ages as the bridge where east meet west through many aspects of life, whether cultural, commerce, education or politics.

Baghdad was considered the largest city in the entire world from the date of its foundation in 762 to 930 A.D.

From Baghdad, Long before the time of female politicians star rising in othe Arab countries, such as Sheika Lubna al Qassimi of the UAE, and Masouma Mubarak of Kuwait, Nezihe al Dileemy was born in 1922, who became the first female in the modern history of the Arab world to be take a position of a minister. Dr al Dileemy achievements where not limited to politics, but also included social and humanitarian activities from the early days she was a student at the medical college, and remained for years to come. Such achievements included the struggle to promote world peace, the protection of children, and participating in research projects and campaigns in the fight against plagues and diseases, such as the research on Primitive syphilis disease, which took her from the north of the country to the southern marshes of Iraq, and from the desert of western Iraq and in around the different area in Baghdad. She was the first to call for establishing a union for Iraqi woman and in early 1950s was the first chairman of what became later the Iraqi Woman Association. With her efforts and determination she succeeded in making the Iraqi Women Association part of the World Democratic Women Union in 1952, where she became a couple of years later its vice-chairman. Final achievement of Dr al Dileemy before retirement was in 1999 when she organized a big seminar on the situation of Iraqi Women and the challenges she faces in society.

This is Iraq, this is the country that the new colleague demanded from my friend to distance herself from and never be part of its history and its people. I don’t know if my friend will be able to choose the part of history in Iraq she should put behind her. In other words, should my friend disown the history of ancient Mesopotamia? Or should it be Baghdad and the Golden Era of Iraq’s middle Ages? Or to ignore distinguished figures helped in shaping its modern history???