BAGHDAD TO-DAY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3818, 7 October 1936, Page 3

BAGHDAD TO-DAY

ANCIENT ORIENTAL CITY 051 LEARNING. MODERN MOTOR CARS. There are two ways of reaching Baghdad from Palestine—by motorcar or by aeroplane. I chose the former, which is naturally much cheaper, though it proved a somewhat monotonous ride of some thirty-six hours’ duration. Leaving Jerusalem in the early hours, we descended into the Jordan valley, crossed the Allenby Bridge into Transjordania, and thence on to Amman, the capital. From this point onward the track lies across desert country, and with the exception of a few isolated strings of camels with their Bedouin drivers not a sign of life is encountered until you approach the Tigris. Here irrigated fields and groves ot palm trees are met. Soon the minarets and mosques of Baghdad come into view, and before long the car was at rest in front of the hotel. I was anxious to learn what Baghdad was like. There were rumours that under its young Arab ruler, King Ghazi, Baghdad was rapidly adopting Wfestem methods and losing much of its Oriental charm. I must admit that that was my first impression as I hastened down New Street. Here are the Government offices, colleges, schools, hospital, banks, business houses, and hotels. The latest rype of motor cars were passing to and fro, and many people were in modem dress. THE UNSPOILT ARAB CITY. New Street was cut through the city during the war, and has now become its principal thoroughfare. But when I turned down its side streets, and strolled along River Street, an entirely different picture presented itself. Here were the lanes and by-streets which Haroun-el-Ra-shid and his faithful vizier walked, disguised, hundreds of years ago. Baghdad is still an unspoilt Arab city of some 300,000 population. Curiously enough, Baghdad is not an ancient city—that is, ancient when we remember that Iraq was the cradle of the human race, that here scholars place the site of the Garden of Eden, and here may be seen the ruins of Babylon, Nineveh, Ur of the Chaldees, and many other famous cities. Iraq is at once the oldest, yet newest, of nations—old in that she was the birthplace of early civilisation, and new in that it was only a short time ago that she became an independent State and a member of the League of Nations. Baghdad was founded by the Caliph Mansur in the year 762. He kept an army of 100,000 men constantly employed for four years at a cost, it is said, of some £9,000,000. Mansur was a man of exemplary character, severe in his official capacity, and extremely “ careful ”as to money. He was known as “ the father of half-pen-nies.” He named his city Dar-es-Salaam, the City of Peace, which appellation was later discarded in favour of Baghdad, which is supposed to have been the name of a monk who served in a neighbouring church. A CENTRE OF LEARNING. In the time of Mansur’s son, Har-oun-el-Rashid, which means “ Haroun the wise,” who reigned from 788-809, Baghdad reached its zenith. In those days it was the meeting-place of men of learning and culture from all over the world. The royal gifts given to poets for a single sonnet ran sometimes into thousands of gold dinnars. Haroun-el-Rashid and his faithful vizier used to walk about the streets of the city disguised, in order to discover what his people thought of his administration and to learn if they had any grievances or complaints. His death proved the turning-point in Baghdad’s fortunes, and from that time onward its downward march began. There is a subtle charm about Baghdad that grows upon you. I spent some time walking about its narrow, winding, crowded streets, catching sudden glimpses of glowing, hidden courtyards, unexpected rays of light, a bright blue dome, and minarets lit up at sunset. Crossing the river by the Maude Bridge, a pontoon structure, built to replace the original one made by the British when they entered the town in 1918, I met a typical scene of the river’s varied and kaleidoscopic life. All the amazing mixture of the East mingled with that of the West streams past you. Parthians, Medes, and Elamites—the dwellers of Mesopotamia—all creeds, all nations, camels, donkeys, mules, goats, and sheep, motors of every type, from desert transports to the sporting motor cycle. Camels with mountains of goods on their backs, next to sheiks a on exquisite horses, Jewish women in delicate pink silk izars, Moslem women, black, silent, closely veiled, Bedouins, Persians, Shiites, and Sunnis, and Iraqis of all sorts, some in dirty tatters, others in immaculate w’hite and cream suits, black caps, black glasses, black Charlie Chaplin mous-

taches, and all pushing, jostling, talking, and shouting. VARIED RIVER CRAFT. Once across the bridge I made my way down the river. Here were strings of white donkeys carrying yellow bricks, belems or native boats, laden with all kinds of fruit, grain, and other commodities, rafts piled high with brushwood and dried vegetation to be used as fuel, and that curious craft, the gufa, or ghuffa, a circular, wicker-work creation, seen only upon these waters. It is the oldest form of boat in the world. It is made of dried palm fronds and coated with bitumen, “ pitched within and without.” It can be as small as a clothes basket, or as wide as thirty feet. Gufas can carry very heavy loads, and are not easily upset. As’ in many other eastern cities, special trades or professions are to be found allocated to definite quarters. On River Street are the silversmiths. They toil in little shops, and are known as Subbis. They belong to what they term the Sabean sect. Among other strange beliefs they claim relationship with John the Baptist, whom they worship. Like the Yezidis, who are devil-worshippers, they abhor the colour blue and always wear a red kureyeh or headgear. They have a secret process of engraving hand-beaten silver, and treating it with antimony. The coppersmiths work in little dark stores in the copper bazaar, and the variety and style of articles they fashion are amazing all kinds of domestic utensils as well as articles of adornment. They squat for hours tn their haunches round a little centre fire, hammering away, and often chanting and singing as they work. In the pottery shops the potter may be seen at his wheel. The pottery articles of Baghdad are mostly of a beautiful green tint, obtained by a special process of dyeing. The silk shops are a blaze of colours. The shopkeeper is almost lost among bales of the most lovely silks of the most gorgeous colours. Izars, rich silk garments worn by Christian, Jewish, and Moslem women alike, are one of the most noticeable features of the town. The silk of which they are made is very thick and heavy, the borders woven in gold, silver, or oxidised thread. Pink is the favourite colour, and it may be had in all shades. But there are izars of every conceivable colour. CITY OF MOSQUES. Baghdad is a city of mosques, one of the most picturesque being the great Haider-Khanah shrine. Its beautiful blue dome is the resort of thousands of pigeons. Close by Exchange Square is Baghdad’s oldest; minaret, all that remains of the famous Suk-El-Ghazai Mosque, built by the Caliphs over a thousand years age. Its crumbling towers form Baghdad’s principal landmark. There is also the Abdul Kadir Gilani Mosque, but this is a Sunni shrine, Baghdad being mostly Shiite. There are two great sects in the Moslem faith Shiite and Sunnite. The former uphold the claim of Ali, a cousin and also son-in-law of the Prophet, to the Caliphate. Ali was murdered while at prayer in the mosque at Kufa, and the Caliphate passed to the Ommayyida, through Omayya, a distant cousin of the Prophet. By all Shiites, Ali, and also his son Hussein, who was killed at Kerbela, are looked upon as martyrs, and pilgrimages are made to their graves. A very interesting place is the Iraq Museum. It is an attractive building, which is dedicated to Gertrude Bell, the so-called uncrowned queen of Iraq, because of her loyalty to the country and to the museum. Over the entrance, guarded on each side by two colossal statues of the scribe-god Nabu, once guardian of the palaces of Ashir-Nasirpal 11. and Thalmanesar 111. at Calah, is a bronze bust of Miss Bell and a tablet to her memory. In the museum you can see the room in which she worked, on the wall of which hangs her portrait, the work of the well-known artist, Sergeant. The museum is exclusively devoted to the exhibition of antiquities of the country, the aim being to illustrate the continuous history of the old world by typical exhibits. There is a very valuable collection of earlypainted pottery from Kish and elsewhere; inlaid friezes from Ur and Kish; gold, silver, and copper vessels and weapons from Ur and other places; the breast-plate from Tarkalan and statues from Adab and Lagash; and a wonderful display of ivory and bone combs, pins, and toilet boxes from various sites. KEEPING UP WITH THE TIMES. The officials I met in Baghdad were most anxious to assure me that Iraq’s one desire is to improve and to keep up with the times. Dr Said Bey, Director of Hospitals, had just opened a children’s playground on the outskirts of Baghdad, equipped with the requisites for recreation beloved by children of more advanced lands. Modern Iraq has an area of some 150,000 square miles, with a population of about 3,000,000 people. She is primarily an agricultural country, but as the average rainfall is only about five or six inches a year she has to depend upon the waters of her two historic rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, for her crops. Yet culti-

is extensive. Wheat, barley, rice, maize, sesame, and cotton are grown. Seventy-five per cent of the world’s consumption of dates comes from the Basrah district. Her latest form of wealth seems to be the unlimited quantities of crude oil that are rapidly being developed in the Kirkuk district in the north. To-day the oil is being carried through pipes across 600 miles of desert to Haifa, in Palestine, and to Tripoli, in Syria. The quantity of oil now being taken is not large compared with what the yield will eventually be; yet I was assured in Baghdad that the Iraq Government was already receiving £lOOO a day in royalties from the oilfields.—H. J. Shepstone, F.R.G.S., in the Weekly Scotsman.