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Cultural Explorations:
A Journey to Iraq
By Mahmood M. Poonja, BestWay Tours and Safaris
Most
people in recent times would never have considered touring Iraq. However, I was
fortunate to accompany tourist groups on two journeys that covered the history
and culture of Iraq just before the latest war. The theme of our tours was
“Mesopotamia: Where It All Began.” Truly, that sense of origin is what Iraq
is (or was?) all about.
Five
thousand years ago, what is now Iraq was home to the first cities in the world,
to the invention of writing, monument building and the art of architecture, In
short, it was the cradle of civilization. Oft mentioned in the Bible, the land
that became modern day Iraq was also the traditional site of the Garden of Eden,
the birthplace of prophets, including Abraham and Jonah, and home to the most
well known of the ancient wonders of the world, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Present
day Iraq is also home to some of Islam’s most important cities, including
Kerbala, Najaf and Kufa. In times past, the country was the seat of the Abbassid
Empire where many of the scientific developments that have played a vital role
to modernity unfolded. It is also the land where the stories that make up the
famous 1001 (Arabian) Nights were conceived.
Our two
journeys to Iraq were both taken during the era of Saddam Hussein, and the rules
for obtaining tourist visa for Iraq were, at best, confusing. The
border crossings required a lot of paperwork, including producing certificates
proving negative HIV (which had to be no more than six days old – later
extended to 10 days). Cameras were allowed only if they did not have powerful
lenses. “Powerful” not having being defined, it was left to our smiles and
the customs officer’s mood, which always changed for the better after the
officer had his proud moments showing off to his colleagues the many cameras
hanging off his neck.
So
while the border crossing was a time-consuming affair it was an interesting
cultural encounter. To our surprise, during our first visit while all this drill
was taking place, we were offered free soft drinks – a warm welcome to our
group of North American tourists. The drinks, coming from the pocket of an
underpaid officer working in a land where bottled water sells for more than gas,
were a wonderful gesture.
Civilization’s Cradle
This is an ancient land. The
Greeks named it Mesopotamia, “the land between two rivers.” The reference
was to the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, which originate in the mountains of
eastern Turkey, flow southeast and converge at Qurnah in southeast Iraq, from
where they continue to the Persian Gulf. Although the hot, dry climate, combined
with seasonal flooding was difficult and challenging, ancient farmers there
learned to control the flooding and used the resulting fertility to produce such
crops as barley, wheat, flax and sesame. The fertile ground also supported many
different kinds of fruit and vegetable crops. With such abundance, the first
civilization grew here, eventually spreading to the rest of the world. It is no
wonder, then, that in terms of artifacts from successive civilizations, Iraq,
without a doubt, is the richest country in the world.
Mesopotamia
flourished in the land we today call Iraq. Contemporary Iraq has more than
10,000 archaeological sites dating back over 7,000 years. Most sites are large
areas where a whole city-state, like Sumer, home of the first city-state and the
first writing, flourished. At the archaeological sites of Nineveh and Nimrud,
capitals of the famous Babylonian emperor Ashurnasirpal
II, who ruled in 879 B.C., we saw excavations taking place and were welcomed
personally by the chief archaeologist of the region. At Babylon, home to the
famous “Hanging Gardens,” we saw a whole city that had been reconstructed
giving us a good view of it must have looked. On one stone of modern and current
materials was an inscription that read, “Nebuchadnezzar
built Babylon. Saddam Hussein rebuilt it.”
Visiting
the many sites where history was made gave us a feeling of excitement that just
cannot be described. Here were places of treasure, where the seeds of the
civilization were sown. At the southern city of Ur, we saw the place where the
prophet Abraham, patriarch of the Jews, Christians and Muslims, was born and
lived. His reconstructed house showed a collection of rooms, lined one after
another, that brought back the life style of those days. Not very far from Ur
lie the remains of Alexander of Macedonia, the great Greek conqueror.
At Qurnah,
the convergence of the Euphrates and Tigris, we explored the remains of what
tradition says was the Garden of Eden. The fig tree standing in the center of
the complex was the exciting feature we all wanted to photograph, however, the
place left much to be desired. There was no doubt at one time it must have seen
better days, with green, fertile pastures, hence its name. The most southern
city in Iraq we visited was Basra, which lies at the banks of the Shatt-el-Arab.
As we took a local boat cruise, our guide narrated the story of Sindbad the
sailor and showed us the place where Sindbad was said to have taken off on his
journeys – one of the most popular stories of the famous Arabian Nights.
Basra
offered a beautiful coastline, but also had its slums – much of it them a
result of the first Gulf War.
One of the
most interesting places to visit are the Islamic cities of Kerbala, Najaf and
Qufa. These cities played a vital role in the history of early Islam,
particularly during the establishment of Shiism. At Kerbala, huge gold domes on
two massive turquoise-colored mosques face each other. The mosques, named after
Imam Hussain and his cousin Abbas, are sacred places of pilgrimage for the
Shiites. Pilgrims pay respect to their leaders who sacrificed their lives by not
accepting to pay allegiance to the Caliph in Damascus. On any given day and
time, one finds scores of people visiting Kerbala and offering prayers,
meditation, feeding the poor and even having family outings. There are more
Shiite sites in Iraq then in Iran, so there always has been a large influx of
Iranians visiting Iraq as pilgrims.
Though
both these sites are holy to the Shiites, they were open to non-Muslims as well,
and tour members were free to walk around the courtyard, take photos and meet
people. The inside portion is however open only to Muslims, be they Shiite or
Sunnis. The adjoining cities of Najaf and Qufa house many more Shiite sites,
including a large cemetery, several mosques and madressahs (religious schools).
It is also here that the main school of Shiite thought exists and where the
ayatollahs undergo their training.
The
magnificence of modern day Iraq lies in the capital city of Baghdad. Baghdad –
the name means “garden of God” – is a large and beautiful city. It was
during the early days of the Abbasid period (750–969 A.D.) that Baghdad became
the world center of intellectual and aesthetic growth. It was also here that the
stories of Arabian Nights were conceived, where science, especially medicine,
astronomy, mathematics, algebra, etc. developed and flourished. Names such as
al-Khawarismi, the discoverer of algebraic equations (his name was later
Latinized to Algorismus), al-Kindi, the philosopher who applied reason to
tradition, al-Razi, a physician who compiled a medical encyclopedia and al-Ghazzali,
a scholar of religious law, were names still proudly referred to by our guides.
Baghdad
maintained its beauty and majesty. From the palaces of the Abbasids to the
palaces of Saddam Hussein, medieval and modern schools, museums, mausoleums and
gardens, the city certainly had an atmosphere reflecting its historical past.
The pride of the Iraqis, the city had construction
of aesthetically designed structures going on seemingly everywhere, all from
locally manufactured materials. We stayed at the famous al-Rasheed Hotel, which
like all other hotels in the country, had a large underground hall designated as
a bomb shelter for use in case of an air raid. Other “five-star: hotels in the
city included the Palestine and the al Mansuriya, both of which were very much
in the news during the recent bombings.
A must see
place in Baghdad was the Iraqi Museum. The two-floor building, each floor with
12 halls specializing in different periods of history, gave a clear picture of
the treasures and wealth that this nation, with the oldest recorded history,
offered. Probably the best preserved and well managed museum in the Middle East,
the Iraqi Museum had several thousand artifacts captioned with the date and era
it belonged to. Centrally located and well planned, it was an easy place to
guard. It is a shame that this was not done. The stolen treasures are a loss to
humanity and the looting of the museum will be recorded as the darkest moments
in the fight for the regime change in Iraq
Besides
the archaeological sites, we also visited the bazaars and souqs of Mosul, The
stores were stocked with items that were mostly locally manufactured, since Iraq
was banned from trading with other countries. It was interesting to see that the
roads and basic services, including water, food and telephones, were easily
available and not expensive. Iraqis are known to be well educated and
enterprising people, however, importation of essential commodities relating to
medicine, hospital usage, higher education did handicap their lifestyle and
there was a lot of anger among the people over the sanctions.
In spite
of all this, we were never questioned, nor did we see any anti-American or
anti-West slogans anywhere in the country. All this was very interesting and
took all of us by surprise. In most cases, the people, when learning that there
we were a group of North Americans, made particular efforts to come to us and
welcome us to Iraq. There was a genuine interest in meeting Americans and
practicing their English. Often they made it clear that they had particular
fondness for the American people but did not like the Administration.
The
currency in Iraq was the Iraqi dinar, with a conversion rate of 750 dinars to
one U.S. dollar.. Prior to the first Gulf war, the exchange rate, we were told,
was one dinar to three U.S. dollars! So there was massive currency devaluation
of the dinar after the first Gulf War.
We all
felt sad to see that unlike other countries where archaeological sites would
always have scores of visitors, the sites in Iraq had hardly any. Iraqis, by and
large, respected their history and we did not find any damage or graffiti on the
many stone structures lying across vast areas of these ancient city states.
Our first
tour of Iraq was in May of 2001, while the second was in October 2002, a year
after 9/11. The second tour took place a few weeks after the famous referendum
that declared that 100% of the Iraqi people had voted for the continuation of
Saddam Hussein as their president. In celebration of the referendum’s results,
the Al Rasheed Hotel had a 100-painting exhibition of Saddam Hussein in
different uniforms and garbs performing different roles. It was also the time
when heated debates were taking place at the UN Security Council to consider
allowing UN inspectors into Iraq. A few weeks after our tour ended, the UN
inspectors entered the country.
The large
archaeological sites had structures made from mud, clay, bricks and stone.
Little is known of the state of these objects after the massive bombings. Though
there is no report of any bombings targeted at any of the sites, there is no
doubt that many of the 7,000-year-old clay and stone structures would not have
been able to resist the impact.
These
tours were very memorable, not only because of historic time at which they were
undertaken, but more so for the impressions they left on me. Thinking about them
brings back memories of how we were met by smiling children wanting to
photographed; by men who asked us to join them smoking their water pipes; by
women welcoming us to visit their homes and join them for a meal; of the many
historical sites we visited (all alone without being disturbed by other tourist
groups); of the welcomes when we
visited historical monasteries, churches and mosques; of the Iraqi Museum – in
short, of the country as it was then. Most Iraqis sincerely believed that there
would never be a war and the world would solve this problem in a civilized
manner. For, after all, theirs was the land where the very beginning of
civilization took place.