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Bulletin of the Royal Institute for Inter-Faith Studies (BRIIFS)

The respective phases of Baghdad’s development between 1921 (the Iraqi Kingdom and British Mandate) and 1958 (the Iraqi National Revolution) remain visible today. Up until the 1940s, the aesthetics of its residential architecture was eclectic—the result of a specific process of invention linked to traditional local brickwork know-how. This eclecticism overlapped with the persistence of a habitat still characterized by a central inner space. Then the revolution played the symbolic role of vector of a paradoxical identity, as it was experienced simultaneously as a break with the Western world and the integration of international modernism. Therefore the Hashemite Bagh-dad, with all its particularities, constitutes a brilliant case of elaboration of a modern capital; it was born of a successful hybridization of cultural traditions and the exchange of professional know-how, in which the figures of adaptation and appropriation were determining factors in the enrichment and renewal not only of urban forms, but also of urban practices. This urban context constitutes a heritage for the Iraqis, since it is not only result of a composite history but also the producer of a composite identity—a fruitful basis of a project for the future. The reconstruction of Baghdad should avoid new surgical operations stemming from radical political agendas, most importantly the temptation of the tabula rasa.

Modern Iraqi art has been traditionally treated as a movement that was born after the British conquest of Iraq in 1917 and was based on the western European concept of modern visual art. Hence the early phase of this movement was characterized by strong adherence to the western tradition and transmission of that culture to Iraq. However, the cultural elements of indigenous Iraqi art—part of the wider culture of the region under European colonialism—subsisted and played an important role in shaping the identity of this art in due course. Decisive in this identity is the long tradition of image-making in Iraq, from the Mesopotamians through to the pre-Islamic period. The long heritage of Arabic culture and Islamic tradition was present in Iraq by the turn of the twentieth century. The ethnic diversity and religious pluralism of Iraqi society further defined that dynamic cultural heritage and its sources. This article discusses the different aspects of those indigenous cultural sources that—along with the importation of Western art-shaped the identity of modern Iraqi art. It also provides a brief introduction to the foundations of modern Iraqi art beyond the typical prevalent western-oriented definition found throughout major publications on the subject. It is an attempt to build a new approach to and a new reading of the subject.

Despite a wealth of recent research which has detailed the impact that new media outlets and technologies have had on the Middle East’s nascent public sphere and its role in promoting democracy, there has been little investigation into the re-emergence of the free press in Iraq following the toppling of Saddam in 2003 and the corresponding end to his tight control over the nation’s media sector. This paper begins by reviewing Iraq’s long relationship with the written word and its corresponding public sphere. It traces the introduction of the printing press to Iraq by the Ottomans and details those periods when the Iraqi press was truly free, fostering the emergence of civil society and democratic reforms (such as under the Young Turks, the early Hashemite era and following the Second World War). It also examines those periods when the Iraqi media was most restricted and did little else than praise the regime at hand (such as under Ottoman rule and most recently under the Baʿth regime, especially under Saddam Hussein). Following on, this article reviews the developments since the fall of Saddam Hussein and, despite the extensive interference in Iraq’s media sector from government entities both outside and inside Iraq, it concludes by arguing that these papers have been central to the re-emergence of an Iraqi public sphere which has openly debated and discussed the issues pertinent to post-Saddam Iraq.‬

In a short preface to a number of poems by contemporary Iragi poets, Salih J. Altoma states that the many Iraqi poets in exile “have much to offer in terms of their views about Iraq’s tribulations in recent years.” Confronted with the current human catastrophe in Iraq in addition to the experienced hardship of a life in exile, the Iraqi poet in ghurba (exile) is carrying a double burden, which often puts him in a desperate situation and creates a very particular dilemma for his poetic writing, torn between the political and the aesthetic. One of these writers of exile poetry is the great Iraqi poet Saadi Youssef (b. 1934), who has lived as an exile in more than ten European and Arab countries. Having presented some of Youssef’s recurrent notions of exile in his oeuvre and strategies of writing by means of intertextual reference, the article goes on to look more specifically at the concepts and notions of exile and hybridity in his post-colonial poetry of the 1990s and the beginning of the twenty-first century.‬

(First §) BEFORE THE INVASION OF IRAQ, neoconservatives argued that the road to solving the Palestinian problem went through Baghdad; that is, unseating the Iraqi regime (and defeating Al Qaeda) (Doran 2003). For the uninitiated, the argument might have been cogent. It certainly was appealing. And some, such as Fuad Ajami (2003), connected the invasion of Iraq with the fight to bring democracy and freedom to the Arabs. Implicit in much of this is the orientalist (Said 1978) notion that the West is superior to the East. It is a twist on the saying, ‘East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, except that in this case the magnanimous West is willing to help elevate the East to its own level. The notion of democracy received impetus from Natan Sharansky’s book (2004) which, we were told, created a lasting impression on President Bush. The book was publicized, in the US media at least, as advancing the thesis that peace can be only be made with democratic countries. In other words, peace with countries that are less than ‘democratic’ is a waste of time, or practically impossible! The way in which the media (the fourth estate) were complicit in promoting such a theme is interesting. It was as though critical thinking had been suspended in favour of ideology, stereotyping and anti-intellectualism.

This article discusses the authors’ experiences of researching the situation of women in Iraq since 2003. It highlights a number of methodological, theoretical and practical issues that arise as part of the research process and their implications for the production of knowledge about women in Iraq. These issues include examining the impact of the authors’ subject positions and the power of dominant discourses put forward by different political actors with regards to the conceptualization of ‘Tragi women,’ the politics of war and occupation and resistance to it, and the deployment of gender in the political post-invasion transition. The authors attempt to deconstruct the different discourses and, in so doing, to uncover the diversity of Iraqi women and the complexity of their experiences in Iraq and identify both the limitations of and possibilities for researching women in Iraq. The article uncovers the ways in which dominant discourses label issues and problems in ways that are counter-productive to finding just and lasting solutions for women in Iraq—particularly in the process of building a ” peaceful and stable Iraqi nation-state, which can guarantee rights for all of its citizens.

During the first three decades after independence in 1922, Irag pursued a foreign policy that was associated with an expansive conception of national inter-est. The nationalist leadership in Baghdad actively championed Arab unity and attempted to exercise authority over neighbouring countries. This external posture shifted in the early 1950s to a foreign policy rooted in a more restricted and territory-based notion of national interest. Why Iragi officials adopted diplomatic practices congruent with “Westphalian sovereignty” is hard to explain in terms of the dynamics of state formation, but is closely connected to the structure of the local economy and struggles among domestic social forces.‬

(First §) Sumer and Samarra / IN THE NINTH CENTURY AD, the ʿAbbasid Caliph al-Muʿtasim, the son of Harun al-Rashid, came to an area located between Babylon and Assyria to build himself a new capital that was far removed from Baghdad, whose people had started complaining about the behaviour of his Turkish soldiers. This area had flourished and prospered in pre-Islamic times, partly as a result of the development of artificial irrigation projects.

Leaving aside a discussion of the making of the Syriac-speaking world that built upon the heritage of Arameans, Greeks, Nabateans and Jews. This article traces some major trajectories of the development of Syriac-speaking Churches from the early Byzantine period to the early eighteenth century. Highlighting aspects of their early literary history in Edessa and Nisibis, as well as connections to Mesopotamia, this article offers extended discussion of the impact of theological, particularly Christological, controversies on the emergence of divisions among Syriac-speaking Christians. It traces aspects of the Syriac Renaissance, the impact of the Mongol invasion and Syriac Christian missionary activities in Central and East Asia, and the further diversification of the body of Syriac-speaking Churches through the emergence of the Maronite Patriarchate. During the later centuries covered, Syriac-speaking Churches increasingly faced divisions and hardships. The regulations under which some of these Churches fell during the Ottoman Empire did not improve their lot. It would take until the latter part of the twentieth century before perspectives and new opportunities for a brighter future emerged at least for some of the members of Syriac-speaking Churches.‬

Christianity in Iran goes back to the Apostolic Age, when it was first established in Edessa and Adiabene. However, for doctrinal and ecclesiastical reasons, the Church in the East separated from the Antiochian Syrian Church and proclaimed itself the ‘Church of the East. Buttressed by their faith and zeal, these Christians were moved to evangelize in Central Asia and China, before and after the coming of Islam. Historic circumstances, especially the invasion of Timur Lenk and many bloody conflicts in later days, caused membership in this Church and its sister Churches to dwindle to small communities living in Urmia-Salmas and northern Iraq. In the seventeenth century, the Armenian Apostolic Church was founded in Iran when Shah Abbas permitted a community of deportees to settle in the country. Roman Catholic missions were established early in the seventeenth century and Protestant ones in the eighteenth. Today, there are Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches in Iran. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the war in Iraq has made the future of Christian communities precarious, but the Muslim majority can and must ameliorate the situation by granting these Christians all of the rights and privileges of citizenship. The future of Christianity in the Middle East is subject not only to external circumstances, but to internal ones as well. The ongoing Christian-Muslim dialogue, in which Iran is a strong participant, is a good omen that brings hope to the small Christian communities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. “But they were all amazed and marveled, saying, ‘Behold, are not all these that are speaking Galileans? And how have we heard each his own language in which he was born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia…” Acts II:7-9.