A Glimpse of Iraq

Iraq War Parties

2006-10-31T01:36:00.000+03:00

An Attempt at Categorization

The image of the Iraqi scene in terms of the US versus insurgents or terrorists was dominant for much of the time since the American invasion of Iraq! It is basically an extension of the "with us, against us", "good guy, bad guy" view. On one side we have the US forces (and allies), the democratically-elected Iraqi government and the Iraqi security forces. On the other side are the insurgents (or terrorists!) Syria and Iran. More sophisticated souls understand that the Iraqi security forces have been infiltrated by the insurgents.

A nice, tidy picture! Alas it is not sufficient, or even true.

The other, currently more dominant, three-color Sunni-Shiite-Kurd picture of strife in Iraq is also tidy! Alas, it is also incomplete, and even misguiding!

These two visions seem to be enough for a large number of people all over the world. Many people try to accommodate the news items they see and read within the categories offered by these visions. Yet, much remains inexplicable. Most people do not bother to contemplate further! It must be something to do with the "crazy" part of the world!

Yet, many people, including many Iraqis, are so confused! For example, people cannot understand how an Iraqi 'nationalistic resistance' can target and kill so many innocent Iraqis.

The picture is so complex! It is like watching a movie in different and spectacular colors changing in slow motion! Watching that picture unfold for more than three and a half years makes it look even more confusing! This, to my mind, has been the difficulty with understanding what has been happening in Iraq. So many forces! So many different means and manifestations! So many violent methods! Yet, people need simplifications; they need tags. This is my attempt at over-simplification!

An analogy to this attempt is the color system. A picture with a profusion of colors can be reduced to more elementary colors – ultimately three (RGB, red, green and blue)!

The three basic elements of violent forces in Iraq:

Putting aside subjective values of good and evil for the moment, the task is to attempt to 'categorize' the various forces at play in present-day Iraq since the invasion. The objective is to understand the otherwise inexplicable events of senseless violence.

For that purpose, I propose the following broad categorization to describe the multitude of active forces that have been using mostly violent means to pursue their agenda in Iraq:

R- External-agenda Forces

This group includes the American administration and the US army, coalition forces, forces with international anti-American agenda (such as Al-Qaeda), countries that wish the US campaign to fail and the US to be bogged in the Iraqi quagmire, Countries of the region serving their own interests

G- Iraqi-agenda Forces

Forces of National Resistance, Baathists, "nationalistic" religious forces and Sectarian forces. This group must also include the two main Kurdish parties and a wide assortment of Iraqi political parties.

B- Criminal gangs

Pure criminal gangs out for money and the power associated with it, taking advantage of the absence of Law and Order to loot, rob banks, kidnap and murder; Criminal gangs in the service of any of the above forces willing to pay for their services to bomb, kidnap, sabotage and create chaos.

Putting different groups in a category does not necessarily mean that they are allies. More frequently than not, the opposite is true. Furthermore, entities within a single sub-group can have widely differing and conflicting objectives. For example, within "counties of the region" group, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait have widely differing objectives and motives and use different means.

The picture is complicated for several reasons. One of which is that most groups do not publicly declare their true intents and positions. Another main reason is that the degree of interaction between the various groups is truly astounding, hence the spectacular range of colors! The most widely used vehicles have been funding and guns! The result: mostly red, innocent blood and a gray, devastated country.

Nevertheless, this picture may provide a better basis for analyzing the various forces at play in Iraq today than the "with us, against us" vision or the Sunni-Shiite view! The only assumption I make is that each group pursues its own interests and objectives without moral qualms.

This picture may serve to understand better what has been taking place in Iraq over the past few years. But, more importantly, it may serve to help look ahead at possible solutions out of the present quagmire… and why the task is so formidable! But that is another story for another day. All I wanted to do in this post was to introduce this view.

Goodbye My Boy

2006-07-20T01:20:00.000+04:00

This summer, the trumpeted security plan of the new government was put in action.

Others it seemed had their own ‘insecurity’ plan. It was far more effective than the government’s. Some say that elements of the government and their allies were active participants in that other plan. The result was a chaotic, murderous situation that no news agency has the capability or the resources to convey to others living outside this hell-hole. On an average day nowadays, I alone learn about six murders that are not reported anywhere on any media.

The resulting popular mood was reflected in a depressing essay by Shalash al Iraqi that I translated in my previous post. That essay included a long hate-list of an average Iraqi. It later occurred to me that poor Shalash, being an unmarried man with no children, missed at least one important item: our children.

I cannot imagine a father or mother hating their children. But in our miserable existence, we come very close to that.

An average parent in present-day ‘free Iraq’ spends a good portion of the day and night worrying to death over his or her children going to school, going out with their friends, being a shade late in coming home or strolling to the neighborhood shop to buy crisps and coke. Their resentment of restrictions over their comings and goings is a constant, never-ending source of friction and battles. Their agony in their sleep soaking wet in their sweat during the long power cuts in the mercilessly hot summer nights of Baghdad is a dull pain of helplessness and fury in the heart.

Most of the time you are sick with worry over their safety and well-being. The knowledge that they are in constant danger consumes you. It eats you alive.

You then realize that it is your love for them that is killing you. You begin to hate that love.

My eldest boy went away 16 months ago. Six months later, it was my daughter. We were left with the little one, not yet 17.

This summer he started working on his all-important Baccalaureate exams (the equivalent of high school). All we wanted was for him to pass that hurdle. But that was not to be. All the many forces of darkness on the loose in Iraq today went into an orgy of killing and senseless violence. It was too much for us. I don’t know how many people can fathom the depth of agony of seeing a loved one in eminent danger and not being able to do a thing about it.

Now my little one too has gone away.

Goodbye my boy.

May the Goddesses of Safety, Happiness and Good Fortune blow gently in your sails.

I hope you forget all your agony and your lost childhood, leave the pain behind, make new dreams and forge ahead in a world of hope and achievement.

As for those responsible for your suffering, may those of them who believe in God taste His wrath in Hell for all eternity. May those of them without a conscience acquire one to torment them with their own deeds for as long as they live. May the rest of them taste the medicine they recklessly prescribed to others for as long as their hearts are sick.

Goodbye my boy! There is a new, fresh pain of loss in my heart . Yet I hope I won’t see you soon.

Now I can start loving you again.

Shalash al Iraqi

2006-06-23T14:23:00.000+04:00

I haven’t posted for a while. Many of the Iraqi bloggers are also less vocal than usual. It is understandable that some of the rosy-picture painters may be short of material. But this cannot explain the silence of others. There is no shortage of material there!

I myself have been having such difficulty. It is anger and some element of desperation! I nowadays have more feelings of fury and bitterness than inclinations towards rational discourse.

One writer who has emerged during the past year called himself Shalash al Iraqi. He is a resident of Sadr City with a great deal of first-hand knowledge of that part of the city. The name he has chosen certainly has ‘redneck’ overtures. He has a unique, lovable writing style: sarcastic, critical and funny. He writes in classical Arabic but frequently interjects local terms and colloquial expressions. He covered numerous subjects of present-day Iraq, mainly concentrating on social and political aspects. He has no love lost for the previous regime, no time for the ‘new political process’, no tolerance of the farce now called Democracy and certainly no disposition for sectarianism. I followed his writings closely with great admiration. He never failed to make me chuckle while reading his essays. He was mentioned now and then by vigilant outsiders such as Cecile of Streamtime. Dr. Imad Khadduri sarted a blog to collect Shalash’s writings. Yet, he remains largely unknown outside Iraq.

Shalash too was quiet for several months. However, over the past three weeks he has written three essays. I will translate his last one to give a feel of a prevalent mood.

Shalash is no longer funny

Shalash’s new essay has a different flavor. There is nothing funny or sarcastic about it. It is entitled “A Desperate Letter!” the essay is written in long paragraphs! I have taken the liberty to segment it and tried my best to retain the original flavor but I cannot do that with the style.

“

A Desperate Letter

As I and others expected, the ‘security plan’ became a cover for murderers and night gangs that have allied themselves with infiltrators into security forces to kill people and dump them in garbage piles. Otherwise how would those in charge of the plan explain how those killings, assassinations, kidnappings and abductions take place with such a massive deployment of armed forces and the nightly curfew? How do those criminals move and do their deeds and how do they spread death in the streets in such cold blood?

Are they ghosts that move outside the vision of check points during curfew hours. Or are they part of the forces implementing the curfew?

I know that the government has no explanation or is ashamed to admit the politically embarrassing truth. People, Mr. Prime Minister, well know now that those death gangs are no longer 'secret death squads' as the media are fond of calling them. Those same gangs are publically proclaiming their acts and that those ‘death lists’ are being openly circulated between members of what you call militias.

The bitter truth brothers, and I say this for the thousandth time, is that certain gangs have infiltrated the Sadrist Movement with the knowledge of some of the Movement’s leaders.

They do all sorts of criminal acts and intimidate the Police that they have infiltrated. The disaster is that senior officers in the [Ministry of] Interior fear criminals who have criminal records in Iraqi courts prior to the Fall [of Baghdad].

The name of the “Sayyed’s Office” [Branch of Muqtada’s offices] now terrifies the police more than the previous regime’s security forces terrified the people. On top of that, the crimes that started as political and revenge-motivated ‘liquidations’ have turned into a culture. There is a new fearsome ‘addiction’ to killing and taking pleasure in blood! There are murders just for the sake of murder; killings for reasons that the very act of contemplating is a crime against humanity. Now, there are people who cannot go to bed before shattering people’s skulls with their pistols. What a sour life between the days of car bombs and nights of criminal gangs…

From this place, from the mountains of pain, terror, solitude and fear I address the Prime Minister…

Your Excellency, for a reason unknown to me, I though well of you. The solution is not through massive deployment of security forces, Police Commandos and forces of Occupation.

The simple solution is for you to go to Sayyed Muqtada and ask him to publicly disown those murderers and declare that they don’t belong to his movement and remove his cover of them and leave the people to deal with them. People already have lists of these gangsters and their connection to the Sayyed’s Office is common knowledge. Sooner or later the People will take their revenge from those killers. And when they do, Iraq will again sink in seas of blood in comparison to which the rivers of blood now flowing will seem like little ditches.

We have had enough.

The fearsome nights are stifling us and we now have come to hate the Fall [of Baghdad]; we hate Liberation; we hate Sunnis; we hate Shiites; we hate turbans and sidaras [Baghdadi head gear – a reference to Adnan al-Dulaimi a ‘Sunni’ politician]; we hate Jihad and Jihadists, resistance and resistors; we hate concrete; we hate streets and sidewalks; we hate the Ministries; we hate Establishments; we hate news channels and news and communiqués; we hate the Parliament that has now become a venue for swearing-in ceremonies and nothing else; we hate songs; we hate commercials; we hate newspapers; we hate cars and car-depots; we hate conferences; we hate ‘surprise visits’; we hate neighboring countries; we hate the ‘multinational forces; we hate the night; we hate the day; we hate Summer; we hate the sun that sends hell; we hate sleep; we hate water and electricity; we hate petrol and corruption and theft; we hate sectarianism; we hate sectarian ‘allocations’; we hate Reconciliation; we hate the government of national unity; we hate committees and Commissions of Integrity, Trash, Rehabilitation and Silliness; we hate [political] parties and organizations; we hate assemblies, demonstrations, banners and chants; we hate laughter; we hate crying; we hate work; we hate study; we hate each other. And we hate ourselves. But (and this is our problem) we still love something that was called Iraq.

Will you save what is left of this Iraq?

”

What have they done to this country? Is this what they mean when they say “Freedom is messy”?

And yet… I still have hope. It is people like Shalash al-Iraqi who, despite all their suffering, have not lost their humanity and have not lost their compass… that give me that hope.

This Blog is now a Book

2006-05-05T16:28:00.000+04:00

This blog is now available as a book with the same title from Lulu. I have added a chapter with some details of tribal life and strife in the “Triangle of Death”.

This is what it says on the back cover:

***

A primer to the country and the people through facts and anecdotes

The country’s composition and diversity in ethnic, religious, urban-rural and civic-tribal terms

The occupation, the chaos and lawlessness that followed and their effect on the lives of people and individuals

A look into the “Triangle of Death” – one of the most volatile regions – from the inside, showing some of the intricacies of tribal relations

But, above all, this book is about people

It aims to illustrate how ordinary people dealt with the traumatic situation; why civil war was so hard to ignite; and why there is still hope

It may help the reader understand the failure to understand that led to failure

The Mess Pot

2005-12-31T20:58:00.000+03:00

The Greeks were here too. Iraq was known to the Greeks as Mesopotamia: the land between the two rivers. This is such an apt name; much of Iraq's long history is influenced in one way or another by those two rivers: Tigris and Euphrates. Alexander the Great himself also ‘liberated’ Iraq. He actually died here (reportedly from an overdose of the local liquor "Araq" – a powerful drink made from palm dates and never drunk straight).

When the British ‘liberated’ Iraq during the First World War, the British boys began calling Iraq jokingly “The Mess Pot”.

A mess pot it is.

Now that the Americans have also ‘liberated’ Iraq", it is their turn to learn what a mess pot they have got themselves into! Somehow, they even managed to add a bit of an extra mess to it themselves!

***

This blog has been my attempt to give a tiny glimpse of my tiny glimpse of Iraq. I hope that I have been truthful.

Baghdad Taxi Dance

2005-12-31T20:42:00.000+03:00

I was watching a short documentary on one of the many new TV channels the other day. The crew was accompanying a taxi driver around a day of ‘usual’ business in Baghdad describing his experiences with people, traffic jams and dangers.

The man, who seemed to be in his late 40’s, was an engineer who had left for Britain in 1989 and then went to Malaysia for a better jib. He was laid off and took another job as a calligrapher of Qur’anic verses that took him to Abu Dhabi. He missed Baghdad and, according to his narrative, was prodded by his wife’s nagging. He came back home. The only job he found he could do was using his own car as a taxi.

This reminded me of the many taxi drivers I met over the past few years. In fact, taking a ride in a cab in Baghdad, and in other Iraqi towns, is almost always a unique experience.

Although there was always a law prohibiting the use of private cars as taxis, nobody bothered to enforce that law since the onset of those sanctions in 1990. You therefore meet all sorts of people working as taxi drivers; teenagers, granddads, university professors, civil servants, engineers, jobless army officers… and occasionally, the professional taxi driver.

Before the invasion, I rarely took a cab. Although I always hated traffic congestions, those were usually manageable before the unchecked rush of new cars, the total abandonment of traffic signals, traffic laws and the absence of traffic police rendered driving in Baghdad almost a unique and detestable experience. Now, the traffic police are back, but the numerous roadblocks, the various check points and the continuing disregard to all traffic laws still makes driving in Baghdad a nasty experience.

After the invasion, I began increasingly relying on taxis for a variety of reasons in addition to avoid driving. I used to take long walks for the benefit of my bad back, go to the internet shop etc. and then come back home in a taxi.

Taking a taxi in Baghdad has its own rituals. As soon as the taxi stops, he is told of the destination. If he doesn’t like it, he says so… sometimes apologizing, sometimes he just drives off. The price is then negotiated. Once that matter is settled, you get in. Men invariably take the front seat next to the driver and chat all the way to the destination. Women take the back seat and keep to themselves.

Following the usual greeting of “Allah bil Khair” the dance begins. Both driver and passenger start making tentative small talk to gauge one another for extreme views… or simply to determine where the other guy stands on the most important issues. The idea is to just touch on a few subjects and see the other’s reaction to them. This ‘dance’ usually takes about three minutes. Most people are very efficient and get that ritual out of the way in the minimum of time.

The driver is usually the more cautious party. He usually has to keep a long list of dangers in mind. Drivers know of too many stories of taxi drivers being stabbed or killed for their cars. Having an old run-down car is no guarantee of safety. Once that is done, a wide variety of topics, depending on the two people and their moods and interests, are talked about.

Like barbers, taxi drivers are usually full of stories. They meet so many different people everyday from all walks of life. If you can identify their personal filters and biases, you can learn a lot about the pulse of the street from a half hour taxi ride.

Cultural Differences and Respect

2005-12-19T00:37:00.000+03:00

How can chewing gum be lethal?

There is no shortage of cultural traits and behaviors Iraqi people have which give cause to despise these people. I can list hundreds of such traits. This essay is not about that; it is a view from the other side.

These little glimpses depict some of the cultural differences that led to enormous consequences following the American invasion of Iraq. Different people simply react differently to similar stimuli. What can only be seen as perfectly normal actions in one culture can convey unintended images to another. In many instances, society expects a certain mode of behavior.

***

It was a short video clip on Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005. There was a ceremony where the US army was handing over Saddam’s palace in Tikrit to the Iraqi authorities. The American Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad was present, in addition to other dignitaries, Iraqi and American.

There was a thud. The place was targeted by a mortar shell that didn’t explode. The clip showed a small glimpse of the chaos that followed: Men in expensive suits hiding themselves behind chairs; Men in army uniforms, some started to run, some crouched, and some moved rapidly to protect their superiors and their charge. One soldier threw himself to the ground, face down.

But, for a few seconds I noticed a group of four Iraqis in traditional Arab dress who remained sanding quietly. I thought that was fascinating! I am almost certain I saw one of them smiling! Weren’t those people afraid? Of course they were… but they couldn’t show it.

This brought to memory a tribal sheikh I knew who used to take his only son with him to the weekly tribal gathering - a routine assembly where tribal kin met and discussed things of common interest and solved some of the conflicts that needed addressing. For most part of a day, that young teenager had to endure long sessions of what must have been boring proceedings and discussions. If the boy as much as turned his head quickly following a sudden noise such as a slamming door or a shattered glass of water, that man, would scold the boy on the way back home. Sudden, undignified movements like those were simply unacceptable for a future tribal chief. Perhaps this example is a somewhat extreme, but it illustrates the point I am trying to make.

It also reminded me of a news conference given by Saddam’s Minister of Defense, Sultan H. Ahmed shortly before the fall of Baghdad. The man was sitting at a table; behind him was a curtain or a tent wall. Those who saw that briefing may remember it for something else: This man said that he expected the American army to reach Baghdad within five days at the same time when the infamous Information Minister, Sahhaf, was declaring victory. During the interview, there were several very loud blasts; the curtain shook. The man, either when listening or while talking, did not even blink an eye!

In much of tribal Iraq, which includes about half of all Iraqis, people in positions of leadership or authority are expected to remain calm and collected at all times, including times of crises. Posture is of utmost importance. This of course is not unique to Iraqis.

***

One of the major impressions that killed the halo of invincibility of the US army in Iraq was the perfectly normal reaction of crouching or running for cover when under attack. Time and again, I heard things like “they are not men; they panic”. This of course does not refer to the absolutely unforgivable act of spraying bystanders with bullets when, and sometimes after, being attacked. In a country so used to bangs and bombs going off (that frequently children take off to the street to watch planes sending missiles and bombs) such an action may be seen as ‘unbecoming’ to say the least!

The other “image killer” was soldiers with hands on triggers with guns pointing at people. Those postures were dictated by the need for readiness; however, they conveyed an image of fear, aggression and disregard, which most people found offensive.

It is probably perfectly normal for an adult American to be seen chewing gum in public. In traditional Iraqi society, the act of chewing a gum is reserved to women, but never in public. Country folk utterly despise city boys when they see them chewing gum. They regard it as feminine. Even little children are discouraged from doing it. The sight of grown, armed men chewing gum must have been one of the causes of many people losing their respect for those armed men! It simply conveys an unintentionally ‘undesirable’ image!

This also reminds me of a young US soldier manning the Iraqi side of the Iraqi-Jordanian border. He glanced at our passports with a lollypop in his mouth. I couldn’t help but notice the reaction on the taxi driver’s face: Utter contempt!

I really cannot blame those American boys for doing some things that are completely natural and normal. There was no way that they could have known that those little normal acts could be misinterpreted by others. But here I am talking about how perfectly normal actions can be seen from across the cultural divide. I cannot address the rights and wrongs of this. People’s cultures are different; we may see some of their attitudes as wrong or detestable, but that view will not change those attitudes, especially if they hold to them in their own environment and in their own country.

Tribal Pact

2005-12-12T14:22:00.000+03:00

Before the invasion, tribal resolution of major criminal or violent incidents only followed and complimented normal legal procedure. The tribe of the offending party employed ‘tribal’ relations and procedures to pacify, compensate or appease the injured party.

When this takes place, the heavy hand of the law was usually reduced by foregoing ‘personal rights’ to leave the ‘public rights’ take their course. Also, it was normal to seek the help of local (or sometimes central) police forces to pursue villains.

Over the past two years since the invasion, there has been a great deal of confusion regarding tribal responsibility towards numerous issues of enormous importance. This has taken a special significance in the absence of any real government presence, particularly in rural areas.

It must be pointed out here that the authority of the tribes in most of Iraq before the invasion was more ‘moral’ than physically affirmative.

Under the present circumstances, with the lack of any true muscle of the law, there was a great deal of confusion: cases of armed robbery; politically-induced violence; incidents of sectarian strife; common criminals claiming to be resistance fighters; people killed by ‘mistake’ by the resistance; collaborators killed intentionally by the resistance; terrorist (and other forces of darkness) acting completely outside tribal bounds.

***

It stared with one tribe. About 20 elders of that tribe met one morning to address these issues. They agreed on a pact defining their tribal responsibility. The pact was agreed and signed in the same morning.

They then made copies and distributed them to neighboring tribes so that others knew where that tribe stood and what they saw as the limits of their responsibility (for their own tribesmen or kin) and in relation to other tribes.

Abbreviated Translation:

Tribal Manifesto

During these difficult times that our beloved Iraq is going through, times characterized by the weakness of the authority of the state and the attack of numerous forces of evil and darkness, Iraqi tribes have an important positive role to play in reducing damage to our society.

The Iraqi tribes have indeed played important parts during the numerous periods of devastation and occupations that Iraq went through between periods of civilization. Those tribes had an important effect on preserving our country’s culture and noble values, despite the frequent charge that tribalism is a contributing factor to backwardness.

This positive role would be more effective if the criteria and the limits of tribal contributions were clear and well-defined.

For these reasons, the following guidelines have been approved and agreed by the signatory tribes:

Basic Criteria: All positions will be based on our traditional values and religious beliefs that are common to all of us.

Religion: Tribes cannot address the question of religious conflicts as the issue of religion much wider than tribal bonds and jurisdiction.

Sectarianism: Most of the tribes in Iraq have members who belong to one of the two major sects in Iraq (Sunni and Shiite). Consequently, tribes cannot be associated with any sect. That would lead to conflicts within the tribe itself… which would be like strife within a single household.

Politics: Political belief is a personal matter. It would be unthinkable for a whole tribe to be Baathist, Communist, Socialist or Capitalist. It is therefore outside the bounds of tribal relations what a person’s political beliefs are as long as actions do not violate criminal or social codes.

Criminal acts: A tribe is responsible for any criminal act or misconduct by any of its members as is the norm in tribal relations. Resolution of acts such as robbery, assault, murder, etc. and their consequences should follow normal procedures tribes have always used. The only way a tribe can absolve itself of any responsibility of the wrongdoings by any of its members is for that tribe to disown that member. Members of that tribe would then be not accountable for that person’s deeds. That means that this tribe will no longer have any right to defend or to avenge that person.

Resistance: The Iraqi nation is larger and more important than any single tribe. National aspirations are wider concerns than tribal ones. People who see themselves as fighters defending their country against invasion or subjugation do not usually consult with their immediate tribes. Iraq becomes their larger tribe. Their immediate tribes cannot therefore be responsible for their actions.

***

This pact has found favorable response with other tribes and soon there was a meeting of tribal chiefs of the area (county) and the pact was discussed and approved in principle.

It was distributed to others so that they can suggest modifications or additions. Another meeting has been scheduled so that the modified version can be endorsed by them all so that it will be binding to all signatories in future conflicts.

World of Three Letter Words

2005-12-05T00:23:00.000+03:00

[This post is dedicated to my good friend Cecile. Although Dutch, she is more of a southern European in disposition… if we follow Fredrick Nietzsche’s categorization! I hope it may be of some use in her frustrating efforts to learn some Arabic.

The train of thought that led to this particular post was initiated by a message I received some time ago from a correspondent who was surprised that there were more than a hundred words in the Arabic language for the word “love”.]

The word Semite generally refers to one of the human races. The prevailing idea is that people of this race are descendants from Sam son of Noah. However, the word, as used by historians and anthropologists, generally refers to a group of languages which have common features. The most prominent of these features is that most words of the language derive from roots.

I am not familiar with other Semitic languages, but in Arabic, the roots are usually three-letter verbs. The immediate question that comes to mind is how could three letters of the alphabet generate a sufficient number of words to cover the very diverse human communication needs? The answer is simple: by cheating!

There are three vowels in Arabic and they come in two types: short ones and long ones. The short ones are not normally explicitly written (although, strictly speaking they should) but are usually inferred. They are therefore not counted! And this is what I mean by cheating!

Those short vowels are not considered letters; they are called ‘movements’. There are three main ones: a short “a”, a short “o” and a short “i”.

As an illustration of the derivation of words from those roots, consider the Arabic verb corresponding to ‘to write’: kataba. All three vowels are short ones in this case and the verb is written: k’t’b’ : ﹶﺏﹷﺘﹷﻜ or, less formally, ktb : ﺏﺘﻜ
Hence it can be regarded as a three-letter word.

The interesting feature is that many words can be derived from these three letters. For example: (I will denote short vowels by one character and long vowels by two.)

Kataba – he wrote
Katabat – she wrote
Katabaa – they (two, male) wrote
Katabataa - they (two, female) wrote
Katabu - they (male) wrote
Katabna – they (female) wrote
and so on for numerous verb variants for past, present and future tenses like…
Yaktubu – he writes
Taktubu – she writes
Yaktubaan – they (two, male) write
Taktubaan – they (two, female) write
…
Iktub – write (command tense, male)
Iktubee – write (command tense, female)
…
Other verbs can be derived from the original verb root, for example:
Kattaba – to dictate
Kaataba – to correspond with
… these become roots for the same derivations of verb tenses similar to those mentioned above!

Apart from verbs, numerous other words are derived from those ‘three’ letters (similar to, say, ‘writer’, ‘writings’, etc. in English). Below are some examples to illustrate the concept.

Kitaaba – writing
Kaatib – writer
Kaatiba – writer (female)
Kitaab – book
Kutaib – booklet
Maktoob – letter
Maktab – office
Maktaba – library
Mukaataba – correspondence or contract
Kuttaab – school (old form)
Kitba – fate

This actually leads to a profusion of words that can be derived from almost every verb. The result is a wide variety of words that refer to the same basic thing but with slightly differing shades of meaning.

There are indeed more than a hundred words in the Arabic language for the word “love”. Now I hope you know why. There are also hundreds of words for things like walking, running, smiling, crying, the camel, the horse, the sword, rain, clouds and many other items and feelings. The greatest benefactor has naturally been Poetry. It has to be mentioned though that some of those subtle differences in meaning are being lost, perhaps forever, in these times of utility, speed, junk food and junk words.

I have mentioned before that my own favorite poet is someone called Al Mutanabbi who lived about 1000 years ago. Another great poet, Abul ‘Alaa, was so fond of Mutanabbi that he once wrote something like: “When I read through the collected works of Mutanabbi, I find that I cannot replace a single word of his with a better one”. He then goes on to painstakingly demonstrate his point. This, to me, is perhaps the greatest compliment paid to a Poet by a great critic.

Finally, and while on the subject of language, it may be worth mentioning that because of the ‘flowing’ shapes of Arabic characters they lend themselves naturally to the beautiful art of calligraphy.

Update:

Readers who are not confused enough by this post should have a look at the link sent to me by a reader. It is written by an American trying to come to grips with the Arabic language. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it made me chuckle a few times… but I’m sure most non-Arabic readers will have a different opinion!

Abu Khaleel

2005-11-28T15:19:00.000+03:00

What's in a Name!

I have already discussed the 'Abu' part of the name in an earlier post.

Khaleel (sometimes written Khalil) is one word in Arabic, meaning 'close friend' – but also alludes to spending time together in companionship. Another form of the word is 'Khil', with almost the same meaning.

The letters “kh” refer to one letter in Arabic. The closest pronunciation is as in the Scottish “loch”.

The word “Khaleel” is commonly associated with Prophet Abraham who is usually referred to as "Ibrahim, Khaleel Allah". Abraham was born in Ur, in ancient Iraq. I would like to think that no other single individual had more influence on religious thought of the world. He is so revered in these parts that he is frequently referred to as "Abul Anbeya" - Father of all Prophets.

On closer examination, the name turns out to be composed of two parts: Khal-eel, or Khal-il. Khal is definitely a corruption of "Khil" or close friend. The second part is derived from the word "el" which is an ancient word for God.

So, in essence, Khaleel means "friend of God"!

Those two letters, el or il are usually associated with Hebrew. However, they seem to have been in existence long before Hebrews or Arabs became know as distinct races. They were used originally not only by the ancient Sumerians of Iraq (who were not Semitic) but also by the Semitic Babylonians. At one stage, Inl-il was the most senior of Gods of Sumer.

In Arabic, A god is called ilah or elah. Even today, the Arabic word for God – Allah is a modified word from al-ilah, the God.

Many other old and current words commonly known across the world whether in the Judeo-Christian or Islamic heritage begin to have clearer meaning. This fact sheds interesting light on a number of other common names.

Babylon – more commonly known locally as Babil or Babel (bab = door) - Gateway to God.
Israel (Jacob son of Issac and Abraham’s grandson) - Slave of God (=Abdullah!)
Arbil (a northern, Kurdish city in Iraq) – (arba’ = four) - City of four Gods.
The list is long.

I would suggest that names such as Gabriel, Michael etc... ending with 'il' or 'el'... have Iraq's signature in them!

If only Michael Ledeen or Ambassador Khalilzad knew!

My Iraq - This is where I want to die

2005-11-21T16:48:00.000+03:00

[This post is dedicated to my daughter who is abroad at the moment and who keeps urging me to leave!]

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have."

Abraham Lincoln

***

These stories and anecdotes I have been writing for a while are indeed a Glimpse of Iraq. A country that is more than 6000 years old that has given so much to humanity – and yet, it is largely unaccredited for it and unrecognized - a country that presents a harsh and a scruffy picture to the casual onlooker and to the observer with no penetrating mind or with a dead soul. But they are not really just a Glimpse of Iraq. They are in fact a glimpse of my Iraq and a glimpse of me.

Most people I know think, and sometimes say, that there is something wrong with me, staying in the unbearable hell-hole while being fully capable of leaving this sinking boat and making a good life elsewhere. I will not talk about duty. I will not talk about making a stand in the face of adversity and the forces of darkness. I will not talk about the many rational reasons that I feel I have. In this post, I will mention one ‘minor’ reason that I rarely state.

***

Some time ago, I chanced across a comment somewhere by someone discussing the Sunni Shiite issues and wondering why these people were so immersed in an issue 1400 years old in a country with a 6000 year history. Reflexively I wrote that those 6000 years are there but many people are not aware of them.

That is true.

All those 6000 years of glory, violence, suffering and achievement are there. I see them everyday in people's words and gestures, in their toughness and resilience, in their capacity to handle impossible hardships. I see those 6000 years in the features of little children… and I feel them in my veins.

Many people can only see the hardship, the dirt, the blood and the suffering. I can see a people who, unassisted, put a limit to looting and lawlessness. I see a people who refuse to kill each other and be drawn into stupid sectarian battles. I can tell you stories! I see people with patience that is legendary. I see people who try to go about their shattered lives amid the blood and the chaos and the suffering. I see people who spend all night and fast all day sitting in their cars, waiting for petrol… and when dusk sets in, they break their fasting with a cold sandwich.

I can see people who can tell jokes about it all.

All those 6000 years are there. I see them in little things people do, in their everyday gestures, in their unique way of handling impossible hardships. Those years are there. They come to the rescue… and most people don’t know it!

I see them in date palm trees, tall, proud and beautiful… with their fruit only accessible to the skilled and their beauty only maintainable through expertise and hard work. Yet, they can survive unendurable neglect, and be ready to shine again with care.

Yes! I feel sad and angry and bitter most of the time. But these people remind me every single day that I cannot lose hope. It is only a question of scale. We have to think in longer terms. And that, that is what this country is all about.

This country can be invaded, and it has been, more times than I would care to count. It can be ravaged, bombed, looted and ruined. But I know, in my heart, that it will never be permanently crushed. Six thousand years of experience tell me that it will rise again… and that it will be a lantern to show the world yet again the missing link between mind and soul, between knowledge and spirit… for the world seems to have largely lost that link.

This is where I want to live. This is where I want to be buried when I die… in the hope that my decomposed body will one day be food for a tall and proud palm tree.

Little Glimpses

2005-11-14T23:14:00.000+03:00

[This post is dedicated to my son who is away. A taste of home, in case he misses it!]

Shopkeeper wisdom

I was talking to a shop keeper some time ago. He was relating an argument he had with someone. The other man had said that Saddam was better than the lot holding power in Iraq at present. The shopkeeper had a different view: he said that saying “Saddam was better” implies that both were good! The proper way was to say that this lot was “worse than Saddam”. That implies that they were both bad.

I can’t argue with that!

Illiterates with Mobile ‘Phones

Sometime ago, I met a farmer who was an old, illiterate man. He had a mobile ‘phone. I asked how he managed to use it. He said that it was quite simple. Some of his children stored his contacts for him on the ‘phone. He would fumble with the keypad and make a call to anybody at random. He would then ask whoever he was calling to pass on his message to the one he had in mind! Usually the one he was trying to call would call back… making the phone call also less costly!

The Lone Insurgent

He is a retired army officer in his mid fifties. He is totally convinced that America is an enemy. He has dedicated his life to expel the invaders. But he does not trust anybody, so he works alone.

He puts his AK47 machine gun and his RPG (rocket propelled grenade launcher) in the trunk of his car and roams the streets of Baghdad and the surrounding areas. He never acts rashly and waits for a good ‘hit’. When the opportunity presents itself, he makes that hit, and goes back home.

Putting the Prince in his Place

Iraqi ‘insurgents’ are usually called Mujahideen (holy warriors) in the countryside and in small towns whether they are religious or not. The Islamic insurgents are organized in cells or clusters. Each is led by what they call an “Ameer” – Prince. In some areas of Iraq they are a force to be reckoned with, feared and/or respected.

This particular “Prince” had a quarrel with a hard-nosed old farmer. The quarrel was purely social. They were distant kin. The old man took a few of his boys and they gave the Prince a severe beating.

The cell the Prince was responsible for issued an ultimatum for the old man and two of his close kin to move out of the area within three days. The old man took four car loads of his lot, set up a road-block in the area and kidnapped three of the Mujahideen. He did not release them until that particular cell issued a written apology to the old man… and promised not to bother him again.

I find the image of those fierce fighters who have been causing so much headache to the most powerful army in the world being beaten up and kidnapped by a simple farmer… quite amusing, almost hilarious!

A Glimpse of Sistani

2005-11-08T00:33:00.000+03:00

No other person in my memory was held in so much regard by so many ordinary Iraqis or had so much non-coercive influence on them since the late President Nassir of Egypt. What is amazing is that, while Nassir had a way with words that inflamed the nationalistic feelings of people, this soft-spoken old man has said so little in public….

Over the past two years, he has had more influence over Iraqi politics than any other figure in Iraq. For a man who rarely left his own house, or said a single word to the mass media, this is quite phenomenal!

Who is Sistani?

His full name is Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini Sistani.

Grand Ayatollah is his religious title, the highest in the Shiite clergy hierarchy; Ayatollah roughly means: “A Sign of God”. Ali is his personal birth name. Husseini indicates that he is a Sayyed whose lineage goes back to Hussein, one of Imam Ali’s two sons. Sistani derives from the town in Iran, Sistan, where his family comes from.

I did not pay much attention to Ayatollah Ali Sistani during the Saddam years but I knew was that he had good standing among devout Shiite laymen and clerics. He certainly kept a low profile and rarely left his home/office. I'm told he never left his house for more than 8 years!

When Saddam started targeting the senior Shiite clergy, most notably the defiant and outspoken Sadr (Moqtada’s father) he spared Sistani. The rumor in vogue at the time was that the government was eliminating troublesome competition to the moderate Sistani, whom they probably felt that they could do business with. However, Sistani himself was reported to have been ‘detained’ for a while later.

During the early hazy months following the invasion, almost suddenly, everybody started talking about Sistani. In those early days, he made a very good impression of being a moderate. I must say that many of his declared positions after the invasion of Iraq were admirable: an unequivocal stand against looting and chaos, a clear stand against Sunni-Shiite sectarianism strife and a firm stand for democracy. What surprised me was that he managed to say very little, but what he said made sense.

Unlike the late Khomeini of Iran, Sistani almost never communicates with people in public and does most of his business through small meetings, through ‘representatives’ making announcements on his behalf or through ‘Fatwas’. [A fatwa is a ‘considered’, usually written, religious opinion.]

Some people sometimes wonder why Sistani did not make any of his announcements himself. The reason is obvious. The reaction to his heavy Iranian accent would be negative in both ‘Sunni’ and most ‘Shiite’ quarters alike.

Report of a visit to Ayatollah Ali Sistani

This is the most authentic first hand account of an audience with the Ayatollah that I know of. It gives a good glimpse of Sistani [From a private communication, in 2004]:

[“…
…
It was a small delegation representing [… a few ‘Sunni’ Arab and Kurdish tribes]. A few other “Shiite” friends came along for the honour of seeing His Holiness.
…
We were an hour and a half late for the appointment (the traffic jams were something I have never seen the like of). Nevertheless, his staff, his son (and later, he himself) went out of their way to make us feel welcome.

We sat on the floor of a sparsely furnished room (very much like the reception room of a not-very-poor peasant), were served tea, had a pleasant chat with his son, a very bright (and obviously very ambitious), courteous young man of around 30.

He came in a few minutes later, didn’t shake hands and squatted in that way only clergymen know how. We were introduced one by one, his eyes were alive and alert and very much like an earthly man, examining each closely!

Nazar K. spoke first saying that his eminence was talking for all Iraqis when he wanted elections. As sunnis we were fully with him on that. Then he responded.

He had a heavy (and I mean really heavy) Persian accent which he didn’t (and couldn’t) hide. He used classical Arabic, but the structure of his sentences was not perfect.

He talked a lot…a lot! His response for 30 seconds of courteous pleasantries was a 10 minute monologue! That was when I was shocked!

The man was a secular! I have never heard a clergyman saying the things that we lot take to represent our secularism!

In response to Nazar’s statement, he went on and on about sunni’s and shia saying that these were doctrines differing on how to interpret Islam and they were all decent and good-intentioned. They were definitely no reason for bloody strife. He talked about the ancient pillars of the sunni doctrine and praised them all in detail and said how he respected them as men of faith and as scholars. The difference between the shia and sunna, he believed, was far less significant than the danger facing the Iraqi nation at present.

Well, personally that put him on my right side!

Then Omar S. sounded his fear that through democracy the shia would dominate Iraq, and consequently the Kurds.

He said that he didn’t believe there was much danger of that happening. The shia were not a single political entity. Some are atheists, some are secular; even religious shia did not all follow the same leader.

He said that he firmly believed that the clergy should not interfere with the running of people’s lives, with government or with administration (Now how on earth could you be more secular!). He had forbidden his followers from putting their noses into the state’s affairs. He said that clearly and categorically (several times to stress the point!)

It was my turn and I said something like “As an Iraqi I am grateful for Your Eminence’s honourable stand on democracy and I think that the country is fortunate to have you in this position in this particular instant of history.” (Yes I did!! And I meant it!!!!!!!)

I then asked him why he had requested the UN to examine the possibility of conducting elections. (I was partly moved by some fear I still have that the panel of UN experts may “conclude” that it is too soon or too unstable to have elections at present. Then we really would have a major problem in our hands!)

He denied that flatly and said that he never did and that my information was probably based on media reports (which was true!). He said he did not feel obliged to accept the UN ruling on elections. He thought the Americans wanted the UN involved because they were having difficulties! He was set on calling for elections as the only possible way for Iraq to regain its sovereignty.

Some of the other things he said (This is a rather loose translation!):

“The most important thing at this time is unity. Division of the people is treason! Even silence, in these turbulent times, is evil!

“Give my regards to your tribes and to the sunna clergy and tell them that Sistani “kisses their hands” and begs them to unite with all Iraqis, Shia, Kurds, Christian, Turkmen. You just unite, and count on me to stand up to the Americans! The worst that could happen is that I die! That doesn’t worry me!”

He mentioned the late de Milo of the UN and said he was “a good man”

He mentioned “the one who was killed in Najaf” and said that he had “talked to him”, meaning “advised him”. I took that to refer to Al-Hakeem. This was the only disguised statement he made in more than an hour of talking.

He mentioned the “Arab Nation” so many times! He evidently viewed himself as an Arab. Being born Persian did not affect the fact that he was a Sayyed. He made that perfectly clear.

He does not believe in “Wilayat al Faqeeh” as the clergy in Iran do (as you know, this is the cornerstone of Khomeini’s doctrine). He repeatedly stressed that religion has to be separated from government!

He was extremely humble in his talk, his attire and his mannerisms.

He was much younger than I had thought; looked like early seventies but quite agile and healthy-looking.

He talked so softly, almost in whispers, that I had to really stress myself to hear what he was saying. (Being the insolent person that I am, at one time during the meeting I said I wasn’t hearing him well !!!!! There were only three people between us! There was some space on either side of him which people left out of respect…and he invited me to sit next to him which I did!)

He didn’t use any of the rhetoric clergymen usually wrap everything they say with. He was quite plain and direct. I found that really odd for a person in his position!

We were late for our appointment. We stayed there for about an hour and a half. Apparently someone else was waiting to see him. So, his son (who was apparently managing the old man’s schedule) was obviously beginning to sweat, but was too polite to say anything. We finally took the hint!

There you are! I felt that I should share this experience with you and I have tried to reflect as much as I could of it in its true spirit…wil Abbas (non-Iraqis, this is a shiite oath)!

I now believe that the American Administration could not have wished for a better person at the head of the shia clergy hierarchy. Let’s wait and see how they handle him!
”]

Those words were written nearly two years ago. Since then, he has had so much influence on the political process in Iraq. Personally, I did have more than a change of mind concerning him… based on his major political positions. The gentleman bewilders me!

More…

The Eid and the Caterer

2005-11-04T23:14:00.000+03:00

For some people in Iraq, today is the first day of the Eid. For others, it is the second!

After a full month of fasting from dawn to dusk, Iraqis like many other millions in the Muslim world, celebrate for three days. They call it the Eid. It is one of two religious festivals. The other, four days long, takes place after the Hajj – the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Because Muslims follow the lunar calendar, the Eid falls in different times every year – it shifts by about ten days every year relative to the solar calendar. This adds some variety to life! These years the Eid has been coinciding with the autumn – a wonderful time of the year for festivities, in most of Iraq. Our autumns are more like springs in other countries.

But the uncertainty of timing adds a bit of confusion to proceedings and to people’s ability to plan. For some reason, too many people are not yet convinced that the birth of the new moon can be computed ahead! There is also a traditional difference of timing between Shiites and Sunnis in determining when the new moon is born, and hence when to start the Eid. Shiites generally prefer to be extra sure and therefore they almost invariably start the Eid one day after the Sunnis.

For generations, Iraqis have learned to live with that. It has never caused any conflict or hard feelings. On the contrary, it has always been a source of jokes and amusement.
I also know many Shiites who start their Eid with the Sunnis simply for convenience. This tradition has continued through those two years of sectarian tensions. This year for example, Moqtada Sadr’s people (probably to spite Sistani!) as well as large segments of secular Shiites started their Eid with the Sunnis.

‘Mixed’ households, which are a lot more than most outsiders imagine, enjoy the superb benefit of sharing the festivities of first day gathering with both husband’s and wife’s families!! First they go to the Sunni spouse’s ‘first day’. The following day they go to the Shiite partner’s ‘first day’ family gathering. That, one has to admit, is better than any compromise solution!

The Eid, like Christmas, is a time of socializing and of visitations… only on a larger scale. It does not involve the immediate family only. Young ones you are taken (forced, sometimes) to visit uncles and aunts and parents’ friends. Naturally, this is a constant source of some resentment and a cause for rebellion!

The usual procedure is that all sons, and their families, will visit their parents’ home and have lunch together with something like an Italian wedding gathering. When the parents pass away, the elder brother usually acts as host.

The traditional Eid greeting is “Ayyamkum Saeeda” which literally means: “May your days be happy”… Happy Days!

A few days ago, I was at a caterer’s shop I usually go to. When I came into the shop, the proprietor, who is Christian, was having an argument with a patron. The patron wanted to order a Quzi, a traditional dish where a whole roast lamb is served on a large tray full of seasoned rice and other delicate additives.

The owner was repeating in an angered tone: “Don’t give me that ‘first day of Eid’ thing! Sunnis say this and Shiites say that. No, no, no! Give me a specific date”. The man kept saying that he couldn’t. He didn’t know when the Eid will be.

I couldn’t help laughing. They all smiled back… and then went on arguing.

I don’t know how many times I have heard that argument over the years! Always the same. The caterer will have to manage… like he always does, every year. But they still love having those arguments.

Najaf - Sistani’s City

2005-11-01T00:33:00.000+03:00

River water is so important to life in central and southern Iraq that most cities are built immediately on one of two large rivers, or one of their branches. Najaf (like the other holy city, Kerbala) is not… although it appears to be so on smaller maps. The whole town was built around a tomb of Imam Ali.

For more than a thousand years, there have been two main activities in that city: religion and commerce. Commerce in the city derives mainly from its religious activities! Visitor hordes are there for the numerous pilgrims from other parts of Iraq and other countries, most notably Iran, doing ziaras (or holy visits)… or to bury their dead. So may people bury their loved ones in the holy soil of Najaf that the city ended with what is probably the largest cemetery in the world.

These activities naturally reflected on the nature of the city’s inhabitants. Najafis, as a result, have earned the reputation in Iraq of being good salesmen and formidable debaters.

The effect of religious institutions on the life of the city runs deep. Centuries of study, research and dialogue resulted in a rich literary tradition. Najaf took pride in producing numerous non-religious literary figures, poets and historians… as well as political activists and leaders. The city played a central role in the revolution against British occupation in 1920. The current leader of the communist part comes from Najaf.

The religious institutions and the literary tradition are so central in the life of that city that it is not unusual for a family to acquire its name from the title of a highly regarded book published by one of its members. Perhaps the best know example in the outside world is “Bahr il Uloom”. Mohammed was a member of the now defunct IGC. His son, Ibrahim, is currently the Oil Minister in the Ja’afari government. “Bahr il Uloom” literally means “Sea of the Sciences” and is in fact part of the title of a book authored by one of their ancestors!

The nature of the city was summarized so concisely by a famous Najafi poet, Ahmed al Safi who said:

My town’s imports are coffins…
… My town’s exports are turbans.

‘Turbans’ refer to the religious clergy. In that city, you see them everywhere. They are a sign of distinction. A scholar who is a Sayyed (a descendant of Imam Ali) dons a black turban. One who isn’t has a white one. Usually, the higher up in the hierarchy the person is the larger his turban! Non-scholars do not wear turbans; however, a Sayyed who is not a scholar usually has something green (or, much less frequently, black) in his headgear. Green headbands (worn by members of the Mehdi Army for example) are something else.

The University called Hawza

They call it The Hawza. The word derives from the three-letter verb ‘haz’ - to acquire. The acquisition here refers to knowledge – religious knowledge in particular. It is basically a university, complete with students and competing professors.

At any given time, there are usually a handful of scholars at the top of that hierarchy, known as Mujtahideen – people who can ‘interpret’ and give an opinion on religious issues. Lesser scholars, known as Muqallideen, or ‘imitators’, follow the teachings of the first group. They choose whom to emulate, and consequently determine the master’s scholarly status.

At the moment there are 5 such senior figures. Ali Sistani, is the supreme head of that ‘university’. They (or sometimes only the most senior figure) are frequently referred to as The Marje’ia, “The Reference” (or source of emulation) - the ultimate authority in a chain of command. And in Shiite religious, and sometimes not-so-religious, matters… they are.

All students are financially supported by the Hawza throughout their learning career.
Money comes from donations made by devout Shiites. Many such people willingly give 20% of their yearly income. That usually means a lot of money! Donors choose which ‘scholar’ they pay the money to, and hence have an indirect effect on the ‘popularity’ of that particular professor. Senior figures can have control over enormous funds.

People, and sometimes heads of state, constantly make donations to the shrine. These can be sizeable: great works of art, precious rugs, gold artifacts, etc. The shrine also holds many valuable treasures accumulated over a thousand years. The government put its hand on those funds for the past several decades. That significant financial resource was an undeclared issue in much of the conflict over the control of the shrine in Najaf after the invasion. Many Najafis believed that Moqtada was really after that control during the conflict; hence all that fuss about the keys to the shrine and Sistani’s refusal to receive them until the shrine was evacuated of Moqtada’s supporters.

Those clergy are quite influential, not just in Najaf and not just in Iraq. In Iraq, all Shiite mosque preachers and local religious leaders look up to them for guidance. Most devout Shiites follow their directives. Local leaders and tribal chiefs have to show sufficient respect.

For most of the past 1000 years, the Hawza was situated in Najaf. It had to move out several times, but usually came back again. That long tradition, in addition to the fact that the whole city was built around Imam Ali’s tomb, has given Najaf considerable edge over other contenders.

Kadhimeyyah, in Baghdad, has always had a Shiite scholarly tradition, but never came near achieving the status of Najaf. Qum in Iran had supreme status (in Iran, and has acquired considerable influence in Iraq following Khomeini’s reign and the Iran-Iraq war, as I have mentioned in an earlier essay). But, in Iraq, the Hawza in Najaf remains the Reference for most devout Iraqi Shiites.

A unique feature of the Hawza is that for more than a thousand years, it never enjoyed earthly power (like the Catholic Church for example). Most of the time, it was in a weak position of opposition. Yet it wielded enormous power on millions of people… purely through their faith… voluntarily. Much of that comes out of respect and social pressure. At the same time, the Hawza managed to keep its hierarchy relatively free from the interference of those holding earthly power, assisted no doubt by its financial independence.

In that city, the unchallenged head of the Hawza, Ayatollah Sistani, reigns supreme.

Iran and Iraq: Influence and Mistrust

2005-10-24T02:12:00.000+03:00

[This post is dedicated to my cyber-friend Hoots who has posted an excellent account of the recent presidential elections in Iran a while back. I am most grateful for his valuable feedback on the draft of this essay. This post is an attempt to provide some background; more contemporary political issues are addressed in my other blog “Iraqi Letters”. An extended version of both essays combined can be found here ]

A Long History of Interaction

The story is as old as recorded history. There have been raids and counter-raids across the Iraqi-Iranian borders since the earliest city-states around 3000 BC. Conflict also naturally brought cultural interaction.

The ‘modern’ episode started after the fall of Babylon. The Persians occupied parts of Iraq for several centuries. Their capital at one time, Ctesiphon, was on the River Tigris just south of Baghdad.

That episode was terminated by the Islamic conquest in the 7th Century. The Persian occupation of Iraq was swiftly swept away… and Persia itself rapidly crumbled to occupation. Persia and the surrounding areas soon all became predominantly Muslim. Cultural influence soon followed the religion, to the extent that the Persian language adopted the Arabic script (as well as numerous Arabic words) which they use to this date. As an illustration, consider the following ‘extreme’ example:

But at the same time, the Iranians had several spells of considerable political influence during the days when Baghdad was the center a sprawling empire. Persian philosophers and scientists made significant contributions to that civilization. They also helped ‘import’ Indian numerals to Iraq, whence they spread throughout Arabia.

So, it ironically ended up with most of the world using Arabic numerals and most of the Arab world using Indian numerals. The Arabs added an important nothing – the zero.

The Caliphs of the time, for political reasons, relentlessly persecuted Imam Ali’s progeny, leaders and symbols of the Shiite faith. Many fled to neighboring Persia. That was to have special significance that was to last up to the present. But Iran was predominantly Sunni throughout that period.

After the disintegration of that empire, Iran went its own way down the path of history. But she was strong enough again to stand up to the Turkish Ottoman Empire when the latter was beginning to weaken under its own weight and illnesses. Their main battleground was in Iraq!

The rulers of Iran at one became strong advocates of the Shiite sect. By the 18th century, most of Iran, as parts of south-eastern Iraq, was Shiite. It was that conflict between the (Sunni) Ottomans and the (Shiite) Persians that colored the Sunni-Shiite divide in Iraq! That conflict was so acute that when one of the Persian monarchs, Nadir Shah, decided to bring the sects together and managed to set up a major convention in holy Najaf in Iraq, the world ‘Capital’ of the Shiite faith for the leading clergy of the two sects… he was assassinated by his own bodyguards.

Religious Influences

A great deal of the influence in recent history was religious in nature.

Although they never admit it, Iraqis are generally and characteristically rather ‘casual’ about their religion and their adherence to it. This should not be taken at face value. They generally hold it in great esteem and will not tolerate any attack on it; they just don’t adhere to what they regard as ‘inconvenient’ aspects of it.

Iranians, on the other hand, are for some reason traditionally more attached to their religion - probably to the extent of being zealot about it! Iraq is almost universally seen as a holy land by many religious Iranians: It is the land where so many of the divine Imams are buried… and the land where the 12th Absent Imam, the Mehdi, disappeared. It was also the seat of the Shiite supreme clergy.

People sometimes tend to underestimate the influence of that establishment. Early in the last century, the Shah decided to give tobacco rights to some foreign concern. The clergy disapproved. The most senior ayatollah at the time issued a ‘fatwa’ (a religious verdict or opinion) that banned smoking for a while. The people abided. The Shah’s project failed and he had to back down!

Arabs, like many other people, generally take their names and lineage from their fathers only, in defiance of the laws of heredity! With so many of Imam Ali’s descendents living in Iran, many kept their claim to be Sayyeds (of Imam Ali’s blood). This is why Khomeni was a Sayyed… and this is why Ayatollah Sistani can claim to be an Arab, although of Persian birth and tongue.

I remember visiting Iran for the first time in the 1960’s when I was a young man. I took a taxi to go somewhere. Through the barrier of language, I tried to communicate with the taxi driver. He managed to find out that I came from Iraq. The man started crying and repeating words like “Hussein” and “Kerbala”. I was quite shocked by his reaction. It made a deep and lasting impression on me!

I find it sad that a country that had so much influence on another one (to the extent of being held in so much reverence by ordinary people) to waste it so recklessly. But that was exactly what the policies of Saddam did. [This is also reminiscent of the effect of the present US administration’s policies on many countries around the world]. He helped weaken the traditionally moderate center of Shiite religious reference which moved from Najaf in Iraq to Khomeini’s domain in Iran…Qum. Khomeini, who himself spent some 14 years learning in Najaf, was only too happy to oblige.

That simple sentiment of reverence for Iraq and its holy places was to be turned around and used again and again in the Iraq-Iran war to motivate simple people to be fodder for that war. I heard numerous accounts from Iraqi soldiers about simple Iranian soldiers being led to believe that holy Kerbala or Najaf was just beyond that hill or enemy encampment. In truth those places were usually across the two rivers… many, many miles away! In effect, they were frequently sent into certain death.

Reversal of Influence

In the lead-up to that war, Saddam figured that people of Persian extraction were a weakness in the home front. He quite mercilessly dumped hundreds of thousands of such people on the border with Iran. There were many stories of hardship; many grievances; many homes and businesses abandoned by rightful owners and taken over by the government and given to cronies; many personal tragedies of families separated; many people dumped in a foreign country penniless with no knowledge of language or any relations there! There were many people who were not even of Iranian origin displaced in this manner. However, all were Shiite. It was one of the many horrible tragedies many Iraqis had to live with during the past decades. Many of those who had some money or education went on to other countries, but those deprived of both had to remain in Iran. The deep resentment understandably felt by many of them, sometimes verging on the irrational, can be seen at play today.

Those people were augmented by political and religious refugees who fled Saddam’s heavy hand during and after the war with Iran. And all those people were joined by another group, of mostly activists, who fled Iraq following the failed uprising of 1991 that followed the first Gulf war and which Saddam crushed ruthlessly under the nose of the American army. Those groups were the breeding ground that produced some of the most influential movements and politicians now shaping the political arena in Iraq as well as its future. The soil was Persian.

Foremost among these forces is the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and its now-notorious Badr Brigade. The whole movement was conceived in Iran. It was nurtured, armed, financed and given very substantial support by the Islamic Republic of Iran. Their chief, al Hakeem, now leads the largest coalition in the Iraqi Assembly. One of their prominent members is now Minister of the Interior, in charge of all police forces outside of Kurdistan.

From the above account, it may be evident that the ‘direction’ of influence, particularly religious influence, between the two countries, has been quite abruptly reversed since Khomeini’s Islamic revolution in Iran.

Mistrust of a Foreign Power

The vast majority of indigenous Iraqi politicians, historians and much of the public believe that Iran sees itself as a regional superpower and has always had dreams of dominating the region. The Gulf, which they insist on calling ‘The Persian Gulf’, is a cornerstone in their foreign policy. The late Shah Mohammed Reza made no secret of his imperial aspirations and worked energetically to consolidate Iran’s influence in the Gulf. He raided and took 3 small islands belonging to Emirates in the ’70. Iran still holds to them.

That view of Iran’s ambitions was hammered into the general public’s consciousness using the media during the war with Iran (much like the way some of the American media was used to convince ordinary Americans of the threat posed by Iraq to America) until a whole generation accepted it as a fact. The mistrust still exists.

On a more social level, foreigners are called “Ajam” in Arabic. In Iraq, the word is almost used exclusively to refer to Iran. An Iranian is called Ajmi in a tone that is akin to the Japanese use of a similar term, “gaijin”, which is often considered insulting or demeaning.

Loyalties and Allegiance

Over the past two years, there has been considerable Sunni-Shiite polarization in Iraq. Some people assume that Shiites are generally inclined to lean towards Iran. The issue is quite complex. I will mention only two of the many opposing forces.

Because of the association with Iran through the Shiite faith, some misguided Sunnis sometimes insinuate that Shiites are more inclined to Iran. Such an insinuation is taken as a grave insult by an Arab Iraqi Shiite for it implies a denial of lineage and heritage. Again, it seems to me to demonstrate an ascendancy of ethnicity over religious sectarianism. This however is mainly a ‘city’ affair. I have never heard it in the countryside. For tribal people, lineage is not a suitable subject for insinuations!

On the other hand, a new major force has emerged since the invasion: Arab nationalism is attacked as racist and damaging to the country. This is at present a powerful lobby that boasts many influential members including, intentionally or not, the US administration. This has given some of the advocates of this theme, with a “Shiite” agenda of their own an opportunity to hammer the idea that most Arabs outside Iraq are Sunnis and it would therefore be in the interest of the Iraqi Shiites to side with Iran.

A small lesson from history may put this in context: Turkey is predominantly Sunni. Sunnis in Iraq were for some time associated with the Ottoman Turks. The Turks generally mistreated Iraqi Shiite for centuries. However, during the British invasion of Iraq in 1914, most of the Shiite clergy sided with the Turks against the ‘infidel’ English.

So, where does the allegiance of the Iraqi Shiites lie?

This question keeps coming up again and again. The first time I personally thought about this issue was immediately before the 1980 war with Iran started. Many people began to quietly question where Iraqi Shiites’ hearts would lie in that conflict.

Within a week of the beginning of that war, a wise old man told me that on the question of nationality and sectarianism, nationalism and patriotism would come first. He was proven correct on numerous occasions.

In one particular incident, that came out astonishingly clearly. During 1982, the tides of that war began to turn and the Iranian army invaded parts of southern Iraq. Iran was close to taking one particular village called Baidha on the edge of the Iraqi Marshes. Residents were predominantly devout, simple Shiite peasants. The Iranians expected to be welcomed as liberators by the local population. To their surprise, even housewives, wielding kitchen utensils, went out to fight them! They were repelled.

The ‘Iraq’ Business

2005-09-20T14:28:00.000+04:00

Is Iraq an Artificial Construction?

[Time and again I come across statements that Iraq was a state ‘artificially’ constructed at the end of World War I by the occupying French and British out of the three separate Ottoman regions of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. These statements are frequently made by ‘experts’ on Iraq! I have come across such assertions only too often… I would like to elaborate on this, at least to have something to refer people to in the future!]

In a nutshell

Iraq’s habitation goes back at least to the end of the last ice age. As a single country, it has been in existence for about 4,400 years. In addition to the long history, the country has been defined by geography: The two rivers of Mesopotamia clearly define a geographically unified region surrounded by mountains on the east and desert on the west in which people have been freely mixing for several thousand years!

The two rivers in ancient Iraqi mythology

To the ancient Iraqis… it started, not with Creation, but with putting order into Creation… The following passages are from Enuma Elish , the Babylonian Myth of Creation:

[Long before the time of the new gods, and long before our human world... there was nothing in existence but chaos. This chaos was ruled by the old gods Apsu (fresh water) and Tiamat (the sea). So a new or younger generation of gods were created for the purpose of bringing order to chaos.

One of the young gods, Ea, the god of wisdom, slayed the old god Apsu. This made the goddess Tiamat angry at Ea and all of the other youthful gods. Tiamat, who was a dragon like goddess, successfully waged war against all of the younger generation Babylonian gods until finally, in the nick of time, Marduk was born. Marduk, son of Ea, was to be the strongest and wisest of all the gods. As such, he was chosen to deal with Tiamat once and for all…

Summoning all of the other young gods, Marduk went to war against Tiamat. Finally, in a one on one battle, Tiamat was no match for the great Marduk, Lord of the Four Quarters. Cornering Tiamat with the four winds at his command, Marduk caught Tiamat up in his net. When Tiamat opened her mouth to breath fire at him, Marduk let loose the Imhulla, "evil wind" or hurricane. The many winds of Marduk filled her up. The winds churning her up from within, rendered her defenseless. Then Marduk speared her with a lightning bolt.

Splitting Tiamat (the sea) in two, Marduk then raised half of her body to create the sky and with the other half created the earth. In the process of this splitting apart, Tiamat's eyes then became the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

In the realm above (heaven) Marduk set Anu, the sky god, and in the realm below (earth) Marduk set Ea, the earth god. Between the two, Marduk set the air god, Enlil. Other gods were then given their places in the heavens and then the stars were formed in their likeness.

The Sun, the Moon, and stars were at that time given special courses to run, and the constellations were to mark the passage of time. Through the measuring of time by the revolutions of the planets, order was established for ancient humanity.]

[It is perhaps comforting to know that the present-day god Murdock is attempting a similarly mammoth task of putting order in this world through Fox News and other ‘winds’ at his command!]

The Tigris and the Euphrates; it was those twin rivers that gave us Mesopotamia. Geography defined Iraq, even before history, and created that region… not the French and the British.

The earliest days – dawn of civilization

It started with city states, more than 7000 years ago. For a few thousand years Iraq was the birthplace of quite a number of them. They reached a level of sophistication by the standards of the time, unequalled except by Egypt.

Those city-states were then a new experiment in mankind’s history that produced sophisticated government, writing and record-keeping, the first written laws and work management that allowed people be freed from food gathering and production for personal consumption and allowed many to specialize in crafts. This was the spark that ignited technological and other developments. The very concept of organized society (the first step towards civilization) was started in Iraq through the creation of those early city-states. It seems that these were triggered by two major factors: abundance of produce in the fertile plains of southern Iraq (which allowed farmers to produce food more than their families needed) and the collective effort needed by the nature of irrigation in that region.

Those city states came and went, flourished and dwindled, expanded and decayed for a few thousand years in different parts of Iraq.Most of the time they were in competition and combat with neighboring cities. One of them was called ‘Uruk’ – a splendid civilization that flourished around 3000 BC - which I believe gave its name to the country.

Unification into one country

Then Sargon came along… Sargon, king of one of those city-states called Akkad, was the man who unified Iraq for the first time around 2400 BC and then went on to create the first known empire in the history of mankind.

Incidentally, the story of Sargon’s early childhood bears a disturbing resemblance to that of Moses .

1. Sargon, the mighty king, king of Akkadê am I,
2. My mother was lowly; my father I did not know;
3. The brother of my father dwelt in the mountain.
4. My city is Azupiranu, which is situated on the bank of the Purattu [Euphrates],
5. My lowly mother conceived me, in secret she brought me forth.
6. She placed me in a basket of reeds, she closed my entrance with bitumen,
7. She cast me upon the rivers which did not overflow me.
8. The river carried me, it brought me to Akki, the irrigator.
9. Akki, the irrigator, in the goodness of his heart lifted me out,
10. Akki, the irrigator, as his own son brought me up;
11. Akki, the irrigator, as his gardener appointed me.
12. When I was a gardener the goddess Ishtar loved me,
13. And for four years I ruled the kingdom.
14. The black-headed peoples I ruled, I governed;
15. Mighty mountains with axes of bronze I destroyed (?).
16. I ascended the upper mountains;
17. I burst through the lower mountains.
18. The country of the sea I besieged three times;
19. Dilmun I captured. [Dilmun is believed to be present-day Bahrain]
20. Unto the great Dur-ilu I went up, I . . . . . . . . .
21 . . . . . . . . .

The last 4000 years…

Iraq then went on from unification to disintegration so many times! Civilization after civilization rose, produced magnificent achievements and then crumbled and succumbed to local or foreign invasions… and then rose again.

Anybody who mattered in the old, and the not-so-old, world came here. They were all either repelled or ultimately dissolved in this 7000 year old melting pot.

The Greeks were also here, represented by the outstanding Alexander the Great, who died in Iraq. They certainly viewed it as a single country: Mesopotamia – the land between the two rivers. People in the west still use their corruption of the names of those two rivers: the Tigris and the Euphrates, Dijla and Furat [Furattu].

Before, during and after the Islamic conquest in the 7th century, the word “Iraq” was used to refer to this country. It was known as a single country throughout. It was certainly referred to as such in numerous official documents and much poetry. The Arabic alternative description of Iraq: Bilad al Rafidain (country of the two rivers) is still in common use to this day in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.

Later, Baghdad became the capital of an enormous and a glamorous empire under the Abbasids. Iraq was still a single region throughout their reign.

When Baghdad crumbled to the attack of the Mongols in 1258, it did not rise again. Invader after invader came from the east and north.

For several centuries, Iraq was the favorite battleground between the Ottoman Turks and the Persian Iranians. The Turks prevailed.

The Turks divided Iraq into three regions for purely administrative purposes. They were the zones around the three major cities of Iraq Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. There was nothing ethnic and sectarian about that division. All three were mixed Arab/Kurd and Sunni/Shiite. Yes, the southern region was also mixed. It was only during the 19th century that the southern basin of Tigris converted en masse to Shiism.

Then, the ‘Experts’ came…

That was the state of Iraq when adventurers, company and empire representatives and tools and probes of the European conflicting interests ‘discovered’ it to the West. This is why they were not lying when they wrote that Iraq was three-state contraption. They did not lie, but they did not even know part of the whole story either. They were ignorant of all that long history. Thus was the myth of an ‘artificial’ country created.

Look at the map of Iraq: Only the borders on the west and south-west are straight lines; lines drawn in the sand.

The rest were lines defined by a very long history of long bloody conflicts. The northern and eastern borders were dictated by a history that was too long to ignore. But the French and British were at liberty to draw the western and the southern lines of the map of Iraq in the vast areas of sand. Little did they know that those areas of empty desert were riddled with a history of their own. Except for the early Sumerians, most of the other people who produced all those wonderful civilizations came across those deserts. There were no borders there… until the end of WWI. But that is a different story.

This is how the map of modern Iraq was drawn. And this is why many ‘experts’ honestly believe that modern Iraq was so constructed… ‘artificially’ from the three Ottoman provinces at the end of World War I.

They were only in error of ignoring about 7000 years of history.

Baghdad Summer Days

2005-09-15T19:08:00.000+04:00

With summer drawing to a close, I feel I can write about summer in Baghdad with less steam in my words!

Is the world getting warmer as people keep telling us? I don’t know, but Baghdad certainly is! Baghdad summers were always excessively hot. Yet we are told that the second Abbasid Caliph al-Mansoor, who decided on this location for his capital 1240 years ago, chose it for its fair weather!

And yet there may be a grain of truth in this. Baghdad was much smaller. It was built on both sides of the Tigris in a location rich in orchards. Anyone who goes into an orchard in or around the Baghdad region can immediately sense a significant drop in temperature. It has to do with the dry nature of the air. Trees begin to act, through evaporation of moisture from their leaves, like natural air coolers.

This dryness of weather is a blessing. This is why some people in London, Rome or New York can die if the temperature reaches 40 (100 F), while in Baghdad the temperature can exceed 50 (120 F) in the shade… and people go about their normal business (apart from the fact that these people are practically indestructible!!)

We now know that the region of central Iraq, the valley of the two rivers (Mesopotamia) lies in a large depression. The desert is also quite close.

Traditionally, in the days before electricity, people had numerous ways of dealing with the intolerable heat. Noon siesta was one. Passive approach in architecture was another. I still remember thick, amazingly thick, external walls of old Baghdadi buildings, more than 1 meter wide… two walls of brick with more than a half a meter cavity filled with dried mud reinforced by straw, as an insulator; Very few, if any windows on the outside of the house, naturally for privacy but also to reduce heat gain; The rooms in the house face inward towards a small open yard, usually with a tree or two; Before cars, the residential areas did not have wide roads but very narrow alleyways (usually less than 2 meters wide) called ‘darboona’, to maximize the shade for people who walk outside.

In the summer, life after sunset used to be centered around the flat roof. It was sprinkled with water. Earthenware jugs were placed on the perimeter walls and let to sweat and cool their water.

In the sixties, noons in Baghdad were still intolerably hot. People avoided the noon sun. But life usually started to flow again in the afternoon.

The lunar year is about 10 days shorter than the solar one. Ramadan, the holy month of Muslim fasting shifts from year to year. Fortunately, Ramadan and fasting have been taking place in fairer times of the year. I remember times when Ramadan fell in summer months. That was a real test of faith! Even before all this religious revival, I used to be absolutely amazed by the devotion of poor laborers working in the noon sun (construction labor hours were, and still are 8am to 4 pm, with a one-hour break for lunch) in Ramadan, fasting all day at the same time and not drinking one drop of water until sunset!

There were also some jokes about it. One that I still remember had to do with someone who always talked ill about other people. His friends wagered 5 dinars if he could keep his mouth shut for a day. But they arranged for someone wearing a heavy coat to parade before him on purpose on a hot day. The man could not take that and yelled. “I will give you 10 dinars instead if you can see this @#$^&* and manage to keep your mouth shut!”

During the Iraq-Iran war, there were stories about soldiers amusing themselves by frying eggs on the metal work of their tanks and other vehicles!

And of course, I can tell you stories about elevated tempers!! It is perplexing that during these, hard two summers, people’s tempers are much less than those I know!

Breathing can feel like scorching your lungs! Going outside from a cool place may feel like opening an oven.

Water tanks are also kept on the flat rooftops. It can be a real test of endurance to take a shower at noon!

A wicked man once remarked that Iraqis do not have the fear of God in them because they already live in hell!!

I had a heat stroke sometime in 1980’s. I think it was my fault: too much enthusiasm in working on my farm and not enough respect for the summer noon sun! It left my temperature-regulating mechanism faulty so that to date I still suffer from excessive heat! Anyway, when I was ill, I started reading some medical books about it. An article mentioned something interesting. It appears that in some African country (or was it India?) they had a saying: "Only Englishmen and mad dogs go out in the noon sun". Well, I knew for certain that I was not an Englishman!

As elsewhere, to many people progress meant utter disregard to Mother Nature. Now, Baghdad like most other large metropolitans is a jungle of concrete and cars… and very hot indeed!

Sleeping on rooftops has largely been abandoned; too many stray bullets and shrapnel. I know of at least one fatal accident and three serious injuries that resulted from sleeping on the roof. In one of them a man was awoken in the middle of the night by a sting in one of his toes. Half asleep, he assumed that it must have been an insect, and went back to sleep, only to be woken up again by the pain and the wetness of the sheets!

It is rather difficult to convey the constant feeling of heat-exhaustion; the unbelievable amounts of water needed to compensate for all that sweat; the unending feeling of thirst; the anger of waking up in the middle of the night soaking wet; the annoyance of taking a shower before going out, changing into a new set of clothes only to have them soaking and wrinkled before leaving the house; the pain of touching metal with a temperature of 80 C (170 F); the constant feeling of shortness of breath; the agony of waiting for anything even for a few minutes under the noon sun; the agony of having a car break down in that heat; the fury of seeing loved ones red in the face, sweating and in pain, while there was nothing you could do about it.

So, with all those power cuts, you can imagine how happy and grateful all those poor inhabitants of Baghdad feel.

I still hate the summer noon in Baghdad.

Tragedy on a Bridge

2005-09-07T15:44:00.000+04:00

Some people call it pilgrimage. Iraqis call it a “ziara” – visit! In these zizaras, people pay homage to their divine Imams (religious leaders).

Shiites have 12 Imams as I have mentioned earlier. What most people outside Iraq don’t know is that at any given time, a ziara has anywhere between 5 and 10% of Sunnis! People, particularly country folk, take part in these activities across sectarian lines.

On that tragic day, more than a million people made their way to the shrine of the 7th Imam, Kadhim, to commemorate his death. Most people go on foot; many choose to go barefooted as a sign of devotion.

That particular bridge is called the “a-imma” bridge (The Imams’ Bridge)… as there are important Imams’ shrines on both sides. It links two northern districts of Baghdad, Adhameyyah and Kadhimeyyah, about which I had also written earlier in this blog. Both districts are ‘religious’ and traditional in character; one is predominantly Shiite, the other is mainly Sunni.

People going on foot from the eastern side of Baghdad have to go through Adhameyyah to get to the bridge. Residents of that district were outside in large numbers during the procession to offer water, food and even the use of their toilets to people going through their neighborhoods. To Iraqis, there is nothing unusual about that… but it doesn’t fit with the flat, two dimensional sectarian image of much of the media and of some ignorant bigots!

The bridge, according to the army general in charge of the security of Kadhimeyyah, was closed to all traffic. It was obstructed, for security reasons, by large concrete blocks on either side that allowed only one or two people to go through at a time. However, due to “certain pressures” that bridge was opened to the public on that particular day.

A rumor was started within the crowd that there was someone with an explosive belt or that there was a car full of explosives. People started running in a stampede. The exit being blocked, the hysterical congestion killed many against those concrete blocks, some people jumped into the river, but the congestion caused the side railings of the bridge to yield. People kept pouring; many fell to their death onto the river bank and into the water.

Was that tragedy avoidable? Naturally! Under the present precarious conditions, it would not be safe for people to converge in such high numbers for any reason. Imam Kadhim was not going to go anywhere. However, still influenced by Khomeini’s effective show of strength in Iran through demonstration of the massive bulk of the faithful, many ‘religious’ leaderships and parties quite irresponsibly encouraged people to converge to Kadhim on that frightful day! They should have done otherwise. Anyway, an enquiry is supposed to be underway. I doubt that anyone will be blamed, although the minister of health has asked for the resignation of the ministers of Interior and Defense.

More than a thousand people, mostly women and children, lost their lives.

Names Tell Long Stories in Iraq

That Imam’s full name was Imam Moussa (Moses) al Kadhim. He was generally known as “al Kadhim” (the Suppressor) because he was famous for containing his anger.

He died during the reign of Haroun (Aaron) al Rasheed (the Judicious) one of the most famous of the Abbasids Caliphs of Baghdad, the spread of the empire in whose time was so vast that he was reported to address a cloud in the sky and say: “Go where you please. Your taxes will come back to me!”

The Abbasids relentlessly fought Imam Ali’s descendents. Kadhim was reportedly poisoned in jail by Haroun al Rasheed. He was buried on the west side of the Tigris just north of Baghdad, more than a thousand years ago. The area became known as Kadhimeyyah.

Kadhim’s father, Ja’afar al Sadiq (the Truthful) was the 6th Imam in the Shiite faith and was also a religious scholar who gave the Shiite sect its philosophical and theological framework.

Moussa was not in fact Ja’afar’s eldest son. The eldest was called Ismael (Ishmael) who, for some reason was seen less fit to be the Imam. Ismael went away and started his own following in Iran and Afghanistan… hence the Ismaelites, whose head figure is the ‘Agha Khan’.

One of Imam Ja’afar’s students was a man called Abu Haneefa who went on to found Hanafism, one of the major Sunni sub-sects. Many centuries later, it became the official religious sect of the Ottoman Empire. Abu Haneefa was quite fond of Imam Ja’afar and spoke and wrote very highly of him.

Abu Haneefa was buried on the opposite, eastern, bank of the Tigris. The area became known as Adhameyyah (in reference to the title Abu Haneefa’s followers gave him: “al Imam al Adham” – the greatest Imam!)

Baghdad kept expanding through the centuries and Adhameyyah and Kadhimeyyah became suburbs of the city, but they retained their religious and sectarian flavor.

Othman Ali al Obaidi… What’s in a name?

During that disaster of a day, Othman (or Uthman) who was a young Sunni man from Adhameyyah who, with many others, kept plunging into the water and managed to save six people from drowning by pulling them ashore. The seventh was a heavily built woman who apparently pulled him down with her… and they both drowned.

People, including some Iraqis, who were ignorant of the real Iraq, were full of awe at this Sunni risking his life to save Shiites. I wasn’t. I know better. I have been trying to explain aspects of this in this blog for quite a while. This time the answer is in the poor hero’s name!

Let’s have a look at his name again: Othman Ali al Obaidi (First name followed by the father’s first name and then the surname- in this case, the name of his tribe).

Othman was the third Caliph (Successor) after Prophet Mohammed. He was a rich aristocrat and resembled everything people would call a right-wing in today’s nomenclature. He was a generous and a peaceful old man who did much to strengthen the original call of Islam. Prophet Mohammed gave him his daughter in marriage… and when she died, gave him another.

Common Shiite folks however do not generally think highly of him. He beat the more deserving Imam Ali, the Prophet’s cousin and son in law to the Caliphate. More importantly, being rather tribal in disposition, Othman favored and strengthened the Umayyads, the governors of Sham (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan) - Imam Ali’s archenemies and the people who later killed his son Hussein in Kerbala, Iraq. To this day, most devout Shiites bitterly mourn the tragic death of Imam Hussein and his family.

Imam Ali is of course the Supreme Patriarch of the Shiite faith. The name Shiite actually refers to the cohorts or followers of Imam Ali.

Late Othman’s surname is al Obaidi. The Obaid (or Ubaid or Ubayd) is an Arab tribe whose ancestors came with the Islamic conquest to Iraq 1400 years ago. Most of its members settled in the Kirkuk area around 1600 AD.

Around 1750, the Obaid tribe revolted against the Ottomans. Their warriors surrounded the northern and western sides of Baghdad. Their main camp was in the area of Adhameyyah. After that revolt was quelled, many remained put. Up to the 1950’s probably around 80% of the Adhameyyah district were Obaidis!

I have met many of those people. Hala Fattah has made some interesting observations at“History News Network” about one of them she had met by chance in a library in Baghdad. The vast majority are not only Sunni, but they feel quite strongly about it. Many are proud Arab Nationalists who fought fierce battles in the 1950’s and 1960’s against the spread of Communism and against the Communist Party which became influential for a time after the fall of the monarchy in 1958. That area was so conservative that I well remember a time in the 1960’s that anyone passing through their inner streets was liable to be stopped and asked what his business there was!

Many of the Obaidis in Adhameyyah have relatives, some of them considered close kin, on the other side of the river in Kadhimeyyah… and devout Shiites. The bickering of those kin about sectarian issues is always something to witness!

During that siege of Baghdad in the 18th century, the Iranians invaded and occupied the southern city of Basra. With the Ottoman Empire rather weak at the time, people of Basra sought the help of Iraqi tribes to liberate them. A major fraction of the Obaid tribe went south to help. With them went two large, mainly ‘Shiite’ tribes. Basra was liberated. Many of the Obaid tribe settled along the route to Basra in towns and on river banks as well as in Basra itself. All, with time, became Shiites. Many maintain to this day close relations with their mostly Sunni kin in other areas in Baghdad, Kirkuk and all the way up to Mosul. All in all, about a third of the Obaidis in Iraq today are Shiites.

Othman Ali al Obaidi.

What’s in a name? Good old insightful Shakespeare! Sometimes names tell long stories in Iraq.

The weld still holds.

A Few Iraqi Jokes

2005-08-26T13:48:00.000+04:00

[This post is dedicated to ‘Circular’, a gentleman from New Zealand with a keen sense of humor.]

A Politically Incorrect Post

In Iraq, most jokes for the past several decades have been political. The rest are mostly politically incorrect.

Urban Iraqis generally relish a good joke, but a good portion of their jokes are ethnic or sectarian in nature. There were always Arab-Kurd and Sunni-Shiite jokes. Sectarian and religious jokes are only offensive when they are based on hatred and bigotry! Otherwise they are fun. There is little popular hatred in Iraq.

In Iraq nobody cares much for political correctness and you can hear all sorts of jokes everyday about Shiites, Sunnis, Arabs and Kurds… many of them told by the ‘targeted parties’. Rarely have I seen them causing ill-feelings.

Up until 1991 when the Kurds went semi-autonomous, most sectarian jokes were about the Kurds. Following 1991, those jokes suddenly disappeared. They were replaced by jokes about the Dlaim (or Dulaim) – a large, mostly Sunni, tribe that occupies the western region of Iraq, mostly the Anbar Province. Dlaim are characterized by being good natured in general. I don’t know why jokes are usually directed at good-natured people.

Following the American invasion, the Dlaim region became the center of the insurgency. ‘Dlaimi’ jokes suddenly disappeared. Jokes in general became few and far between. The state of shock was evidently not conductive to joke telling!

After the elections, with the appointment of a Kurdish gentleman as president, jokes have been back to Kurdistan.

I will give a few examples of jokes from these different phases. They may not be the best I have heard, they are the ones that I can remember at the moment. Please keep in mind that with the power cuts and the water shortage coupled with the unbelievable heat of our summer… not to mention the constant, ugly and needless violence, it is not easy to be in jocular mood! This is the best that I can do under these circumstances. I will edit the jokes slightly to make them comprehensible to ‘foreigners’!

Political – Saddam Era

At a meeting of the Revolution Command Council, Saddam announced that they had discovered an attempted coup that was led by a member of the RCC. His name started with the letter ‘I’. All sight was directed to Izzat Ibrahim who remained calm and indifferent. The one sitting next to Taha al Jazrawi noticed that he was shaking uncontrollably. He whispered “But your name doesn’t start with an “I”!” to which Taha replied, “I know, but His Excellency is always fond of calling me ‘Idiot’!

***

A jackal met another one in the western desert making a quick dash towards the Jordanian border. He asked him what the hurry was. The other said that Saddam’s people were killing everyone who had three balls. The first said, “But surely you don’t have three balls!” The other replied, “Of course not! But they only count them after cutting them off”.

***

On judgment day, The Lord was on his throne while all mankind were paraded, each group headed by their leader: Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, etc. For each group, God stood momentarily to greet them. Finally, it was Saddam’s turn. God remained seated. Before Gabriel began to speak, the Lord said, “Well, if I left my throne for a second, that man is liable to take it!”

***

After the first Gulf War of 1991, Saddam was scornful of other Arab leaders and of the coalition. He usually went on TV to say things like:

“When will their mustaches tremble?” [as a sign of anger or indignation]…
…or
“What are you so afraid of? Look what happened to us… we haven’t evaporated, have we?”

Most people, with their country thoroughly devastated, found those words rather offensive. There were many jokes about them, particularly the one about the mustaches.

One particular Dlaimi was fond of impersonating Saddam. He usually did that in a local tea house… saying things like “When will those mustaches tremble?” People warned him about his recklessness, but he did not stop. Finally, the security people get word. They locked him up for a while and gave him a severe beating.

The man returns to his usual place and resumes his mocking impersonations! A friend was appalled. He asked him whether he was not afraid after so much beating. The man replied, imitating Saddam,

“What are you so afraid of? Look what happened to us… we haven’t evaporated, have we?”

***

Saddam’s second front man, Izzat Ibrahim (who incidentally is still at large) died. He immediately went to the gates of Hell, knowing his natural place to go to. He was told that his name was not in their books. Bewildered, he went to the gates of Heaven. There, he received a similar answer.

Finally, he was advised to ask God. He went there to ask and The Lord immediately said “You don’t look like I created you. Who did?”

***

Religious

A Jew living in the mainly Shiite town of Kut in the south was pressured by some of his friends to convert to Islam. Finally he promised to do it the next time he went to Baghdad.

After he came back from the promised journey, he was asked by a friend about what he did. The man replied, “Well, as soon as I got a taxi in Baghdad I told the driver what I wanted to do, so he took me the this mosque called Abu Haneefa (the founder of a major Sunni sub-sect) I talked to the Imam there and everything went well and we finished in 5 minutes”.

The friend snapped indignantly, “So, you became a Sunni? Damn you! You should have remained a Jew!”

***

The first 10 days of the lunar Muslim year are days of sadness for Shiites. On the tenth day, Imam Hussein was killed in a tragic battle. The ten days are regarded holy – days of remembrance and grief. The period is called “’A’ssure”. I have already referred to that. He had come from what is now known as Saudi Arabia to Iraq.

Drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam. Non-religious people are expected to abide during holy days.

This Shiite old woman walks into the living room to find her brother having a drink with a friend during the holy days of “’Assure”. She looked aghast! But before she could say anything, her brother says: “Hold your horses, sister. His holiness hasn’t even crossed the border yet!”

***

‘Kurdish’ Jokes

A few old jokes…

A fellow came up to a stream of water during a walk. He asked a Kurd sitting nearby whether the stream was too deep. The Kurd said “No, go right ahead”. The man wades into the water and finds it too deep. He comes back to the Kurd to reproach him. The Kurd replied: “Funny, just a short while ago I saw a duck with very short legs crossing it”.

***

The main wholesale market in Iraq is located in central Baghdad and is called Shorja. A Kurdish retailer from Sulleimaneyya called once every month to buy merchandise. A shop keeper had trained his pet parrot to shout “Stupid Kurd! Stupid Kurd!” every time he saw someone in traditional Kurdish attire.

This particular Kurd was offended by that bird. He wanted to buy it with the purpose of retraining it, but the shop keeper refused. Finally they agreed that the shopkeeper would prepare some eggs from that parrot which the Kurd could buy the next time he called.

Come the next visit, the shop keeper had several eggs ready. He asked the Kurd to place them under a chicken so that they would hatch.

Back in Sulleimaneyya, the Kurd duly did as he was instructed. But when the eggs hatched, there were baby pigeons, sparrows, other birds… but no parrots.

On the next visit to the market in Baghdad, the Kurd, again came across that parrot yelling: “Stupid Kurd! Stupid Kurd!” He smiled and said to the bird, “I may be stupid, but everybody in Sulleimaneyya now knows what you really are!”

***

[I have also heard this joke in Britain, referring to an Irishman.]

The poor Kurdish laborer was hit on the head by a brick dropped from the third floor of a building under construction. He was taken to hospital.

The following day, he shows up at work with his foot wrapped in bandages. When asked, he said that he was apparently standing on a protruding nail when the brick hit him!”

An anecdote…

The last trip to the Kurdish north I made was in 1984! We went in a group of four families of friends for the summer holiday. A Kurdish friend was our guide and, for part of the journey, our host. In a city called Duhok we met our friend’s brother-in-law who was also a Kurd but our friend kept calling him “Sayyed” (a title reserved for descendents of Imam Ali and the Profit Mohammed’s daughter, Fatima). Kurds also sometimes use the word ‘sheik’ for those people. I asked him how his brother-in-law could be a Sayyed and a Kurd. He replied, “It is simple. He is not a Kurd. You keep sending us people to turn us to Arabs… but we convert them to become Kurds”.

***

A newer one…

The curfew in Baghdad starts at 11 pm. A Kurd who had joined the new Iraqi National guard was manning a check point. Around 10:30, this guardsman sees a man walking in a hurry. He aims and shoots the guy. The guy drops dead. The officer in charge of the guardsman came running. “What have you done? It’s only half past ten, you fool”. The guard replies in a cool tone, “There is no problem, sir. I know that man and I know where he lives. He couldn’t possibly make it home before 11”.

Kurds in Iraq

2005-07-04T00:54:00.000+04:00

[This post is dedicated to ‘Bruno’, a gentleman from South Africa, in response to a question from whom I wrote much of the material. I hope that my country learns a lesson from his. I will post the political aspects of the Iraqi Kurdish question in my other blog “Iraqi Letters”]

Background - Who are the Kurds?

Kurds are often reported to be the largest ethnic group in the world without a national home. They live mainly in the mountains uplands where Turkey, Iraq, and Iran meet. They have their own language, related to Persian but divided into two main dialect areas.

Arabs are of course Semites. I always thought of Kurds as Indo-European. However, more knowledgeable experts tell us that “…Kurds are now predominantly of Mediterranean racial stock, resembling southern Europeans and the Levantins in skin, general coloring and physiology. There is yet a persistent recurrence of two racial substrata: a darker aboriginal Palaeo-Caucasian element, and more localized occurrence of blondism of the Alpine type in the heartland of Kurdistan. The "Aryanization" of the aboriginal Palaeo-Caucasian Kurds… seems to have begun by the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC… The process was more or less complete by the beginning of the Christian era…”

The name “Kurd” was a generic term used to denote nomads, and non-Arabs in particular. In Kurdish, the name “Kurd” means “warrior” or “ferocious fighter.” By the time of the Islamic conquest of the northern Middle East in the 7th century AD, the name “Kurd” was already in use as a term to designate the population of Western Iranians in the Zagros Mountains.

No firm statistics exist for the Kurdish population. Estimates range between 16 and 25 million, divided as follows: 8 - 13 m in Turkey, 4-5m in Iraq, 4-5 m in Iran, 1m in Syria and another million scattered between Lebanon, Armenia and other neighboring states.

The most famous Kurd in history is Saladin, who in all accounts emerges as the greatest military mind on either side of the Crusades… Saladin was born in Tikrit (the same birthplace as Saddam Hussein) in 1137, into a prominent Kurdish family. Saladin grew up in educated circles and distinguished himself militarily in his twenties by playing a significant part in keeping Egypt out of the hands of the First Crusade… In 1187, he led the re-conquest of Jerusalem and occupied it with compassion and courtesy. He died in 1193, and historians agree that he is one of the world's towering figures.

Kurds in Iraq

Kurds are the second largest ethnic group in Iraq. They make up 15-25 percent of the Iraqi population of 24 million, or about 4-5 million people. The number of Kurds in Iraq is a disputed issue, and the Kurds accuse the Iraqi government of undercounting the Kurds to reduce their status as a significant minority.

About a quarter of Iraqi Kurds live in Baghdad. The rest live in the mountainous areas of north-eastern Iraq. That area has been their home since ancient times.

Arab - Kurd Interface in Iraq

There are three main ‘interface’ zones between Kurds and Arabs in Iraq: Baghdad, Kirkuk and Mosul.

There is an estimated number of 800,000 to 1 million Kurds living in Baghdad like anybody else. Their economic distribution broadly resembles that of other groups (within Baghdad). They are not associated with any particular neighborhoods or with any jobs or professions (apart from Faili Kurds monopolizing the “porter” trade in wholesale markets until recently!).

In Kirkuk, any such friction is relatively new and was only visible in the 1970’s with Saddam’s drive against the Kurds. He used two (puppet) militias, Arab (Khaled’s Knights) and Kurd (Saladin’s Knights). However, both Arab and Kurdish tribes generally maintained excellent neighborly relations.

After the invasion, local Arab tribal chiefs quickly advised their tribesmen holding Kurdish land, given by Saddam, to give the land back to its rightful owners (whom everybody living in the area knew). However, they made it clear to the Kurdish parties that they will not budge from their own land. Some of them made contact with the Turkmen to coordinate their positions. Some went to Turkey to form an alliance! [The city of Kirkuk itself is a more intricate problem… and will be messier to resolve!]

When the son of an important sheikh of a large tribe was killed by a Peshmerga (the Kurdish militia) check point about a year ago, both Barazani and Talabani went to visit the father and wisely managed to contain the incident. People living there have numerous channels. Some people in those areas have extensive links with the other side, developed and maintained over many decades. Both sides helped each other behind the scenes in Saddam’s years.

In Mosul you can find a higher degree of mutual mistrust and animosity. Similar feelings of mistrust are felt by (Assyrian and Arab) Christians in the Mosul and Duhok areas.

People’s Attitudes

Kurds usually politely address male adults as “kaka”, which literally means “older brother” and females as “khanum” – madam or lady. When the country had a Kurdish president after the last elections, everybody in Baghdad seemed for while to be calling each other kaka jokingly. Jokes are rife particularly regarding Talabani attending Arab summits with all that hot air about the Arab Nation and Arab Brotherhood!

Kurds generally dislike the present Iraqi flag because it was the flag the army marched behind when subduing their revolt. The flag has been an issue of some controversy during the past two years. The Kurdish capital is a city called Arbil. Arbil is notorious for a recipe of yogurt that has a special flavour, called ‘liban Arbil’. So, some rascals have suggested a compromise whereby the two words ‘Allah Akbar’ (God is Greatest) between the three stars of the flag are replaced by the words ‘liban Arbil’.

I don’t think many Iraqis had a problem with a Kurd becoming president (except perhaps some fundamentalists). It is a good thing for the country as a whole in principle; Kurds may begin to feel that they are part of Iraq again.

This is nothing new in Iraqi politics actually. During the 1921-1958 monarchy, there were several Kurdish prime ministers. I can remember at least two. Nuri Sa’id, the amazing politician who dominated Iraqi politics for decades, is believed by most people to be a Kurd, though the old man never displayed any ethnic or sectarian inclinations. I never came across any criticism of that in principle even among the most hardliner Arab Nationalists. The first army officer to meddle in politics through a mini-coup in 1936 was a Kurd. When the coup that deposed the monarchy in 1958 took place, the minister of interior was a Kurd. Their presence in the civil service was quite significant.

During the Ottoman occupation, Kurds and Arabs were mostly united against the invading Turks most of the time. There were numerous alliances dictated by geography.

There is no inherent animosity between Arabs and Kurds as nations. There are jokes of course, much like things between the English and the Irish. But no animosity! I would go as far as saying that there is even some ethnic ‘affinity’, as far as ordinary people are concerned.

This is in sharp contrast to the ‘traditional’ animosity between Kurds and Turks. That has its historical and political reasons of course. A Kurdish friend of mine who lived in Turkey for the past 2 decades, tells me that when asked what language his kids were using, he would say Arabic! It was less offensive to his Turkish neighbors and associates!! The use of Kurdish language was actually officially banned in Turkey for a number of decades! This ‘animosity’ and mutual mistrust is also evident but to a lesser extent between the Kurds and the Iraqi Turkmen.

Naeem Jabbar

2005-06-27T23:33:00.000+04:00

I have already mentioned Naeem in an earlier post. He is a share cropper who has been working on my farm for the past six years… and is worth a more detailed mention!

Naeem is a tribesman from a southern province called Qadisseyya. He is a Shiite. When Naeem first came to work at the farm, I noticed that some people called him Abu Sattar while others called him Abu Qassim.

When I asked him about that, he said that he had been married for 25 years before he decided to get married again. His older wife and her sons were so angry with him that they threw him out! So he had to leave his own plot of land to that wife and her sons and seek employment. He moved from farm to farm for several years until he finally settled down on mine.

His new wife insisted that everybody called him Abu Qassim, the name of her eldest son. People who knew him before kept calling him Abu Sattar out of habit. Hence the confusion!

Naeem can’t read or write. I have already mentioned that Naeem has an affinity to numbers. He constantly keeps an updated record of all his income and expenditure in his memory.

The question of share-croppers’ cattle is a recurring problem. If the share-cropper favors his cattle over the crop (which is a natural thing to do) he tends to feed his cattle on crop that is shared with the land owner. People also tend to neglect the shared side of business in favor of the side they own fully. About 15 years ago I solved this problem on my farm by sharing the cattle with the cropper (If you can’t beat ‘em…). I would buy cattle to equal value of his. He would then be able to feed the shared cattle on shared crop without being unfair to anybody!

When Naeem first came to the farm he was penniless. He wanted to have a cow for fresh milk, yogurt and butter for his family. So he convinced me to buy a cow out of my pocket. A couple of years later, he was able to pay me back ‘my half’ of that cow. And now, six years later, is the proud half-owner of a herd of three good cows! I sometimes tease him by saying that he started this business using my money. He always smiles craftily and contentedly!

Naeem is also a political animal in the extreme. I reckon that he listens to his portable radio around 10 hours a day, with the BBC Arabic service getting a good share of his attention. He is quite fond of political analysis… and usually gives me a good run for my money when we discuss politics. I was so impressed with an analysis that he made once that I told him that he probably had more brains than President Bush! The others present, mostly his neighbors, were furious with indignation. They thought that I was encouraging him to pester them on matters of politics.

I usually have to struggle hard to keep Naeem off politics to be able to concentrate on our farming business. During the past two years, Naeem has been having a good ‘political season’! With literally no electric power or irrigation water at the farm, there is so little to do! I must admit that I enjoy his debates. Had he had some formal education, he would have made a good political analyst. That would probably have made him less useful to society though! He actually manages to stay clear of the rampant conspiracy theories so many locals find as the only plausible explanation to the almost unbelievable things that they see happening to their country and to their society.

Naeem was a bit anxious during the invasion of Iraq. He asked me what I recommend that he did. I suggested that he raised a white flag over his hut. If Baathists enquired, he would tell them that he had a circumcision party (as it still is the custom in the countryside to raise a white flag for happy events and a black one for sad ones). If the Americans arrived, they would automatically take it as a sign of surrender and would probably not bother him! I could see him contemplating the merits of the idea… but he never implemented it.

It was at that time that I made the blunder of predicting what would happen. In response to a question from him, I said that I expected him to live better, but we would not have much collective free will for some time to come. He snapped back: “That should be an improvement. I don’t have much free will now anyway”! He and others never stopped reminding me that my prediction was less than accurate. They not only lost what was left of any dignity that they had… but were also living under worse conditions than those of Saddam’s regime.

There was a time, after the invasion, when Naeem was a supporter of SCIRI – the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (not that he was a religious person… but that’s another story!) and was fond of Mr. Abdul Azziz al Hakeem. This led him into some heated arguments with people who were prisoners of war in Iran and who were tortured by the Badr Brigade people either because they were Sunnis or were Shiites but refused to join them! It was only when Mr. Hakeem became president of the now-defunct Iraq Governing Council and announced that he was for compensating Iran for that war that Naeem turned against those people. At the moment, he is against all imported neo-politicians.

Zaffa

2005-06-20T12:35:00.000+04:00

A zaffa is a wedding procession.

In conventional Iraqi weddings, the proceedings are intricate and involve several ceremonies and parties. The final step is the zaffa: A procession of cars of the groom’s friends and relatives go to the bride’s home to escort the couple to the bridal home, to a hotel where the couple may spend part of their honeymoon, to the airport if they go abroad or to the outskirts of the city if they were going by car to some resort.

You cannot miss a zaffa. They are so noisy; you can hear them from a distance! The couple’s car is usually lavishly decorated with colorful strips and flower bouquets. The bride’s mother usually rides with them on the front seat. It is followed by a car full of musicians with half of their bodies protruding from the windows (there is always a trumpet and a drum). They play rhythmic popular music, rather loudly. These are followed by a dozen or two of an assortment of cars (minibuses sometimes) with horns blasting and full of people noisily clapping and singing. Customarily, there is also the women’s distinctive ‘shriek’ of traditional joy – the halhula (hallelujah?)

They usually cause a small traffic chaos en route. They are given priority at traffic signals (in the days when we had working traffic signals) by traffic policemen and other motorists… so as not to break the procession. Whenever the procession stops, several young men sometimes get out of the cars and start dancing on the street! This actually has been a new development introduced during the past 15 years.

When the procession reaches its destination, there is usually a party, more loud noises and then dinner.

Zaffa in the countryside follows similar lines and is equally noisy… but instead of the dancing, they are usually accompanied by sporadic gun shots in the air. The final destination is invariably the bridal home which is most frequently the groom’s family home. It is still common practice for the couple not to move out until a few years later.

Some people like zaffas. I don’t. I find them too noisy and chaotic. I didn’t even go to my own zaffa when I got married decades ago!

***

Baghdad, Saturday, April 5, 2003

It was slightly before six in the morning. I was sitting in my study in my dishdasha (traditional robe) listening to news on my transistor.

I started hearing a strange, faint, distant rumble… which I realized was very intense firing. I remember thinking that this did not sound like something for which a dishdasha was suitable! So I shaved and changed.

That noise was getting louder and closer, clearly distinguishable by now. It was coming towards Baghdad from the south-west. I dashed to the (flat) rooftop. Over what I figured was the airport, there were two A-10’s (anti-tank airplanes distinguishable by their very wide wing span and incredibly slow speed!) they went around in two large circles. Behind and below them were balls of fire at regular intervals. A neighbor who was also on his rooftop following events explained that they were anti-missile flares.

The noise was much louder now. The intensity was terrifying. My doctor son, who had not graduated yet at the time, had volunteered to spend the night at one of the hospitals nearby.

I dashed frantically to my elderly mother’s next door. She was in her doorway, bewildered. I escorted her at a maddeningly slow pace to my house and installed her with everybody else in the stairwell, the safest place we had.

I then ran to my widowed sister’s home about a hundred meters away. She, her daughter and her young son were just leaving, on their way to my place. We were joined by another niece who lived nearby clutching her two young children.

By then, the sounds of tank tracks on the pavement were distinguishable. But machine gun fire and a variety of explosive sounds were so close that you could feel the earth shaking. All that violence was only about 200 meters away with only a single wall, 3 meter high, shielding us. It felt like you were being shot at and bombarded at close range. No one looked back; I was at the rear; my nephew was missing. I was beginning to move back when he showed up. He had gone back inside to fetch his gun (as if that would be any use).

When we got to our stairwell fortress, my brother and his three sons, who also live next door, had already joined the others.

[Thinking back to that morning, gathering like that in one place under those conditions was probably not the most prudent thing to do. Putting all your eggs in one basket as it were… but I suppose that the unspoken decision by everybody was either to make it together or die together! Death was indeed so close.]

By then the house was literally shaking with the blasts. We had been through wars and bombardment before, but never this close to so much sustained intensity.

My curiosity got the better of me. So, oblivious to yells from everybody, I ran to the roof again… and it was the most bizarre scene: explosives everywhere; tanks that I couldn’t see with tracks ticking fast on the pavement; planes overhead, A-10’s flying ahead of the tank column apparently clearing the way … and lots and lots of fire power!

A few times the explosions were so close that I reflexively sheltered behind a wall!

Finally, the noises and the explosions began to move away. The American army was on its way to Baghdad Airport. Later, a neighbor who was closer to the scene told me that he counted 36 tanks.

Ever since then, I always referred to that day as the day of the zaffa, the American zaffa.

Iraqi Forefingers

2005-06-13T20:54:00.000+04:00

The purple-colored finger became a sign of participating in the new ‘democracy’ in Iraq. But there is another telltale forefinger that was a sign of something quite different in another violent episode of Iraq’s recent history.

There has been compulsory National Service (draft) in Iraq for more than 60 years. However, traditionally, there were some exceptions. No one who was the sole supporter of a family was conscripted. Not all brothers of a single family were simultaneously drafted.

As the Iraq-Iran war (1980 – 1988) dragged on, human fodder was badly needed. Consequently, most of those exceptions were ignored. Even physically or mentally handicapped people were subjected to considerable ordeals before specialist medical and military committees were convinced that they were actually handicapped. It was not unusual to find all brothers of a family serving in the army at the same time. And because of the duration of that war, there were even cases of both father and sons serving concurrently.

There was a time when the bodies of those killed in action were sent to the local police station to deliver them to their families. I still vividly remember the incident related to me by a girl who worked in the same government department with me who went to receive the body of her dead brother. She saw three coffins of three brothers, all killed in the same battle. The policemen there were having difficulty to find a volunteer among themselves who had sufficient impertinence to go and inform their mother!

Anyway, back to the business of forefingers!

To avoid combat deployment for a variety of reasons, some people amputated their own right-hand forefingers, the one that pulls the trigger. I have met at least 10 people over the past two decades with missing fingers, easily noticeable in handshakes.

One man I knew used a bench saw to severe his own finger in an almost authentic ‘accident’. But the most common method used was for the person to hold the barrel of a shot-gun with his right hand so that the index finger is placed on the barrel’s outlet. He fires the gun and… half the finger disappears! This was a lot more common in the countryside where it is ‘manly’ not to fear pain.

***

During the chaos and the lawlessness that followed the invasion, a truck driver who worked for a government establishment was stopped on a deserted road and his truck was hijacked by a group of masked, armed men. Before leaving, one of the villains shouted: “This is what traitors and collaborators get” to give the impression that they were resistance people. The poor driver was baffled; he was only a driver working for the Grain Board.

During the proceedings, the driver noticed the missing finger of one of the hijackers.

He and his kin were fast on the trail of the hijacked truck. It took them less than 24 hours to determine the small area associated with a locally known tribe where the trace of the truck disappeared.

Farmers in that area use what they call “nylon” - plastic tunnels to force growing summer crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines in cold weather. Something like greenhouses that use steel rods (a quarter of an inch in diameter and about 3m long) that are inserted into the soil on either side of an irrigation ditch and covered with plastic. Quite a practical and a cost-effective method! It requires a great deal of hard work, but can be quite rewarding. It is customary for farmers who, for some reason, do not wish to use their steel rods in a given season to hire them out.

So, our hero the poor truck driver had some of his relatives tour that area going from farm to farm on the pretext of seeking to hire steel rods for their plastic tunnels. Within a week one of them had a glimpse of a missing finger of one of the men in the area. Further inquiries confirmed that that particular man was not too distant from other unsavory undertakings!

That did not constitute conclusive proof. But the trail, the missing forefinger and the suspect’s reputation were very strong evidence for suspicion. The truck driver’s people came out into the open. He now had a sufficient case to ask the suspect’s clan to take up the issue to clear themselves.

Meanwhile, our truck driver used every possible trick to postpone his own trial for the missing truck. If the judge is not convinced that there was actually a hijacking, he may force the poor driver to pay back the value of the truck to that government department.

At the moment he seems to be well on the way of having his tribal case won! Based on the circumstantial evidence that he obtained, the other clan is under considerable social obligation to come up with a convincing denial or to admit wrong-doing by the suspect and pay compensation.

An Insurgent Called Spark

2005-06-06T14:00:00.000+04:00

I was on my way back from the farm to Baghdad last week when I received a telephone call telling me that the boys had been released from prison.

They were Nihad’s brothers. Nihad was a young man who was ‘accidentally’ killed by the US army. I have already told the story in another post. His father was compensated financially. He gave the blood money to the resistance.

Nihad had five brothers ranging in age between 30 and 15. A few weeks after that incident, the father and four of the brothers were ‘detained’ by the US army. Only the youngest, Abbas, was spared.

First they were sent to Abu Ghraib and later transferred to the Bucca Camp down south. They spent some months there, uncharged. That telephone call announced to me their release and arrival home. Their home was on my way, so I decided to drop in and say hello.

I only intended it to be to stay for a short while, but found myself listening to their account of their imprisonment and the numerous anecdotes people usually gather from such experiences… that I stayed there far longer than I had planned.

They said they were generally treated well but had a constant feeling of ‘humiliation’. They were not asked a single question in interrogation or interview. They were released uncharged and untried. Their father remained behind, using his time to memorize as much as he could of the Koran.

Some of the stories they told me were truly fascinating and I certainly hope to relate some of them in this blog sometime. But one of them amused me so much that I find myself giving it priority. It was about an insurgent they met in prison.

***

The American army in Iraq has been plagued by something they call IED (Improvised Explosive Devices). These devices come in all sorts of shapes and sizes: in rubbish heaps, in dead animal corpses, in little inconspicuous objects thrown on the side of the road in their path. Some are detonated remotely, some are detonated by wire.

One particular insurgent lived in a district called Aamil in western Baghdad close to the road to the airport (or what is now called the Irish Route by the American soldiers). He specialized in filling old tin cans with some dirt and wood sticks and inserting a piece of wire and leaving the ends protruding. He placed those devices on the route of American patrols and convoys. They looked suspicious enough to be taken seriously. Usually the procession was held up until experts examined those devices and declared them safe!

He was called Sharara (Spark).

His game went on for about a year. Finally the US army caught up with him. Late one night, the district was surrounded, helicopters monitored the scene from above and Sharara’s home was encircled. The front door was smashed. There was panic in the family. The man of the house was told that the army wanted Sharara. The man said that his son was asleep, but he would fetch him. Escorted, he came back with Sharara who was half asleep. The soldiers stood bewildered.

Sharara was only a 10 year old boy!

Sharara ended up in prison. This was where Nihad’s brothers met him. It was one of them who told me this story.

Sharara was apparently a character fit for Dickens or Twain. He was the darling of that camp. He kept busy transmitting news and messages between prisoners and coordinating things. And he never stopped ‘targeting’ the Americans. The unit their lot was in was called a ‘caravan’ and housed 25 prisoners. The prisoners were counted at 6 pm and again at 7 am. Every now and then, before the count, Sharara would climb into a small ventilation duct and hide there. The soldier doing the counting (not bothering with those awful sounding names) would find the number one short. He would go and fetch others. Sharara would climb down. On the second count, the number would be complete!

Farmers' Almanac

2005-05-30T16:53:00.000+04:00

Disappearing World (2)

Almanac of course is an Arabic word meaning "the weather". Farmers in Iraq call their almanac “Hsaab Arab = Arab reckoning” to distinguish it from what they call “the government’s calendar”!

Their calendar follows the solar cycle but is shifted from the Gregorian one (that is now in almost universal use) by twelve days, lagging - very much like the Eastern Orthodox calendar.

They have numerous legends and fables to explain weather phenomena that are so important to farmers and to planting everywhere.

I have already mentioned "Migirrat il Maidy" (a few warm days towards the end of winter followed by cold weather again) some time ago. Incidentally, they were particularly pronounced this year; a few days of false warmth in February, followed by cold weather again.

The other phenomenon that was noticeably visible this year was "Bard il Ajooz - the old woman's chills": a trend of warming up is followed by a sharp drop in temperature that lasts for several days, heralding the end of winter. The last chill in winter.

Although the chills were moderated by relatively heavy rainfall this year, which is usually accompanied by a lower pressure and warmer weather, the old woman's chills were nevertheless clearly distinguishable. Perhaps the old lady is taking a shower!

As ever, the phenomenon is associated with an old legend. This particular myth, according to old farmers, goes something like this:

The camel herd of an old woman missed their mating season. She wanted a few cold days. So, she went to see Prophet Mohammed who duly obliged and prayed to God to grant the old woman her wish. And so it was: seven days of cooler weather before the warmer spring sets in. This is why they are called the old woman's chilly days.

But this old fable is rather unconvincing. Those chills, as far as I know, are unique to Iraq... and Prophet Mohammed never set foot in this country. Besides, the local almanac is far more ancient. It sometimes appears to me that the whole calendar business was constructed around Iraq's weather.

The names of the solar year months used in Iraq are not used in any other country. Some of them refer to known names of Sumerian and Babylonian gods - most notably July. It is called Tammuz, which is close enough to Dumuzi, the Sumerian god of plants and vegetation... perhaps in vague reference to an old myth in which Dumuzi is punished by a more senior god and goes underground. True enough, very few things can be planted in the almost intolerable heat of Iraqi July.

For years I was fascinated by the sometimes close correspondence between the farmers' calendar and the actual weather changes. It demonstrates how much experience a people can gather over a period of several thousand years and how that experience can survive in the collective memory despite many centuries of deterioration and ignorance. It is all the more pity that so many young farmers are losing track of this ancient knowledge.

***

As an illustration, here are a few of the winter phases according to this almanac:

12 Oct – Thraiba – the striker: Several days of sudden drop in temperature that can harm summer crops.

12 Dec – Jwaireed – the stripper: The official beginning of winter - cold weather that causes perennial trees to shed their leaves. 10 days.

12 Dec – 22 Jan – Mirba’aneyya: The 40 days (Arba’a = 4) constituting the core of winter.

12 Feb – 27 Feb – Blue February: February’s cold half. The ‘blue’ refers to clear skies and hence colder weather. Old farmers never irrigate their fields during this period.

The period 12 Dec – 12 Feb is called Sitteeneyya: The 60 (sitta = 6) days of winter.

27 Feb – 12 March – White February: February’s warmer half. The ‘white’ refers to clouds.

9 March – 16 March – Bard il Ajooz discussed above, signaling the end of winter.

Note how this date plus the 5 ancient (and largely forgotten) ‘feasting days’ lead to 21 March, the ancient New Year mentioned a few posts back in this blog.

Arab Reckoning

2005-05-23T19:20:00.000+04:00

Disappearing World (1)

Ever since I was involved in farming decades ago, I repeatedly came across what country folk referred to as "Arab Reckoning".

The use of the word “Arab” in this context has nothing to do with race or ethnicity! In colloquial Iraqi, the word is used in three different modes in addition to the normal ethnic usage:

• People talk about "The City" and "The Arab" - meaning the countryside.

• In the countryside people would say "someone lives in that Arab" - meaning that village or settlement or tribal 'deera' (home or area).

• "Someone comes from such “Arab” or "What Arab are you from?" or "He is from our Arab" - meaning "tribe".

The phrase "Arab Reckoning" (or Hsaab Arab) refers to one of two distinct things:

• Approximation in arithmetic calculations and, most frequently, in multiplication or division and area calculations.

• Farmer's almanac.

Multiplication and Accounting

We all probably do this at one time or another. Say, for example, that you wanted to multiply 2.5 by 3. You would say: 2 times 3 is 6. Then half of 3 is 1.5 so, the result is 6 plus 1.5 which is 7.5. Some people can do complex arithmetic mentally, sometimes using their rosaries as an aid. The division of tribal money dues, fines or income of say 3 million dinars (around $2000) among the members of a small clan of 237 members can be done in a few minutes.

It is always amusing to watch two elderly fellows in the process - one reminding the other of things, bickering and then agreeing on a final figure.

In settling my own farming accounts with my share-croppers in the early 80's, I soon gave up using a calculator when going over the individual accounts with some of them. They could not catch up with the speed of electronic calculation. So, I would do my calculations at home with the aid of a calculator (and later using my desktop) but would go over them using their own method, verbally.

It goes something like this: "You cast three and a half "wazna" (100 kg weight) of wheat at 12,000 dinars a wazna. Three waznas are worth 36,000 and the half is worth 6,500... which means 42,500 dinars". I then pause and wait for him to nod his agreement. "What was the last sum?" The figure is recalled, the new number added to it and mentally stored again before proceeding to the next item.

This is performed for all income and expenditure items, including any sums received in advance, returned items, etc. It can be quite tedious and may take the best part of an hour. There was a time when I had to do it with more than 25 people, 8 or 9 of them couldn't read or write.

The speed varied with the person concerned. One particular wily character, Na'eem Jabbar, who is still working on my farm, keeps an updated account of all items memorized in his head. I can ask him at any time about his income or expenditure account and he would give me a figure that always agrees with my books. On "account settlement day" I just give Naeem his balance sheet and the money due. The whole process takes less than a minute... unless he challenges one of my figures!

Area calculation

I was fortunate to catch a glimpse of how people who could not read or write calculated areas. This is of course extremely important in a farming community. I am told that in the old days, there would be 2 or 3 people in any settlement or "Arab" who could be trusted to do it accurately.

The tool that was, and still is, used for measuring lengths of fields is a piece of rope 25 meters long (which has marks at 1/4-length intervals). Each length is called a "jarra" or a pull. The farming unit of area is the "donum" (2500 sq. m.) which is referred to as a 2-jarra square. The local "geometrician" is given the measurements of all four sides of the particular field in question. What he does is to find the average of each two opposite sides by increasing one and reducing the other in equal amounts in steps until they are equal. He then multiplies the two figures (as explained above) to determine the area, usually to the nearest 1/4 or 1/2 of a donum. Since most plots are not very irregular in shape, the method gives accurate enough results.

It is ironic (and somewhat sad) that this has been the case for centuries in a country that literally invented mathematics, geometry and trigonometry (including Pythagoras Theorem a thousand years before that Greek genius.)

I hope to describe the other meaning of "Arab Reckoning" in relation to almanac in a future post.

A Horse Called Dignity

2005-05-16T15:58:00.000+04:00

I have a special fondness for horses. I find Arabian thoroughbreds particularly beautiful. They are relatively smal in stature (compared to the great war or work horses of Europe for example), slender in limbs, elegant in movement yet quite resilient.

Decades ago I had a pedigree mare I called Anafa (Dignity). Some of my friends called her Qanafa (Couch) to tease me – something I found quite distasteful while they thought it was hilarious!

Anafa was young, blond and playful. I used to ride her a lot around the farm.

One reckless day, I raced her and spent hours going round and round riding her. She was fed up and tired, I went too far. Finally she wiggled her body and quite intentionally threw me off her back… and ran back to her barn. I was not hurt… except in my dignity! My first thought was that I was lucky nobody was around. Anybody who has fallen from the back of a horse knows how “undignified” that may feel.

In extreme anger, I ran after her and when I found her I raised my hand and lightly but firmly slapped her on the face.

For several weeks after that ‘insult’, she wouldn’t let me pat her on the face. She would just jerk her head upwards and away in an act of injured dignity and anger.

Dignity’s indignation ultimately made me realize something that made feel guilty. She was the original injured party, not me! It was my own recklessness that drove her to do what she did.

***

One unfortunate July, when Anafa was kept in an orchard I have on the farm because it was cooler there. The fool who was looking after her let her loose and she ate too many unripe dates and Anafa died.

I never knew what attachment to an animal could mean before her death.

I never owned a horse afterwards.

***

[So many people seem to blame Iraqis for a multitude of things… forgetting that these people are originally (and repeatedly) the injured party.]

Dikheel

2005-05-09T09:38:00.000+04:00

A “Dikheel” is someone who seeks sanctuary. The word is a colloquial corruption of “dakheel” which means “intruder”.

In tribal ethics, this is almost sacred. It is a request made by someone who is desperate for protection. It is never asked lightly. It means that one is helpless and in grave danger. It is never turned down lightly. Turning away a Dikheel could shame the person (and sometimes his family or even his clan for generations).

Tribal folklore is full of anecdotes involving refuge seeking and granting. Probably the most notorious is an old fable about someone being chased and seeks to be dikheel at a tribesman’s home. The man being asked recognizes the fugitive as the killer of his own son. He gives the man sanctuary during the emergency but tells him that he will give him headway for three days (the traditional hospitality grace period in the desert and countryside) but vows to chase him after that.

***

Most people think that this practice is something of the past that has more or less disappeared. This is largely true. However, in these turbulent and lawless past two years, I came across two such instances of requests for a Dikheel:

***

Less than two months ago, a person being chased by a (probably criminal) armed gang who were after him or his car dashed into a farmhouse and asked to be a dikheel. The gang demand that the farmer turns over the fugitive. The middle aged farmer told them that they would have to kill him and his family first… but they could take the car.

The villains probably thought that if there was a shoot out, the farmer’s neighbors would rush to the scene. They took the car and left. The man was saved.

***

When the Abu Ghraib scandal broke out and those ugly photos became public, some of them were quite shocking. But I always stop at one particular picture which the BBC website seems to be fond of :

It shows a prison cell door on which the Arabic words (Dikheelak ya Allah) are scrawled in chalk. They mean: “God, I’m your Dikheel”. I have rarely seen so much desperation in so few words.

Childhood Friendships That Never Die

2005-05-03T11:13:00.000+04:00

[This post is dedicated to those who have known the joy of true brotherly love.]

There were a few of us. Teenage friends, like many the world over. We grew up together. Baghdad was pretty in the 1960's. I didn't know it then but I know it now. Life was brighter then!

We had fun together, we laughed and made mischief and did all the innocent and the not-so-innocent things that go with growing up. On some days we saw each other more than we saw our own families. It was a rare and unique gift of brotherly, innocent, true friendship.

Looking back from present perspective, we were a mixture of Shiite, Sunni and Kurd. We enjoyed all those politically-incorrect sectarian jokes. But that was as far as it went. Those differences did not have the slightest hint of a taint on the bonds between us.

I was the first to leave. I went abroad to study before I was 20. That was when I discovered how attached I was to this scruffy little corner of the world. I was terribly homesick. Only years later did I add some intellectual flesh to that emotional skeleton.

Those friends were so furious at me for being homesick! I was the lucky one going out to see The World! So, one day, they sent me a cassette recording of a gathering they had. It was mostly fun and jokes. One of them, who particularly despised Iraq, quoted and made quite a bit of fun of a famous ancient line of poetry that roughly says:

A man may know many homes on earth…
…But his longing will ever be to the first one.

That particular friend and most of the others are now abroad, spread over four continents… all the way down to New Zealand.

Three of us stayed behind in Baghdad, each coping with his own difficulties and family concerns. But we remained close – each knowing that the other two were there the instant he needed them. That happened on more numerous occasions than I can remember. One of us was killed soon after the invasion. He had lost his wife a few years earlier to cancer. He left a 10 year old boy behind. Part of me died with that friend.

Our paths have crossed over the years. I remember once when I went to Amman, Jordan in the 1980's for a very short visit. I contacted two of them who were closest to Jordan. One was in the Emirates and the other in Saudi Arabia. Next evening, they flew over. I still remember to this day my joy in seeing them again and how my heart danced. We went out for dinner, saw some friends and came back to the hotel. We spent the entire night in a hotel room chatting.

[Actually, the one who lived at the time in Saudi Arabia and quite evidently deprived of easy access to alcohol, spent most of the time with his back turned to us, facing the little mini-bar they had in the room. By morning, he had emptied all its contents, had a look at the card where you are supposed to tick the drinks you had, thought about it a little, and then wrote in very large characters: "All of it".]

Next morning, we all went back on our separate ways.

In another encounter, another friend suddenly remarked in the middle of a discussion: "Haven't you noticed how we just "clicked" and took off as if all those years hadn't existed! He was right. My conviction is that such friendships have that special flavor because they are formed before those barriers of mistrust and self-defense are raised later in life. People who are already ‘within’ are frequently kept in, trusted to the bone and loved without any reservations that are later created by suspicions and undeclared motives.

***

Most of those friends did well abroad, had families of their own and are now mostly settled in their secure new lives. And yet… I wouldn't swap places with any one of them.

Here in Iraq, I have survived decades of tyranny and oppression and several major wars. I have seen loved ones die too soon through our misfortunes. I have been through endless struggles and indescribable hardships, mentally and materially, that are still hard to express. There were times when I have even seen blame in the eyes of my own children for the course that I have chosen.

Of course, I wish those friends were here with me now… but I cannot join them. This is where I want to live… and this is where I want to die.

Family Matters

2005-04-25T23:48:00.000+04:00

We are surrounded by Death and violence to an unbelievable extent. People who follow the news of the various atrocities and violent incidents are sometimes shocked, sometimes bewildered and sometimes repulsed. Being on the inside, close to these happenings is much worse. It also feels differently.

After a while you somehow get used to many new feelings. Being at risk of being killed or blasted or finding yourself in the middle of violence that you were not part of becomes such a reality that you find yourself accepting it as a ‘natural’ part of life. That can happen anytime, any place. Finally you do not care anymore.

That by no means means being careless. I still carry a gun in my car when I go to the farm, risking a $1000 fine and six months in jail!

This is certainly the case with me. I have reached a stage some time now that I do not worry much about dying. When you’re dead, it’s over. There is no rational need to worry about it much.

The problem is that you cannot extend this apathy. You never stop worrying about those you love and care for. It consumes you and makes your life literally intolerable. This is because I am not talking about a single incident that you can come to terms with; it is a constant feeling of worrying; day and night, day after day for hundreds of days. You can’t sleep at night for fear that something happens while you are asleep that you were not prepared for. You can’t settle down during the day while the children are out at school, college or with friends. I hope no one fully understands this feeling and that no one has to. It is the constant anticipation of catastrophe that kills you a 100 times a day.

Mother

My aging mother lives next door. She has her own daily rituals that she has no desire to change. She wakes up around 4am in good time for her dawn prayers, has her breakfast around 5, her lunch around 10 and her dinner at 4pm! She goes to bed between 8 and 9.

Her rhythm is different from most people I know, but she is happy with it. It doesn’t affect anybody else.

Some time ago, she heard some noises around 3:30 am, looked out from the window to see the head of a tall man at her front gate. He apparently saw her for he disappeared. She then heard the sound of a car moving away.

Since then, she has been coming over to spend the night at our place. She spends the day at her home as usual and, with sunset, she comes over, spends a few hours sitting in our living room chatting a little (and she does extremely little talking as a nature) with us and with her grandchildren, watching television and going to bed before we even have our dinner.

She feels much safer knowing that one or two of us are awake while she is sound asleep. She does not worry much anymore about little sounds she may hear in the night. As a result, she has been sleeping more soundly. She seems to be happy with this arrangement.
That is a reason for my own happiness.

Son

My youngest son is a teenager, fifteen and a half as he would say, at what you call 10th grade. His school is some distance away from where we live. A minibus collects him from a point about a mile from our home. I take him there in the morning and wait for the minibus to call before leaving. In the afternoon, he takes a taxi back.

It was his last day of what they call quarterly exams. He was a bit late. His mother called him on his mobile and he said he will be back soon. More than half an hour later, he had not shown up. We were waiting for him to have lunch. She called him again.

She came into my study, visibly trembling, face yellow… and handed me the ‘phone. All I could hear was the muffled sound of violence. He must have had his ‘phone in his pocket. I though I could distinguish the sound of his voice. He must have been kidnapped. There was little doubt about it.

I motioned to my daughter. She brought my shoes and put them on for me while I was concentrating on those sounds. Following another prompt, she fetched my jacket and revolver. I was ready. Ready for what? I did not know what to do next or where to go!

My wife and daughter started frantically calling all his friends.

Finally, one of them turned out to be with him.

They were at a billiards parlor celebrating the end of those exams for an hour before going back home.

I cannot even begin to describe the feelings I had over those ten or fifteen minutes. Half an hour later, my wife had one of the strongest migraine attacks she has had for a long time. I had to give her an injection of valium followed by Stematil for nausea. Her pain was terrible well into the next morning

And all because our son was careless about coming home immediately after school and switched his mobile on instead of switching it off because he didn’t want to be distracted from his game.

Search Parties and Changing Attitudes

2005-04-17T00:05:00.000+04:00

I have had several personal encounters with US army search parties. Two of them reflect a certain trend.

One was in June of 2003, two months after the fall of Baghdad. I was at the farm, sitting with some of my share-croppers, discussing things. Three Hummers came in; three soldiers came out and walked toward us. I went to meet them. I asked if I could help them. The most senior said that they were on a routine search and asked if we had any weapons. I said that I did have an AK47 at the farm and that everybody else did. He smiled and asked me how I happened to speak English. I asked him where he came from… and that wherever that was, I was sure it couldn't possibly be that hot.

There are many storerooms at the farm for grains, fertilizers, machinery, etc. but they didn't ask to inspect them. We just exchanged some small talk, shook hands and they took off. Before leaving the main gate, a girl soldier leaned out of the side window, face flushing red from the heat, smiled and shouted: " Hey, we want to be your friends!" and waved. After translation, one of the younger men there remarked that he didn't mind being friends with her!

***

Last November, we were visited at home in Baghdad by another search party. Four soldiers came into the house, the others remained outside. One of the guys asked if they could search the house. I said of course (it would have been silly to ask if they had a search warrant!). He then asked if we had any weapons. I said "Yes, everybody does". He then asked how many we had and I said two, one mine and the other my son's. So, he asked to see them and I took him to where they were stashed. He inspected them (apparently for having been used recently). The others were roaming the house, looking around.

The whole procedure took around 10 minutes.

The difference was that we all had our stone-faces on; there was no small talk and no smiles. Everything was cold, professional and business-like.

Of course, I don't know whether they were aware that during the time they were searching our home, word of what they were doing in the neighborhood must have traveled at least three blocks ahead of them.

***

There was quite a difference in approach and attitude between the two encounters. The first time at least that particular group of soldiers tried not to behave like an army of occupation. The second time… there was no question about it.

But also, the change of attitude was not just from their side, it was from mine too.

***

Less than half an hour from their visit to our home, that second party literally ransacked the house of a neighbor – an old lady living alone.

(Moral: it can be useful to be able to speak English in Iraq today ;)

Tale of a Small Town

2005-04-11T14:23:00.000+04:00

Who is the Enemy?

During those days of chaos and lawlessness that followed the US invasion of Iraq, the locals of a small town I am familiar with successfully managed to assemble a town council.

That council was constructed in the most unseemly, undemocratic and chaotic manner of Iraqis, but almost everybody was represented and everybody was content with it. The whole process took only three days.

For more than a year, that council kept the town running: security, services, etc. They even managed to retain a small police force that restricted itself to Law & Order.

During October of last year, some "resistance" people from another town raided the local police station, threatened the small police force and took their cars away. The next day, the local "resistance" people chased the raiders and found them. They threatened them not to come near their town again, took the cars back and re-instituted the police force!

The Interim government heard of these bizarre happenings and replaced all the personnel of the local police force. Within a week, one morning, around 10, the new police were attacked by some group using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. The police were cornered into the "attic" of their building. The attackers then suddenly left.

On the same day, in the early afternoon, the US army showed up in force accompanied by an Iraqi National Guard unit. The town was put under siege. According to reports from locals, the US boys were better behaved than the ING. Those shot at houses, at shops and at anyone they saw, almost at random. All night long, they toured the streets shouting obscenities like "Come out you scum… You -----"… One particular ING major was said to be more viciously insulting.

Taking advantage of the availability of a live phone line (which was a rarity at the time) I called to inquire after some people I knew. The young man I talked to told me that at the minute he was talking to me some ING men were looting his shop in broad daylight while one of them was firing bullets in the middle of the street to keep people away.

A few days later, that major was kidnapped together with two others. No trace of him was found.

Recently, as the Iraqi security forces became stronger, the situation was tackled not through the installation of administrative bodies but through raids: every few days, a section of the town or the surrounding countryside is sealed and a number of young men were arrested almost at random (or according to tips given by mostly unreliable informers or by people with personal vendettas to settle). They were locked up, interrogated with some cruelty. Most of them were then released.

Now, more than six months later, that small town is still in chaos and its people in turmoil. Last week alone, there were three violent murders and four kidnappings. Lawlessness reigned. It was only through social connections and ‘tribal’ norms that total breakdown was averted.

A few weeks ago, a new Iraqi army officer was put in charge of the area. The man quickly made a name for himself for being fair and decent. Last week, a delegation of about a dozen local elders decided to go and meet that army commander. They sought the release of 11 of their boys still in custody after more than a fortnight of their arrest. The gentleman obliged and released them all immediately!

A channel of communication was established.

During that meeting, the man said that he joined the new army because he had to support his family. Under the previous regime and the UN sanctions, he had no savings or possessions left that he could fall upon. He also said that he didn’t feel it was his duty to protect the American army. The US army was the most powerful army in the world and should be capable of looking after itself. The hint was acknowledged!

According to someone who attended the meeting, the man’s personal story brought some tears into the eyes of some of those present. His 17 year old son had been kidnapped and he had no idea by whom or for what purpose… or what happened to him. He confessed that he dreaded going home after work and face his wife. He had already lost a 7 year old son who was kidnapped and then killed several months earlier.

[Update April 18th 2005: It was confirmed today that the officer’s 17 year old kidnapped son was found murdered.]

.

New Words

2005-04-04T23:08:00.000+04:00

[This post is dedicated to "Liminal" and other expatriate fellow Iraqis, just to keep them in touch with things that are never reported on the media!]

Colloquial language is so much more dynamic than the classical language. It is always amusing to watch new words come into everyday language. It happens all the time in probably most countries. In Iraq under the present conditions, these take on a special flavor. A few words may illustrate this:

Buri

The 'u' in Buri is pronounced like in “poor”, “sure”

This word (which literally means “pipe” in Iraqi slang) appeared suddenly in the first half of the 1990’s in Baghdad and then spread out. One started hearing things like “Oh, I was hit by a buri!” or simply “Buri”, which sounded rather odd. I actually found it baffling.

After some investigation, facilitated by my contacts in the farming field, I traced it back to green-grocers!

The story is like this: Farmers traditionally used opaque sacs to market some produce such as potatoes. They generally place the better samples on top. They call it “presentation”, not cheating.

In the late 80’s netted plastic 50-lb. sacs came into use. They made seeing the whole sac of produce a lot easier. Those who wanted to cheat apparently inserted a 12-14” plastic tube into the sac. They poured the poor samples inside the tube and placed the good ones outside. The tube was then withdrawn and some more good samples were put on top! Anyone looking at the sac would only see the good items. The poor green grocer only discovered that “he’d been had” after partially emptying the sac. After that “technology” was discovered, the grocer would exclaim: “Damn! I was hit by a buri!”. The usage of course extended to other similar situations.

Reverting to today’s issues. I often feel that both unsuspecting, poor Americans and Iraqis have been hit by a buri.

Tugg

During the UN sanction years, the government had to relax its grip on the economy. Three new sources of enormous income were introduced: commerce (importation of foodstuff and much-needed consumer good), oil (under-the-table oil export contracts) and smuggling (of a large variety of items with neighboring countries, both ways).

It was during that period that we began hearing the word “tugg”. It is a slang verb that means “burst or exploded”. It meant that somebody suddenly became extremely rich.

Hawassim

Saddam Hussein had a name for every major battle! There were so many of them: “The crown of all battles”, “The day of the great victory”, “The proclamation of all proclamations”, “The crown of battles” and of course "Um il Ma'arik - The mother of all battles”...

He called the last war “Um il Hawassim – The mother of all arbitrators”. This was meant to end it all.

So much material was looted after the invasion. Much of it began to surface on the market a few weeks later; cars, carpets, air-conditioners, food… you name it! People who suspected an item of having been looted would call it “Hawassim” stuff.

Allaass

New Job Opportunities in Iraq - Informers for the new Mafia.

The new job is lucrative and appealing.

You go to an office in Kifah Street in Central Baghdad. You give them details about someone you know to be rich enough to pay a good ransom. They take the data down and ask you to come back in a week. During that week, they make their own investigation to check the authenticity of your information and decide whether “project” is worth pursuing further. You go back to the office. If they are interested, they pay you up to $2,500 in cash. That’s it!

You are called "allaass" - which is derived from a verb meaning "to chew or grind and then swallow".

Sparks of Revolution

2005-03-28T03:27:00.000+03:00

Sparks of any revolution cannot be considered in isolation of the prevailing environment. They only ignite when the conditions surrounding that spark are already volatile, much like the "Boston Tea Party".

When the US administration discarded direct rule of Iraq through the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority of Ambassador Paul Bremer) and decided for rule by proxy. The initial date for handing over sovereignty to the Interim Government was set for June 30th. The ceremony was later moved to June 28th. Somebody probably told those geniuses that the original date was actually the anniversary of the nation-wide revolution against the British liberation of Iraq. The memory of the revolution is still fresh in the collective memory of Iraq.

In that revolution, much like during Fallujah-I in April of 2004, all Iraqis were united against the British. Feelings of bitterness and resentment actually ran high before the violence. But the violence itself was sparked, almost simultaneously, by two separate incidents.

One spark took place near Fallujah. The famous British colonel Leachman – who was actually well versed in tribal affairs, insulted Sheikh Dhari (Grandfather of Dr. Harith al-Dhari, the chairman of the Islamic Cleric Association). According to his contemporaries, Leachman used to disguise himself as a Bedouin and spend considerable stretches of time with the desert people. He once came back to the British Embassy in Baghdad in such a disguise. His camouflage was apparently so good that he was promptly refused entry by the guards at the gates. Dhari's son, Suleiman, (Dr. Harith's father) was actually the one who shot Col Leachman. That spark started things in the western countryside.

But the first spark took place when the authorities arrested a local tribal chief, Shalaan Abul Choan. While he was being taken away by the British soldiers, Shalaan yelled at one of his companions: "These people may deport me to Baghdad. Send me 10 good gold coins tonight".

That night, ten warriors of his tribe attacked the jail he was held in and freed him. That was the spark the southern areas needed!

***

Many years later, General Glubb Pasha, another famous British Arabist, who helped establish, and for quite a while headed, the young Jordanian army (and was generally known in the area as Abu Hnaich, the one with the jaw… probably because of his prominent jaw!) visited the area. While going to some function with Sheikh Shaalan with him in the car, the latter remarked, pointing at the surrounding land: "Did you notice, Sahib, that this land is slightly pinkish in color?... well, that is due to all the blood of your young ones that were killed in the 1920 revolution. What insolence and bad taste!

***

That particular tribe, known as al Dhualim, part of the larger tribe, Bani Hchaim, were famous for their lyrics as well as for something that is called "Hischa" in Iraq, which means saying something innocent and meaning something else, usually less innocent. In fact, these people can make someone who is unaware of their ways look quite foolish!

During the battles, a young man was killed. He was carried by his maternal uncle on his shoulder to take him back home. As he approached their hut, he saw his sister, the boy's mother, churning milk. From a distance he called out in rhyme: "As if you never rocked and lullaby-ed!", referring to the rocking cot those people used for babies. She chanted back immediately in the same rhythm: "I rocked and lullaby-ed for this!", probably meaning "for such a day" or "for such an honorable death".

***

Coming back to our present situation, I can see so many sparks flying around, some of them foolishly initiated, in a situation that is already volatile.

Iraqi New Years

2005-03-21T22:53:00.000+03:00

We have three of them! All three are public holidays.

The "Christian" New Year

First, there's the 'regular' New Year, like in many other countries... though this is mainly a city affair. It goes almost unnoticed in small towns and the countryside, were it not a public holiday. Even then, it only means that people who have business at government departments cannot go there on that day.

In Baghdad and some of the larger cities, the story is different. On New Year's Eve, most restaurants social clubs are solidly booked. Parties are thrown with song and dance. People spend the evening out with family and friends. Many others who do not go out, make an occasion of it by spending the evening with friends.

For a few decades, it has become a tradition for the young to gather in one particular street in Baghdad, Arasat, and spend the evening and the early hours of the New Year generally making an assortment of loud noises to 'express themselves'.

But somehow, the masses of the poor working classes have never been quite a part of the festivities... apart from enjoying the various festivities shown on television and the public holiday.

The Islamic New Year

Second, there is the 'Islamic' New Year. Because the lunar year is about 10 days shorter than the solar year, this date is different every year. This is a more somber occasion, more like a religious ceremony than a joyous event. People go to mosques, listen to or read the Koran, etc.

Indeed Muharram itself, the first month of the Lunar Islamic calendar, was a holy month even before Islam, where fighting and wars were traditionally prohibited.

In Iraq, for large segments of the population, it is a sad occasion marking the first of the ten holy days of Muaharram. Imam Hussein, Prophet Mohammed's grandson had come to Iraq from what is now Saudi Arabia in the hope of enlisting supporters for his cause. On the tenth day he was killed. Religious rituals are observed to a greater degree. In Husseineyyahs, the evenings are spent reciting Imam Hussein's tragic story, hardship and ordeal in quite moving, sad and musical tones with frequent exaggerations thrown in. Those first 10 days of the New Year are regarded as days of grief and remembrance.

This reminds me of an old joke, which is in fact a true story. Drinking alcohol is forbidden in Islam. Even non-religious people are expected to abide during those holy days. On the third of those holy 10 days, an old woman living with her aging brother walks into the living room to find him having a drink with a friend. Being a religious person, she looked aghast. But before she could say anything, her brother cried out: “Hold your horses sister! It's only the third day. The Imam hasn't even crossed the border into Iraq yet!"

The Ancient Iraqi New Year

This one takes place on March 21st and is generally referred to as the Kurdish New Year, called Nawruz. It is an occasion of great joyous festivities in the north of Iraq. It is also celebrated in Iran and Armenia. For the rest of Iraqis, it is called "The Year's Turnaround". There was a time when most people celebrated that day, but over the past three or four decades popular interest has dwindled.

It is also of course "Mother's Day" and the official "Tree's Day".

The celebration is truly old! The ancient Iraqis first used the Lunar Year. The Sumerians had to introduce an intricate system to match the shorter lunar year with the seasons. The Babylonians, with the advances they made in Astronomy, switched to the Solar Year. In fact, there is considerable evidence that the idea of the month is essentially based on Iraq's weather (Perhaps more on this in a future post). There have been many stages in the development of the calendar.

In any case, at one stage in their development, the Babylonians had twelve months for the year. Each month had 30 days (much like their contemporary ancient Egyptians). But they knew that the year was slightly more than 365 days long. The result was that they had 5 extra days. They solved this problem by making those days into a long religious holiday celebrating the end of the year. The New Year begins on March 21st.

This five-day transition is still practiced by the Sabaeans of Iraq to this day. They call it “Panja”.

In ancient Babylon, the New Year’s festival, Akitu, was celebrated at the time of Vernal Equinox (the beginning of Spring). Akitu was a ritual enactment of a battle between the new god Marduk and the old goddess Tiamat. The myth was the story of creation, and the ritual enactment of this battle between the gods was for the purposes of bringing heaven and earth, macrocosm and microcosm, back into proper relationship and synchronization. Putting it more simply, it was a yearly ritual performed for the purposes of starting over fresh with a brand new clean slate.

The traditional celebration of the "year's turnaround" that I remember was quite straightforward: A tray is filled with a number of items:

• Several lighted candles - sometimes seven but usually one for each member of the household
• A few branches of Yas (Myrtle - an evergreen shrub with scented leaves which, for some reason, is used in almost all old Iraqi ceremonies)
• Several small traditional earthenware water jugs (called tungas) filled with water… one for each member of the family; miniatures for the younger ones and regular ones for the older members. Those for males differ in shape from those for females!
• Seven items (preferably seeds) with names starting with "s" such as (simsim - sesame)
• A few coins
• Some colored eggs (very much like Easter eggs) are sometimes added

Children have a lot of fun collecting and arranging those various things. The tray is left untouched overnight.

That is it! No ceremony. No mumble jumble stuff. I barely remember hearing things like “this year, it is turning on an ox’s head” for example! I never knew what all those items signified! I hope to look into it one day.

Again, this is basically a city affair. I have not heard of a similar ceremony in the countryside or the desert. The closest thing there is the slaughtering of one of the earliest and best new lambs... and having a feast with family and neighbors!

The Ugly and the Bizarre

2005-03-18T10:22:00.000+03:00

The latest distraction in Iraq has been a series of 'interviews' with terrorists on TV publicly confessing their crimes. Every night, around nine, most Iraqis switch to the official channel for the 'series'. A wide variety of characters are shown: Jihadists, rapists, criminals and robbers.

In that series of 'interviews' with terrorists and confessions made by them, one could see an astonishing variety of people with an even more astonishing variety of mentalities, motives and means of committing murder. Some of them really make you sick to the bone. But there are some bizarre, almost unbelievable things to see.

The Cheapest Terrorist in Town

The road going south from Baghdad became known as Death Road for the past year. Numerous senseless murders were committed there. Many of them took a sectarian nature.

One character who operated on that road was a man in his mid-twenties. He looked almost normal! He admitted killing two people for money using a sword. He was paid the equivalent of about $7. Yes, seven US dollars per head. No religious fervor, no politics, just money... and so little of it. A casual laborer's daily earning... for killing a human being.

Before this man's confession, the running average going rate that we were hearing was something like $200 per killing, with explosives operators who targeted Iraqi civillians getting around $5,000 per operation. that man must have been the cheapest terrorist in town!

In addition to his own story, he told of another murder of two truck drivers whose trucks were hijacked, the two poor men killed and their bodies dumped in the Razzaza Lake near Kerbala. The trucks were sold near the Saudi border for $10,000. On their way back, the villains were caught by American soldiers who stripped them naked, spent a good portion of the night beating them up, took the money and left them stranded in the near-desert area.

Another character who was active in that area as a Muslim jihadist from Lebanon who went by the name of Abu Ali turns out to be Christian with the name of Haikel Lewis.

Terrorist Human Rights?

A few nights ago, on March 8th, and within the running series of 'interviews with terrorists' there was one particular such person that caught my attention. He was a policeman working for the terrorists. From his own account, he seemed to be quite a nasty character. He had cold-bloodedly killed several people by shooting them in the head at close range... and was paid $200 each time. What was troubling, was that the man had several bruises on his face, two particularly bad ones around the eyes and was having extreme difficuly talking. He was obviously in much pain. I could only guess at the amount of torture and beating that he had received.

This is not the first time that we have seen such things on the TV in Iraq. It was common practice during the previous regime's early years. But those people never exhibited any detectable signs of torture; interrogators were always careful to avoid the face and other visible parts of the body. They never showed any person who 'confessed' giving any hint whatsoever of having been tortured. But this was different. It was so clear that the man had been badly tortured. They could have at least given him a few days to heal.

The question is: why? It could not have been an oversight. The only rational explanation I could find is that they wanted it to be seen as such. It showed a government that was ruthlessly firm with the terrorists. Perhaps this is the message the government wanted to get across!

But what about human rights? Both Human Rights Watch and the US State Department in their latest reports on human rights had some harsh words for the Iraqi Interim Government regarding their conduct in unlawful detention, bad treatment of prisoners and detention conditions. This public display of harsh treatment only confirms those charges.

Perhaps getting that message across was more important than those human-rights considerations. From what I hear, the message does indeed seem to be "selling" well with large segments of the population.

A New Mood in Baghdad

2005-03-16T18:43:00.000+03:00

Criminals and orqanized gangs are still at large in Iraq. Kidnappings and armed robberies are still common place. Yet, for the first time in nearly two years, the number of blasts and violent incidents we hear in Baghdad is less than the number reported by the media, bad as they sound or look on the news.

Since the elections, more than six weeks ago, there has been a different mood in the city. You can see it in people’s faces, in the number of women drivers and in the number of boys playing soccer in football fields. Perhaps even more significant is the number of teenage girls walking to school, unescorted! It is also evident in people staying outside a bit later after sunset and shopkeepers staying open slightly longer in the evening.

Even the police seem to have found some useful things to do; only yesterday, I saw a detachment of policemen evicting peddlers who have trespassed onto the pavement of a busy road. A few days ago, near the Internet shop where I usually go I saw four policemen chasing a young man. One of them was firing some shots in the air (probably to frighten him into stopping). All cars naturally came to a stop. A man in his mid thirties, with his wife sitting next to him, left his car and hindered the getaway of the young man. The policemen therefore caught up with him, overpowered him and took him away. I have no idea what that young man had done, but the scene made quite a contrast from the approach of shooting first... that has become almost familiar over the past two years!

Generally, a more relaxed atmosphere. Yet, the situation seems so fluid.

Playing the democratic game of elections despite its many shortcomings, the Iraqis have made some surprising statements. I think they even managed to surprise themselves. Yet, so many people with their own agenda are hastily, and perhaps unwisely, drawing erroneous conclusions.

Sectarian Assault II

2005-03-14T21:08:00.000+03:00

The first Sectarian assault on Iraq started immediately after the invasion and lasted up to April of last year. It was shattered by Fallujah-I and most Shiites’ stand of solidarity with their Sunni brethren. That also coincided with Moqtada’s people’s clash with the US administration.

Assault II started in October of last year just ahead of Fallujah-II. It was more vicious. Moqtada’s ‘rebellion’ had been diffused by Sistani. Many anti-Shiite noises started to be made from supposedly ‘Sunni’ quarters, particularly Fallujah. We began to hear about ‘sectarian’ killings. People were being killed simply because they were Shiites or Sunnis.

There is no doubt now that many of the violent incidents in which Iraqis are hurt are designed to look ‘sectarian’ in nature. They were, and still are, increasingly less ‘random’ and more ‘sectarian-looking’.

It amazes me, amuses me and makes me proud that ordinary people, ignorant people, people who grumble about Sunnis or Shiites all day long… did not fall for it!! Any fair-minded person who follows the news of ‘sectarian-looking’ violence in Iraq must give those ordinary people the credit they deserve.

A few anecdotes:

There was much talk for some time during the past few months about a group of villains killing people supposedly on sectarian grounds in Latifeyyah south of Baghdad on the road leading to the holy Shiite cities of Kerbala and Najaf. That caused considerable ill feelings. A group of these villains was recently caught and they were definitely not local! Many people in Iraq now know that.

In a small mixed town, the son of a person building a Husseineyyah (a Shiite mosque) was kidnapped. His father was told to demolish the Husseineyyah if he wanted his son back. Links to a Sunni tribe in the area were suspected. Things started getting out of control. There was much ‘sectarian’ bitterness. The accused tribe met to discuss the problem. The head of the Sunni tribe offered himself to replace the abducted young man. The gang changed the demand to ransom money. They were exposed to be simply a criminal gang. The ‘sectarian’ aspect vanished.

On the eve of the Shiite holy day of Ashura, the day commemorating Imam Hussein’s tragic death, people usually spend the night cooking huge meals and distribute the food to neighbors and to the poor. Some Sunnis also do it. The day after Ashura, my grocer was telling me how his Christian neighbor also took part in this activity. This was the first time I heard of such a thing. It made me smile. It also reminded me of something I once heard long ago. It was said that a Christian with the name of John stood with Imam Hussein to the end and was killed with him.

During the day of Ashura, there were many incidents targeting people taking part in the rituals. In a mixed district in Baghdad called Bayyaa', a would-be suicide bomber asked someone on the street whether the commotion on that street was a Fat-ha [wake] or an Ashura ritual. Only a foreigner could not tell the difference. That particular fellow was caught. Another one succeeded. He bombed a Sunni Fat-ha! It was on the news!

On Election Day, a middle aged man, living in a neighborhood which was predominantly anti-election wanted to vote. He and his wife carried a couple of bags to pretend that they were going shopping. A cluster of his neighbors was on the street. They started making jokes about the shopping bags and teasing him about them. The man smiled, exchanged small talk with them and went on with his errand! No one wanted to have a fight. No one wanted to kill anybody else.

People and their indigenous leaders have, yet again, shown an enormous degree of restraint, tolerance and wisdom. Sectarian Assault II is by no means over yet... but so far, the people, wisdom and tolerance are winning!

Not a single major sectarian incident involving ordinary people was recorded or even heard of.

This is the country I know and live in, not the one portrayed to you by the mass media.

The Iraqi Baptists

2005-03-05T09:23:00.000+03:00

I was born and raised in Baghdad. Our home was right on the bank of The Tigris. In my early childhood, I was always fascinated by people who performed what seemed like funny-looking rituals in the river.

They invariably came at dawn… groups of less than 20 people clad in white. Some of them waded knee-deep into the water and stood there making graceful, studied motions. On several occasions, I could signal out a small group of three people: a young man and a young woman facing an old bearded man who orchestrated the rituals. Obviously a wedding ceremony. There was always an atmosphere of tranquility and dignity surrounding the proceedings.

Later in life, I had the chance to meet a number of these people, have the acquaintance of a few and cherish the friendship of at least two. Invariably, they portray a peaceful non-aggressive attitude towards life and other people.

Iraqis colloquially call these people “Subba” [Sabi’a in classical Arabic] – The Sabians, Sabaeans or Mandaeans. It is noteworthy that although the name is reportedly rooted in Aramaeic, the word in Arabic is also related to the ‘pouring’ of water.

The origins of both the people and of the religion are a mystery. Their language is Semitic. In any case, they are definitely an integral part of the rich Iraqi mosaic.

It is estimated that there are around 50,000 of them. Their communities tend to concentrate near the major rive basins in southern Iraq because natural running water is central to many of their religious rituals. As I remember, they were only allowed to use tap water for the rituals in recent decades. This central role of water in their faith has led many people to believe that they are followers of John the Baptist. There are a number of other aspects that give that impression.

They are definitely monotheistic and have several holy books. They believe that they descended from Adam, but have no ‘founder’ for their religion. They believe that their teachings were received by Adam directly from God [The Great Life or The Eternal Life]. They have several Prophets, notably: Sheet and Sam son of Noah. Their “last” great teacher was Yahya bin Zekaria (or John the Baptist).

They have fasting days, a rigid dietary system, a holy day (Sunday), but their faith goes beyond simple rituals; It is a complete system and a way of life. It regulates personal conduct and social structure. Family and children are precious. Life is sacred. The Mandaeans believe that all things return to their origins and beginnings. A distinguishing feature of their religion is that they have no idols or images used to pray to. The abstraction of worship is a significant sign of sophistication of concept.

Their most distinguishing belief is that no one except God has the right to take away life. This is perhaps a surprising attitude to hold (and keep) in harsh and frequently violent surroundings. It should certainly be a lesson to the rest of us!

***

Prohibitions in Mandaeasim:

1-Blasphemy
2-Murder
3- Adultery
4-Stealing
5-Telling lies
6-False testimony
7-Disloyalty and dishonesty
8-Lust
9-Magic and witchcraft
10-Circumcision
11-Alcoholic drinks
12-Usury
13-Crying over the dead
14-Eating dead animals, pregnant animals or animals attacked by other furious animals and blood
15-Divorce (save in some exceptional cases)
16-Suicide and abortion
17-Self-torturing and body-hurting

Devil Worshippers in Iraq?

2005-02-26T15:14:00.000+03:00

With all the constant media coverage of the main sects in Iraq, other less known groups tend to be forgotten.

One such group are the Yazidis. Their faith is shrouded in mystery. They are believed by most Iraqis to worship the Devil but they vehemently deny it.

They inhabit an area north of Iraq at the Arab-Kurd, Muslim-Christian interface. The main town of their highest concentration is called Sinjar, a small town less than a 100 miles from Mosul. They are thought to number around 200,000.

There aren’t many of them but they used to be clearly distinguishable by their conspicuous, bushy untrimmed beards before the rise of religious fundamentalism brought unkempt beards into vogue! For a long time, they were the only sect allowed to keep their beards in the Iraqi army.

Their ethnic origin is not clearly known, Most say they are Kurds, some say they are Arabs. They are probably mixed. They believe that they are descendents of Adam alone while the rest of mankind come from Adam and Eve. They never marry outside their faith.

Some people believe that they are the remnants of ancient religions, but their main religious figure and the founder of the sect in its present form, is a man called Sheikh Addey who died in 1160. He is reported to have been a devout Muslim Sufi, a recluse and a holy man – reportedly with super-human powers. The valley where his tomb lies is sacred to them. It is forbidden to kill a bird or an insect or cut a tree there.

The details of their teachings are said to contain elements from most of the known religions in the region. They are clearly instructed to keep their beliefs and rituals hidden from ‘outsiders’. They have two holy books; one of them is called “The Black Book”.

They believe in God as the Supreme Being, but they also have seven other lesser gods / angels. A god has come down to earth every 1000 years since the Flood, 7,000 years ago. The most senior of those gods is called “Melek Ta’us” (Arabic for Peacock Angel) – a fallen angel believed (by most people) to be the Devil.

“After he repented he cried for 7,000 years, his tears filling 7 jars, which then quenched the fires of hell.”

The word for Satan in Arabic is Shaitan. They never utter that word. In fact, they avoid saying any word which has similar syllables - even common words such as ‘shat’ (wide river). They generally avoid saying any word of damnation. For some reason, they never eat lettuce. One well-known Iraqi historian, al Hasani, claims that for many centuries they were forbidden from learning to read and write, except for one family.

Because of all the mystery surrounding this faith, there have a number of in-depth studies by Iraqi and other scholars of their beliefs and rituals. The simplest summary of the philosophy ‘attributed’ to their belief is the following:

The basic premise is that God is good and benevolent. He does not harm you if you are a good person who does no evil. On the other hand, the Devil, who defied even God, may do just that. So, it makes sense to constantly show respect to him to avoid his wrath.

Date Palm Trees

2005-02-19T12:25:00.000+03:00

In the northern temperate areas of Iraq, trees are not difficult to plant. The relatively ample rainfall and the mild summer climate allow hardy trees to flourish with relatively little effort. But in the central and southern regions, the story is quite different. The arid climate and the scorching summer sun make tree survival unlikely without much care and attention. Irrigation is of the utmost importance.

Anyone who has been involved in such an activity in Iraq, whether in husbandry or in simply planting a tree in a house garden knows how much effort and care that requires. Trees are consequently seen as precious.

The most revered tree is the date palm – the Nakhla. Tall, majestic, beautiful, proud and tough… but it requires constant attention. A fully-grown tree can withstand decades of neglect. Yet, it requires a great deal of care to truly flourish and bear fruit. So much like Iraq.

Every year, an expert has to go up each tree at least 4 times. The lowest row of drying leaves have to be removed, with the base cut in such a way to provide a foot hold for the climber. In April it has to be pollinated. In August, the dangling fruit bunches have to positioned so as to be supported by leaf stems or the main trunk. In September or October, the dates are harvested.

There are more than 300 varieties of dates. Few people know them by sight. Most people are only familiar with the most common 3 or 4 varieties. The dry types store well for long periods without any special requirements. In the old days they, together with milk products, served the Bedouins for many centuries as staple diet. The less dry types are pressed, sometimes mixed with sesame, in 25 pound metal cans to exclude the air then sealed, to be consumed during the winter months.

Most byproducts are used for something in addition to the dates: chairs, shopping baskets, large containers, etc. Even the large leaf ends were used to be covered with cloth and used as floating aids in teaching youngsters to swim. A whole culture is based on that tree.

The date palm tree is so old in Iraq that many of the names of its parts and the tools used for the maintenance are Babylonian in origin, or even older… but still in use today.

In the central region of Iraq, the date palms are used in orchards to provide cover for the more delicate citrus fruit trees such as oranges and lemons. They provide shade from the sun in summer and shelter from the cold winds in winter.

In the countryside, small bunches of trees always indicate a farmhouse from a distance. Until about 50 years ago, some people used to hang lanterns at night atop trees to guide strangers to their homes. This acted as a ‘sign’ to where they can find a meal and a place to spend the night. (The ‘sacred’ duration of hospitality used to be three days, during which the guest takes the welcome for granted.)

The tree is so important that to harm it is almost unforgivable.
During the early Islamic military campaigns, a well-known guideline by a leader to his troops going off to far away lands were: “Do not kill a woman, a child or an old man. Do not cut a tree”.

I remember one particular incident about 15 years ago when two neighboring farmers contested the ownership of a small plot of land. One based his claim on a few date palm trees that he had planted. The other acted foolishly and, in anger, poured some kerosene into the growing tip – the simplest and quickest way to kill those trees. As a result, he lost all local sympathy.

There was a time when there were more than 30 million date palms in Iraq, mostly concentrated in the southern Basra region. I don’t know how many there are now, but I expect less than half. Wars, increasing water salinity and neglect reduced the number considerably. One of the ugly sights of the war zones during the long Iraq-Iran war in the 1980’s was vast date palm orchards with all trees ‘beheaded’ and crown-less. To me they looked like bewildered large exclamation marks pointing towards the heavens.

Near the ruins of ancient Babylon, just north of present Hilla, one irrigation canal stretches for about 30 miles from the Euphrates. On one side of the canal, along a road leading to a holy shrine, the whole area looks like one huge date palm orchard. In fact, they are many small plots around 5 acres each. In most of these, a grid of steel wire is constructed using the date palms as pillars. The matrix is used to support grapevines. The vines grow in the shade of the palm trees. A most beautiful sight! During the 1991 uprising, that area was the center of much ‘insurgent’ activity. The province governor at the time decided to remove all those orchards. No contractor would do it, except one greedy character. Although the owners were duly compensated, that contractor, who moved on to become rich and influential, is still followed by that stigma. He is still is usually referred to as ‘the man who killed all those trees’.

Nowadays, most people who go along the road leading to Baghdad Airport feel a deep sense of anger at all those thousands of trees bulldozed by the US army for some security reasons.

Sunni Shiite Iraq

2005-02-18T20:45:00.000+03:00

Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq - An Overview of Basics

Sunnah and Shi'a are two sects of Islam, very much like Catholicism and Protestantism.

Sunni – roughly refers to adherents to the precedence set by the Prophet Mohammed. They are more or less the "orthodox" Muslims. There are four major Sunni sub-sects. The overwhelming majority of Iraqi (and probably world) Sunnis follow the Hanafi doctrine. This is named after the revered scholar Abu Haneefa who is buried in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad.

Shiite (or Shia)– roughly means "followers" or "cohorts" of Imam Ali, the Prophet's cousin, protégé and son-in-law. Shiites believe that Imam Ali (and his sons) should have succeeded the Prophet in running the affairs of the Muslim nation. Imam Ali, the fourth Caliph (successor) moved the Islamic capital from Medina near Mecca to Kufa in Iraq. He is buried in Najaf - hence the religious significance of Najaf. The desert city actually evolved around his shrine. Najaf has what is probably the largest cemetery in the world. Most Shiites (religious and not) prefer to be buried there.

The technicalities of theological differences may not be of much interest to most of the readers and will therefore not be mentioned – only differences relating to the present day topics will be briefly outlined.

One notable difference worth mentioning is that Shiites believe in the Resurrection of the "Absent 12th Imam", who disappeared in childhood and who, on his return, will fill the earth with Peace and Justice. He is called al Mehdi (or Mahdi)- hence the name "Mehdi Army" of Moqtada al Sadr. The site of his disappearance is in Samarra, in the heart of what is now known as the Sunni triangle!!

Sunnis generally go to mosques; Shiites go to Husseineyyahs. A Husseineyyah is, for all intents and purposes, a mosque where, in addition to the usual prayers and services, additional services are performed in mourning of the Imam Hussein [Imam Ali's son and Profit Muhammad's grandson who is buried in Kerbala and who is much revered by most Muslims but particularly by Shiites for his heroic stand for what he believed in, in the face of certain death. In an uneven battle, he and all 72 of his extended family were massacred].

Another notable difference is that the Shiites, being generally outside governance for the past 14 centuries, have developed strict and independent academic rules for the hierarchy of their clergy, and consequently hold them in higher reverence. Rise within the hierarchy is primarily on academic theological merit, determined by peers. The Sunnis, on the other hand, as a rule, have their clergy appointed by the powers of the day and are therefore generally, but not always, regarded as almost "government officials". Consequently, contemporary clergy are not held with the same regard.

For centuries, the "Hawza" in Najaf has been more or less the Supreme University for the Shiite clergy world-wide. Senior clergy had much sway over the religious Shiite population all over the world. During the past 30 years, two factors led to a significant shift in the role of the Najaf Hawza: one was the continuous pressure and harassment of the Saddam regime; the other was Khomeini's revolution in Iran. For decades, the Hawza in Qum, Iran played a more significant influence than Najaf, especially in Iran. The once-supreme influence of the Najaf Hawza on Iran's Shiite population is now much reduced.

Devout Shiites generally willingly pay the equivalent of 20% of their yearly profits to the clergy of their choosing. Similar donations used to come from all over the world. This of course means considerable liquidity at the disposal of senior clergy. There is nothing equivalent to this in the Sunni doctrine, apart from sporadic donations by philanthropists.

Sunnis are a majority in the Arab and the Muslim world. In Iraq, Shiites are a majority. The vast majority of Kurds are Sunnis. Turkmen are mostly Sunni.

Within the Arab population of Iraq, the Sunni and Shiite doctrines are not related in any way to any ethnic or racial differences.

As with other sects in Islam, there is no question regarding the ultimate source of all their belief: it's the Koran – the word of God. One source, one book, one code – differences are in the interpretation of things not specifically mentioned. All sects also agree on the precedence set by the practices established by the Prophet Mohammed (the Sunnah) except for some differences regarding the reliability of different source and references.

Differences stem from questions of details of practice or life, government, marriage, inheritance, minor differences in prayer time, determining when the moon is born, etc.

Sunni and Shiite Iraq - Intermingling

Sect Conversion

Changing from sect to sect does not require anything else besides declaration of intent and following the practice of the new sect. This conversion takes place all the time. It has been taking place for 1400 years.

On a large scale, it happened in Iran in the 18th century when their Shahs converted and it happened in the 19th century in the south-eastern provinces of Iraq.

On an individual level:

• It is a common practice for people to become Shiite when moving to live in a predominantly Shiite area or vice versa. It happened constantly for the past 1400 years. It happens all the time today.

• In the Shiite doctrine, if someone dies leaving only daughters, then his inheritance goes completely to those daughters. In the Sunni doctrine, the person's brothers get a share. This has been a frequent cause for conversion for such people – mainly in the cities. [One notable case that comes to my mind is a member of the now-defunct Governing Council who was generally regarded as "representing" secular Sunnis. This gentleman has only three daughters and has converted to Shi-ism.]

• In Islamic marriage, the dowry is in two parts; one part is paid to the wife in advance. The second part is called the deferred dowry. In the Sunni doctrine, this is paid in the case of divorce or death, whichever comes first! In the Shiite practice, this has to be paid on demand to the wife, at any time of her liking! In practice, this is hardly an issue as failed marriages are few and far between. In mixed marriages (which are numerous, especially in "mixed" areas) this question comes up and has to be agreed upon. In such marriages, there is no requirement for any of the partners to convert. The difference in sect between husband and wife is a constant source of family humor.

Divided Loyalties

The allegiances of an Iraqi, like other people in other countries, cover a wide framework of beliefs and considerations. These include: Self, family, tribe, religion, race, town, nation, political doctrine and economic doctrine. Many of these factors are present in the consciousness, or sub-consciousness, of most of us. We only differ in the relative importance we give to each. The difference is in the mix! I cannot even begin to categorize such a complex structure for the wide spectrum of Iraqi people but will refer to these in the context of the issue discussed.

Kinship Factors – The tribal "half" of Iraq.

Of the conversion factors listed above, the most important factor to keep in mind in today's Iraq is the first. This has to be regarded in the context of the tribal nature of much of rural Iraq (and many of the smaller provincial towns… and even parts of the larger towns). Such conversions, over centuries, have led to a large number of tribes being of both denominations - some with a Shiite majority, others with a Sunni majority.

The important point is that the loyalty of many of these people to their kin is something fundamental in their make-up. They usually maintain considerable ties and contacts and are frequently brought together through tribal arbitration councils, paying respect in deaths, allegiance to respected tribal chiefs (who can be of a different sect), etc. This very significant factor is almost always overlooked by many two-color Sunni-Shiite analysts (including some Iraqis) when discussing the sectarian problem in Iraq.

[In one notable instance, members of a large "conglomerate" of tribes, the Muntafik in the Nassereyyah and Basrah provinces, are predominantly Shiite. Their tribal chiefs for the past three centuries, the Sa'adoun family, are Sunnis. Now that family has headed those tribes by choice, not by force! Confusing? I'm sure it is!]

I will go as far as to say that for many of these people, fighting their kin over a sectarian dominance is unlikely… and even if such a thing is started by some overwhelming factor, there are so many channels between them that blood ties will ultimately come on top.

Confusion with geography

Many people in Iraq think they can tell a Shiite from a Sunni from his or her accent or attire. I have heard and seen this so many times. The differences these people refer to are usually geographic in nature and have little to do with sect. People from southern provinces usually use a different style of head-gear (igal – smaller and thicker) and have a different accent from people in the western regions for example (in fact, each province has its own dialect, much like many other countries).

The "mixed" half of Iraq

This can be illustrated by looking at people who live in "mixed" areas. Time and again I was struck by how difficult it is to tell people apart. They usually have the same accent, the same dress, social customs and the same mannerisms.

An anecdotes as an illustration: I once attended a meeting of people in such an area in July after the invasion. I knew many of those present and I started reflecting on this matter… This one's son is a Baathist, this one's son is with the resistance, this one's brother was executed by Saddam and so on and so forth. Most people of one sect were related by marriage to others of the other sect. There was so much in common between those people that being a Shiite or a Sunni had to take a lower priority to those common factors!

I honestly cannot see these people killing each other for religious sectarian reasons.

"Mixed" Baghdad

This even applies to Baghdad, the melting pot of Iraq. Inner Baghdad (the old city) has a number of traditionally predominantly Shiite districts and predominantly Sunni districts. The peripheral districts (most of them grew within the last 50 years) usually reflect the nature of the region most people come from.

But generally, most of Baghdad is so thoroughly mixed that it would be extremely difficult to think of the people there being involved in any sectarian or civil war with any sound degree of rationality. It is just not possible. As I write this, I think of my own neighbors – Sunnis and Shiites all around! People used to make many jokes about it… on both sides (but not during the past year! Those jokes simply disappeared! You may find this odd… but this is more worrying to me than all the "expert" analyses I read!).

In most of "urbane" Baghdad and other large cities, neighborly and neighborhood relations dominate over kinship and tribal bonds.

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of Baghdad. It has a quarter of the whole population of Iraq. Culturally Baghdad sets the pace for the whole country.

In addition to Baghdad, the mixed regions include the provinces of Diala, Babel and, to a lesser extent, Basra. These comprise approximately half of the Arab population of Iraq.

Cultural and Political Mix

I have already referred to the complexity of Iraqi society. In addition to the "blood" relations that play an important role in the loyalties of many people, there is a large secular segment in Iraqi society. Well into the 1980's, this segment was the leading force that shaped the political climate in Iraq. People who are pan-Arabists, communist, humanist, simply secular etc. etc. are generally people for whom the Sunni Shiite question, even if present, would by necessity take a lower consideration than those doctrines and their commitment to them.

At the other end of the spectrum, a Shiite country person from Deywaneyyah in the south would find a lot more in common in terms of values, customs and even costumes with a Sunni tribesman from Ramadi than with an urbane fellow Shiite from Baghdad. A Sunni Arab Nationalist would identify more with a Shiite pan-Arabist from Basrah than a fellow Sunni communist, and so on and so forth. All these bonds and loyalties extend beyond the two-color façade of the over-simplistic Sunni Shiite divide.

To add further confusion to this post… it is quite natural to come across an Iraqi communist (who is a committed atheist) who thinks of himself as a Sunni or a Shiite. This also widespread among seculars! They regard Sunni-ism and Shi-ism more as a "culture" than a religious sect.

***

I am not saying that differences do not exist; on the contrary, they do. There are major differences and genuine grievances. For example, many middle-class Shiites genuinely feel that they have had less than a fair prospect of important jobs or promotions because they were Shiite. Many people in Kut, for example, feel that their town was not developed like other Sunni parts in Iraq because it was a Shiite area.

What I'm saying is that it is difficult for these differences and grievances to lead to civil war. It is my belief that even if such a thing is started, the channels and links available between the various groups will facilitate a relatively fast resort to reason and reconciliation. It would not lead to a chaos much worse than the present one! There would not be a blood bath deeper than the present one!

[Addendum – January 2007: The above may sound like an unreasonable assertion under the present conditions of senseless sectarian violence engulfing Iraq (and the ‘mixed’ areas in particular). There has been much debate over whether the ongoing Iraqi-Iraq strife was a civil war or not. Oddly, the US administration, the Iraqi government and the national resistance all agree that it is not! This is not as perplexing as it seems. The explanation is that it is not a civil war in the sense that large segments of the public attack each other. To this date, there has not been a single significant sectarian incident involving ordinary people! It is still a civil war in the making… through a persistent campaign of sectarian assaults... by forces of darkness. On the other hand, considerable polarization of the population has been taking place. Ordinary people’s attitudes are showing increasing signs of ‘hardening’ and sect animosity.]

Sunni and Shiite Iraq - Governance

[There is considerable confusion regarding the dominance of modern Iraq by the Sunnis. Media references to the Sunni-Shiite divide in Iraq are frequently more perplexing than enlightening! Like almost everything else in old and complex Iraq, this a long story - 1400 years old. To clarify this issue in the simplest possible terms, I will only go back a century.]

How did the Sunnis come to govern modern Iraq?

At the turn of the 20th century, Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks, who came to Iraq several centuries before as conquers from central Asia, were Sunnis. They alternated on invading Iraq with the Shiite Persians. This conflict was a major factor in the modern Shiite-Sunni polarization!

The Ottomans were Sunni and generally bigotry - they usually referred to Shiites as "The Rejectionists"! Naturally they relied on Sunnis for government positions and, towards the end of the 19th century, the military. Young men went to Istanbul to go into military colleges. Shiites were generally shunned.

When the British wanted the Arabs to help them against the Ottomans during WWI, they went to the most prominent figure at the time, Hussein, the Sherif of Mecca. They promised him to free the united Arab world under his leadership. He revolted against the Turks. His army had a number of senior Iraqi officers.

The British campaign succeeded but they couldn't honor their promise to the old man… the region was already divided between France and Britain in the Sykes-Picot Treaty. They put Iraq under direct rule. The Iraqis (both Sunnis and Shiites) revolted. The British then decided to install a "democratic" government. There was a National Congress in 1924 to agree on a Constitution. The Shiites, on the recommendation of senior clergy, boycotted it. [Now I hope you can understand Sistani's eagerness not to be bitten again!]

To pay part of their debt to the Sherif of Mecca, the British installed his son, Faisal I – a Sunni, on the throne of Iraq. The (mostly Sunni) Iraqi officers who assisted the British almost monopolized the top political and military positions for decades. The civil service had to rely on people willing to work with the British and who had the ability to get the job done. Again, Sunnis dominated the civil service.

That combination determined the Sunni face of government in Iraq for the next 80 years.

Shiites, from predominantly Shiite areas, were duly represented in Parliament. They were quite active in the political life of Iraq; there were quite a number of Shiite ministers and prime ministers But those other people had entrenched themselves in senior positions!

Given the tribal element in the Iraqi society and the strong social influence, nepotism and favoritism (and no doubt some bigotry) played a strong role in admission to senior government and military posts… and military colleges. The result was that three decades later, the top brass were mostly Sunnis.

In 1958 there was a military coup. The people involved were mostly Sunni. The strongman of the junta, Qassim, in fact came from a mixed area and there was no evidence whatsoever that he practiced any form of preferential treatment between Shiites and Sunnis. There were two other military coups that led to the final one in 1968 which ultimately brought the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein to power. Due to the reasons outlined above, all those coups were dominated by Sunni military officers.

***

The Baath party is secular in origin and basic doctrine. In the rank and file of the party (that claimed some 3 million members) there were more Shiites than Sunnis – reflecting the make-up of the country. There were many senior Shiite figures. There were also numerous Kurds and Christians! However, for the same reasons outlined above, the Baath Party's key positions were dominated by Sunnis. But the "Law Giver" was Saddam and he tightly held the reigns.

Saddam and his inner circle (who were his relatives) were Sunni in name. The same social forces outlined above were also at play throughout his reign. Saddam's true religion was "Power"… his sect was "Brutal Oppression". Most people knew that if you as much as uttered something against him, you were gone. It didn't matter what your religion was.

***

As you can see, Shiite grievances are genuine but Sunni dominance of government was not through armed Sunni-Shiite conflict as has been repeatedly suggested. It was mostly foreign interference and influence first and then power and politics and power-politics throughout the past century of modern Iraqi history.

***

Other essays on Sunni Shiite Iraq

Order in Chaos
Tragedy on a bridge
Iran and Iraq: Influence and Mistrust
Najaf - Sistani’s City
A Glimpse of Sistani

Dogs in Iraq

2005-02-12T12:34:00.000+03:00

Iraqis certainly present an ugly spectacle to the casual observer. Iraqis' attitude to dogs exemplifies this rather well!

Dogs are regarded as filthy animals. Many of the older people would be gravely offended if they touch a dog. They would have a bath and change cloths as soon as they can.

The common string of cuss words is to call someone Kalb (or sometimes Chalib in slang!), ibn il kalb or worse kalb ibn il kalb! [Respectively: dog, son-of-a-dog and dog-son-of-a-dog] to express extreme anger.

Yet, as elsewhere, dogs are regarded as a symbol of loyalty.

Traditionally, the praise of poets was always sought by fame seekers. One notorious unfortunate character was praised by a mean-spirited poet in a famous poem:

You are like a dog in your loyalty to friends…
… and like a billy-goat in ramming hardships.

There was nothing he could do about it! He was made a laughing stock for 12 centuries!

Very few people keep pet dogs. Some people in the city do. Yet, they are rarely allowed into the living quarters. Their pens are usually allocated in the roof or garden.

When Alexander the Great died in Iraq, his vast empire was carved up between his generals. Iraq was the share of one Selucius who initially built his capital south of present Baghdad on the right bank of river Tigris in a place now known as “Tel Omar”. For some reason, a hunting dog is known as a “Selugi” in Iraq.

In the countryside, dogs are only used as guards, to replace “alarm bells” or as “early warning systems”! When someone approaches the farmer’s house, his several dogs start barking. Whoever present would rush out to see who’s coming. The dogs immediately quiet down. If you are unattended to and are met by barking dogs, don’t run away. You are then liable to be attacked. These dogs are not trained to attack people. The best course of action is to bend down and pretend to pick a stone. They always back down!

If you hit a farmer’s dog, you’re in trouble. They don’t take that act lightly. It is considered as an insult and an act of aggression! You may be even in for a fine.

In their own way of passing their wisdom through fables, an ancient story that you may hear frequently in the countryside goes like this: A very old man is told that someone had killed his dog. He instructed his sons to seek and kill the dog’s killer. They did not. Some time later, one of his sons was anonymously killed. When told, he immediately barked: “Didn’t I tell you to kill the dog’s killer? Now go and seek the dog’s killer”. Most people of course know this story. So when someone is grieved by someone else you sometimes hear only the words “dog’s killer” coming from “hawkish” councilors – roughly meaning: “Don’t let it go unpunished”.

During the British occupation of Iraq during and after WWI, some British officers took their pet dogs to meetings! Those dogs would sometimes jump and sit in the lap of their masters or next to them on settees. Tribal chiefs and local dignitaries present, being generally quite particular about status and seating hierarchy, could not have been insulted more! Those well-meaning British boys had no idea what damage they were doing.

One such character that comes to my mind is called Bertram Thomas who served as a political officer in a few towns in the south of Iraq in the 1920’s. Thomas had actually written his memoirs about that period. Reading them, you would see a sensible and a well-behaved person. Reading about him from Iraqi literature written about that period, he is usually described as monster. Many writers do not fail to mention his contempt to local dignitaries displayed by seating his dog with them or patting it before shaking hands with them.

Dogs are not given human names. They are referred to by their distinguishing traits: red, loud-mouth, naughty, thief, impatient, etc. Sometimes names are coined up for them. When they are given human names, it is usually done in mockery.

Tribesmen, being particular about their bloodline, find it hilariously unbelievable that dogs in some countries in the west are given the owner’s family name in their license and documents. It never fails to amuse them!

And yet, no family would go to sleep before making sure that their dogs have been fed. It is also noticeable how the little ones in the family take tender care of them, particularly the poppies. They are frequently scolded when caught playing with them, but more in mock than in earnest.

Groundhog Day

2005-02-05T13:26:00.000+03:00

Mighirrat il M’aidy

[Charley is an American who has written to me several times short, sincere and touching messages. The last one was a greeting on Groundhog Day alluding to the coming of “spring”. This reminded me of something parallel in Iraq, which is coming soon. This post is dedicated to Charley]

People who live in the southern marshes of Iraq are generally known in the West as the Marsh Arabs. In Iraq they are called Mi’dan. Fascinating people who make artificial islands out of marsh reeds and live on them. They generally herd water buffaloes. A member of those people is called a “m’aidy”. The name is often extended to anyone who owns a buffalo herd.

Like other farmers in probably most places on earth, the Iraqi farmers have their own almanac. Weather changes are usually associated with fables and legends. For some reason these are mostly cherished by older people. [In Iraq, that has special significance because the calendar and the weather are intertwined and go back to the root of civilization. But that’s another story.]

Spring comes on March 21st in Iraq and other countries in the region. It is also considered New Year’s day for many. But before the ‘true’ spring comes, farmers usually expect a short spell of warm weather in February, followed by cold weather again. These days are called: “mighirrat il m’aidy” - the m’aidy’s deceivers.

What is interesting is the myth behind this phenomenon.

***

The story goes that this particular m’aidy was spending the winter in a settlement with other buffalo and sheep herds. His herd was naturally protected from the cold by some shed.

He had a daughter who was in love with a young man in that winter settlement. The boy’s people decided to move out to seek early spring grazing for their sheep.

The m’aidy Juliet wickedly made use of the warm spell and, for several days, watered a wild shrub (called sireema) close to their hut with warm water. The shrub budded. When that happened, she pointed the shrub to her father. The warm weather and the budding shrub convinced the old man that spring had arrived.

He took his herd out from the shelter into the open and began to follow Romeo’s people. Cold weather soon set in again and the old fool lost his herd!

Dr Majeed

2005-01-29T17:21:00.000+03:00

We keep hearing stories of professionals being attacked, kidnapped, threatened or simply killed all the time in chaotic, free-for-all Iraq. Knowing the intimate details of such incidents frequently makes them even more senseless or incredible.

Dr. Majeed is a specialist doctor in his mid-fifties. I have known him personally for years. He is extremely competent, dedicated to his profession, well known and an authority in his field. As a person, he is caring and compassionate, completely secular, non-sectarian and apolitical. After the invasion, senior government positions were up for grabs; many of his colleagues approached one political party or another with an eye on a senior job; he never did. He went on with his work more or less as before.

He usually only sees patients by appointment; However, due to the difficulties in communication and transportation, his clinic usually swarms with people… people reporting results of tests, people asking about a replacement medicine to one that is unavailable, people from the provinces, etc.

A few weeks ago, I heard that Dr. Majeed was shot by someone who broke into his clinic, so I went to see him a few days after the incident. The following narrative is taken from his own account.

He was seeing a patient in his surgery when the door was pushed open; he saw a young man whom he knew as a patient of his for a number of years. As soon as he entered the room, the young man pulled out a gun and fired three shots in succession at Dr. Majeed from a distance of less than 4 meters. As soon as the man pulled the gun, Dr. Majeed jumped to his feet in reflex. He received two bullets in his abdomen and one in the palm of his left hand.

The young man turned and left. On his way out he stopped and fired two shots at the receptionist (probably because his knew him). There were about 20 people in the waiting room. Some of them overpowered him and took the gun away. Some of those present volunteered to take the man to the police. He is now waiting for trial.

His story to the investigating judge was that he was insulted by the receptionist, so he lost control of himself and did what he did. Well, that was a pretty weak story, since there were more than 20 witnesses to the fact that he did not have a word with the receptionist on his way in.

The man is in his early twenties, a second-year college student. Dr. Majeed knows him rather well and assured me that he believed there was nothing wrong with the man's mental state. He also believed that he was not a religious fanatic of some sort. He has no grievance or grudge against Dr. Majeed and was always on the best of terms with him.

Dr. Majeed still has no clue as to why he was shot or who might be behind it. His son, who is a young doctor, and a close friend of my own son, was of the opinion that they should get the word out that Dr. Majeed was making plans to leave the country. Dr. Majeed didn't agree. He thought that if someone out there is determined to have him killed, that would only incite them to implement their plans in more haste. He believed that he had escaped certain death… but has no idea what to do with his life next.

Can you make any sense of this?

A few days ago, the good doctor took his family and left the country.

Criminal Freedom

2005-01-22T13:29:00.000+03:00

We hear a number of stories of killing and kidnapping in Baghdad every day. I will only outline three separate criminal incidents (that I know to be authentic) from this week’s harvest, to give a taste of what it is like to live in Baghdad these days.

Humanitarianism in Kidnapping

An elderly person of the Khanchi Baghdadi family was kidnapped several days ago. He had a heart attack in captivity during the negotiations for a ransom.

The kidnappers stood to loose their bargaining chip. They suggested replacing him by one of his sons so that he can have proper medical care… and so it was!

Queue Quarrel

If you drive by any gas (petrol) station in Baghdad, you can see several armed men – some in uniform, some in civilian clothes (private security guards hired by the station’s management to augment the police force).

A few days ago, near the entrance to such a gas station in a busy district of Baghdad, a dead man was lying on the street. He was covered with a blanket but you could still see his gray hair.

Having waited all night in the queue, a group of men in a car wanted to jump the queue and go in ahead of him. He refused and there was a quarrel. They simply shot him and drove away.

He was covered with the blanket he used to keep him warm during the long wait through the night.

Kidnapping Fools

Last Friday, someone I know was kidnapped. He was abducted by three men at gunpoint, right in front of his house. His family and friends kept calling him on his mobile phone. The following day, someone answered. He said that they represented the resistance and the man will be killed because he collaborated with the Americans, working as an interpreter. He was told that the man had nothing to do with the Americans or any other party. He was a businessman. The kidnapper said that they would check it out and kill the man if he was. They would send him in several pieces to his family. If he was “innocent”, the family would have to give a donation to the resistance! It was immediately obvious that this was a criminal gang.

The poor fellow came from Basra. He had no kin to speak of in Baghdad apart from his wife and two daughters. His brother-in-law took charge of the contact with the kidnappers. Slow, painful negotiations with the kidnappers, sprinkled with foul language, followed. They asked for $ 140, 000 or 14 “dafters” (notebooks) as the bundle of 100’s is now commonly known in Iraq.

At one stage, the fools forgot to switch off the telephone at the end of a call. The brother-in-law was able to listen to their conversation for almost half an hour. He found out several things about them: There were 14 people in that gang; he captured a few first names. One of them was a police sergeant. Their hideout was in a district just south of Baghdad called Abu Disheer. One of them was the brother of the floor tile layer working at the kidnapped man’s new home!

Yet, there was nothing the family could do about it! They couldn’t go to the police; the sergeant could have collaborators at the station. It is well known in Iraq that criminals had infiltrated the new police force in large numbers. [I must add that the force does have some decent people in it who try to do a good job.]

During the negotiations, the ransom went down to $10,000. The brother-in-law mildly (perhaps recklessly) hinted to some of the facts that he had discovered. They broke off all contact.

Last Wednesday evening, the man was beaten up badly, they extinguished three cigarettes on his forehead, “bagged” him, put him in the trunk of a car… and then released him in a deserted street in Baghdad.

Police Force

When will all these phenomena come to an end? I don’t know. Perhaps never, completely. But a start can at least be made when the police start going after criminals. So far, they are not interested. They seem to be more interested in going after “insurgents”.

Even when they take some shy steps in this direction, they are firmly put in place by stronger forces of reality.

Some time ago, a gang was caught red-handed and locked up in a police station in Baghdad. The following morning – and in broad daylight – the police station was attacked by a very large group of armed men, some of whom were positioned on the roofs of surrounding buildings. Within half an hour, the police force was cornered and all those imprisoned were released. They simply over-powered the police. Enforcement wasn’t sent… probably for fear of an ambush!

Sharing Grief in the Countryside

2005-01-15T13:18:00.000+03:00

[This is the second post describing the Iraqi Fat-ha reception where one goes to pay respect to the deceased's kin. Please read the previous post for basics. Again, I will only describe the men's reception. I doubt if Riverbend or Rose have seen the inside of the women's reception in the countryside!]

The basic social function of the country Fat-ha is the same as that of the city; only the setting, the execution and the "feel" are all rather different, reflecting the nature of the country folk in their difference from city people.

The Fat-ha is generally conducted at the deceased's house or one of his or her closest kin. Special "tunnel" tents are erected for the purpose. These are basically steel frames, speedily erected by a gang of young men. The space they make after erection is about 3m wide and about 20m in length. This space is filled with rows of plastic chairs facing each other along the length. They call such a tent “bait” [= house].

The number of such tents depends on the number of expected visitors, reflecting the social status of the hosts. One such tent may be sufficient for a simple peasant's Fat-ha. At the other extreme, an important person's reception may require more than a dozen such tents.

Iraq is full of places where everything a Fat-ha needs is rented. People in the country usually have a good supply of young men and pick-up trucks. Everything may look extremely chaotic to the casual observer: people yelling, people going back and forth, people shouting their arguments, tractors with scrapers preparing a flat, clean clearing, etc. If you happen to observe proceedings, you would think they would never get it done! But somehow, the whole thing could be set-up in a matter of a few hours, sometimes to be ready when people come back from burial.

Black banners announcing the Fat-ha are used to a lesser extent than in the city. The actual announcement of death is usually made by firing guns. People hearing the reports, knowing that there is no scheduled wedding in that household, immediately assume what has happened! The grapevine, which is even more efficient than that of the city, takes care of letting everybody know. Relations who live long distances away usually hear the news within the following day!

In city Fat-has, people usually go by themselves or in small groups of a car load of friends or family. In the country, this does happen but generally visitors from outside the area or from different tribes usually go in larger numbers, sometimes exceeding 100 people! Social politics are a more important consideration in country Fat-has.

Protocol:

The minute you reach the car park, you can tell that this is a different affair from the city. A few teenagers usually supervised by an older young man, direct you and keep an eye on your car. It would shame them if something happened to it or was stolen from it in a busy Fat-ha with so many people coming and going.

Just outside the tents, several people in charge of reception welcome visitors and direct them to the tent that they would fit in best! These people may not be distinguishable to the inexperienced eye from other clusters of men scattered all over the yard leading to the tents in small groups, discussing things!

If you are somebody important in their eyes, then the hosts, and others, having been given warning by the car-park boys, or one of the outside "clusters" will leave their place and come and welcome you in. The higher your status, the larger the number coming out for you. Usually this has little to do with wealth. If is not uncommon for the entire assembly to come out to welcome someone really important to them such as a tribal chief or an important tribal delegation!

Once inside the tent, some people don't shake hands, much like in the city… for a variety of reasons -one of them being not wishing to shake hands with an adversary or an enemy! If during this round such an "enemy" is encountered, he simply does not stand up and is ignored by the newcomer! But generally people go around the whole tent and shake hands with everybody. You have to start with the people on the right and go counter-clockwise. It is almost insulting to go the wrong way around. This rule is always meticulously followed in the countryside. Some city people unaware of this can cause some confusion going round the wrong way!

People stand up as you approach them, shake hands and usually exchange pleasantries. For an important guest, the whole tent may rise for this hand-shaking tour! Country folk (or Urbaan) are much more exhibitive of social status than in the city.

Once seated – again, according to status, like in the city you would loudly announce the "Fat-ha". Most people in the country don't just use the word but put it in a sentence like "May God bless you, al Fat-ha" or "May God have mercy on your parents, al Fat-ha!".

Then the usual "Allah bil Khair" follows.

Koran readings are the same as in the city but more frequently from a recording. The volume is usually louder, due to the louder noises made by people. Nevertheless, it is usually drowned by the noise!

In the city, water is always served before coffee; in the country, the opposite is more frequent. Cigarettes are less frequently served, but tea usually follows water. It is more common to tip the coffee server if he is a hired professional coffee master.

After this ritual, you can go and shake hands with people you know, change seats, sit down with various other people and discuss thing (frequently loudly). If you are important to them, one or more of the hosts will come and sit next to you and keep you company, the higher your status is, the more senior the host.

The duration of your stay depends on the time of your arrival. Visitors usually stay between half an hour and an hour. If you stay to within an hour of lunch- or dinner-time, you will find difficulty getting away! The hosts may give you a difficult time!

After the meal, you would hear a few people saying "al Fat-ha" and then reciting the verses on the deceased's soul.

Now you are free to leave! Unlike the city, very few people announce their wish to leave by saying "Fat-ha" aloud. They just get up, shake hands with the hosts and leave. Again, if your status is high enough, some of the hosts will accompany you to your car; and again, the higher the status, the larger the crowd!

Fat-has in the country last all day long for three days. Until about some 20 years ago, most used to last for seven days – many people still retain the 7th day and the 40th day tradition by a gathering of relatives and friends over dinner. They are much more exhausting affairs to the hosts.

A’ratha

One of the most fascinating things to see in the country is called A’ratha [Literally: parade!]. This takes place when a really important personage, such as a major chief of a large tribe, dies. Other clans of the tribe and other tribes from far away places come in large numbers. They get off their cars and go into the Fat-ha carrying large tribal banners [as large as the European Trade Union banners!]. They sometimes fire some shots in the air en route.

A small group of 20-30 people of the hosts go out to meet them. Once at the entrance, with the two groups facing each other, a poet accompanying the procession says a few lines praising the deceased… and his own tribe of course! Another poet from the dead man’s tribe is there and he has to respond immediately in kind [Old hands have a store of ready lines. They sometimes simply change the names, but this trick is readily detected.] The sharpness and quick wit some of these people in responding to implied statements and “wrapped” insinuations is truly amazing by any standard.

A’ratha is seen more frequently in the south where people are closer to older customs. Even then, they only happen once every few years.

Prayers

Lunch is served after the noon prayers and dinner after the dusk prayers. If there is no nearby mosque or a Husseineyyah, people just pray on a wide span of rugs prepared by the host. Sunnis and Shiites pray together. Sunni and Shiite prayers are identical, there are only small differences in posture (Shiites leave their arms at full length at their side, Sunnis cross their chest with them). Ten years ago, perhaps a quarter of those present took part in the prayers. Nowadays, the figure is closer to three-quarters.

Meals

Meals are served three times a day. Breakfast is served to relatives who come from far and stay over-night, sometimes for three nights! Cooking is normally done by men, supervised by an older man or woman. People who can afford it hire professionals.

Foldable steel tables appear from nowhere carried by an army of young men. Within a few minutes all tents have tables erected in the aisles. The same army of young men then fill the tables with food, again in minutes. The meal is always the same: steel plates filled with fried rice (sometimes with bread underneath), with chunks of lamb on top, bread and water.

Most hosts rarely eat with the guests. They just hover around behind them checking that everything is satisfactory. They normally go inside the house to eat during the lull of visitors after the meal.

The army of young men, now armed with towels, soap and water canisters, pour water for the guests to wash their hands in a corner outside the tents. The tables are cleared and then removed with the same speed. Tea is always served afterwards.

***

The whole affair is so much less solemn than the city Fat-ha. The hosts are full of welcoming sentences (and sometimes even smiles). It is usually considered unbecoming to show grief, especially if the death is of natural causes, unless you are too old to worry about social considerations. But there are many exceptions of course. If the death was violent and the murder is un-avenged, then you are more likely to see anger in their eyes!

Women are the reverse. Their wailing is much higher than city women. There is also a great deal more chest beating and tearing of clothes! It seems as if countrywomen somehow compensate for their men's lack of display of grief by showing more of it!

Naturally the cost of this affair can be rather high. This is never a problem. Close relatives contribute towards the initial cost. People always pay money when they go to a Fat-ha in the country. They call it "Wajib" – duty! Someone carries a notebook and people sign their names and the amount they pay. Country folk are very particular in referring to that notebook when going to someone's Fat-ha… but there is usually a norm. The end result is that the Fat-ha usually does not cost the hosts much! People who contributed toward the initial expenses may then have their money back. If not, it will come back to them some other day. It is more like one gigantic cooperative.

There is virtually no difference between Sunnis and Shiites in country Fat-has. If you didn't know the people, you couldn't tell the difference. Small differences are due to area and geography rather than sect. Even then, the differences are minute. The above description would hold almost anywhere in the countryside in Iraq.

***

I have always seen Fat-ha as an excellent exercise in social "therapy". Being so busy with planning, preparations and taking care of guests somehow lets people pass through the initial shock period by being busy with others (for women, also crying loudly with others). You are given no time to sit quietly in a secluded corner with all sorts of sad and "loss" feelings. Your loss is shared by so many others… in public. By the time all the activities are over, the loss would have been psychologically accommodated!

The Fat-ha, to me, is a victory of life over death.

Putting a face to it

2005-01-15T13:02:00.000+03:00

Several times in this blog, I have referred to tribal gatherings in the countryside. It occurred to me that people may not be able to visualize my descriptions; a picture may put a face to it all, so I fished this one from my old album to illustrate.

The photo above shows such a gathering. The man in the foreground demonstrates how a well-behaved person consults with an older man. The older man, Hajji Taha, is not a tribal chief; he is just an old and respectable person.

Sharing Grief in the City

2005-01-08T11:56:00.000+03:00

I have referred to "Fat-ha" several times in this blog and simply explained it as [A reception of three days' duration where people go to express condolences to the deceased's kin].

The Fat-ha is such an important facet of social life in Iraq that I think the subject may be worth some detailed description. This may also be useful to the many young Iraqis who were born or raised abroad… if one day they may come back home!

Fat-ha is more of social event than a simple expression of condolences! It is used to express solidarity, show the extent of social connections, the more important or well-connected or richer the deceased or one of his or her close kin, the larger and the busier is the Fat-ha. People who take their social obligations seriously may visit several Fat-has a week! You can make amends by going to someone's Fat-ha. You can make a statement by not showing at a Fat-ha.

The Fat-ha is the same whether the deceased is a man or a woman. Two separate receptions are conducted for each Fat-ha, one for men and one for women. Women's Fat-has are different than men's. Perhaps Riverbend or Rose could post something on the subject. Christians frequently follow the same custom where men and women sit in different parts of a hall annexed to a church.

Fat-ha is the Iraqi corruption of the word "Fatiha" – the first and probably the most-recited verse in the whole of the Koran. It is recited in deaths, weddings and several times in each of the five daily prayers! It roughly occupies the same place as the Lord's Prayer. Simply stated, it says:

In the name of God, the Mercy-giving, the Merciful! * Praise be to God, * Lord of the Universe, * the Mercy-giving, the Merciful! * Ruler on the Day for Repayment! ** You do we worship and You do we call on for help. * Guide us along the Straight Road, * the road of those whom You have favored, with whom You are not angry, nor who are lost!

In this post, I will restrict my description to the city Fat-ha. I hope I can describe the Fat-has in the countryside in the next post. Fat-has in first-generation immigrant communities are more like country Fat-has.

As I said before, the Fat-ha is a reception of three days' duration. It usually starts on the day following the death.

Announcement is usually through newspapers and black banners about 1m by 4m distributed at busy road junctions of the city (that is why Baghdad is always full of those black banners). The ever-active Iraqi grapevine takes care of spreading the word.

The venue is one of four places depending on a number of factors: In the house or garden at the house of the deceased or one of his sons, on the pavement outside the house, using a make-shift "tunnel tent" (called chaadir) or in a hall dedicated to the purpose annexed to a mosque or a Husseineyyah.

Duration: usually 3 hours in the early evening 5-8 or 6-9 pm, except for Ramadan where it starts right after breaking the fast. At present, it is becoming increasingly common to have it in the afternoon…2-5 or 3-6 pm to give people time to get back home before dark or soon after. For first-generation immigrants from the countryside, the reception is usually all-day long.

Protocol: Just outside the entrance to the hall, several young men stand in a row to greet visitors. You walk into the hall, you say "al Salam Alaikum" (May Peace be upon you) to the hall in general (some raise their right hand in salute while, or instead of, saying the words). Some of those nearby answer back with similar words (something like: Alaikum al Salam). You don't shake hands with anybody. You may be directed to a seat or may be left to find a seat in a position of your liking.

Before, or immediately after, sitting down you loudly say the word "al Fat-ha". You quietly recite the Fatiha verses. The verses are also recited by those who hear your announcement. When someone finishes his recital he wipes his face with the both palms as a sign that he has finished. Non-believers just make the motions!!

A Christians visiting a Muslim Fat-ha crosses himself and recites a prayer before sitting down.

People around the newcomer would then say: "Allah bi Khair" where he would respond with the same words.

The deceased's close kin receiving people, usually 4 or 5, sitting close to the entrance, stand up and don't sit down again until this procedure is complete.

All the time, the Koran is recited by a professional reader or from a recording in a loud enough level to drum the quiet murmur of noises usually present. In principle, people shouldn't talk while the Koran is being read, but in Iraq, you can see people talking to those next to them in hushed voices. It is not uncommon to see the odd smile. Extremely religious people are generally angered by that but there is nothing they can do about entrenched social habits!

Only three items are served: Water, Arabic coffee (a tiny amount, about a teaspoonful, black, really concentrated stuff without sugar, served in special cups that are only used for this purpose – perhaps more details of the coffee ritual in a future post) and cigarettes. On the third day, to signal the last day of the Fat-ha, rosewater is sprinkled from a special canister into each new guest's hands.

People usually stay for about half an hour. The duration of the stay and the number of times you go to the same Fat-ha in the three days is a function of the closeness to the deceased or his kin.

To signal your wish to leave you say "Fat-ha" aloud again, recite the verse and get up. The "receptionists" stand and you shake hands with them (junior first, senior last) and say your words of condolences.

Before the 1950's Fat-has were usually of 7-day duration. Up to the 1950's there would be dinner at the end of each day of Fat-ha. In the 1960's, 70's and 80's, there would be dinner on the third day only. Nowadays, dinner is rarely served in city Fat-has.

This is only a short glimpse of the Iraqi city Fat-ha. It applies to both Sunni and Shiite Fat-has. There are in fact tiny differences that can be detected only on the last hour of the last day, but these are not of much significance. In my next post I will briefly describe the Fat-ha in the countryside.

Poetry Chase

2005-01-01T10:32:00.000+03:00

Poetry is so central in Iraqi people's sentiment and disposition that any glimpse of Iraq would be incomplete without some mention of it.

For centuries, poetry was the first religion for many people. People's collective wisdom, their history and heritage, their values and ideals, their pride and achievements are all preserved in poetry lines.

The poetry I refer to is the classical form. Modern free-form poetry is a relatively "new" development, only about a hundred years old. Classical poetry has a very rigid format: each line is in two halves of equal length. The second half of all lines (plus the last word of the first half) end with the same sound. All halves of all lines rigidly follow the same rhythm and meter.

I find classical Arabic poetry a joy that unfortunately will never be fully shared by non-Arabic speakers. The music is in the words themselves, and that can never be translated. You can only translate the meaning, leaving the poem cold and dry and almost without spirit. The other problem is the slight variation in the shade of numerous words that cannot be matched easily in other languages.

This kind of poetry reached its peak of craftsmanship just before the emergence of Islam. They had a top-7 (some say a top-10) poems. Some claim that those were hung on the walls of Kaaba, Abraham's House of God, which was, and still is, the most sacred of their shrines.

All poems, regardless of theme, start off with a few lines either describing the poet's love idol or the ruins of her people's dwellings – almost always. This tradition was broken and ridiculed by Abu Nawas, one of the most famous poets of the Abbasid's period. He said something like:

The wretched seeks some ruins to solicit…
… And I go and ask for the town's tavern!

People, particularly in the countryside and the desert have truly astonishing capacity to remember poetry (and other things!). I have met people who can remember 50 lines of a poem after hearing them once. The rhythm and the music in the words of course help. I once met a Bedouin who in the course of an (extended) evening must have recited several thousand lines of poetry, covering almost three centuries of his tribe's and region's history… all without any shred of objectivity!

Islam frowned on poetry. Poets were generally regarded as people who do not do what they say (They usually do exaggerate, for artistic effect). Yet, when a famous poet converted to Islam and read a poem before Prophet Mohammed, the Prophet bestowed his cloak on him. This was a cherished relic for many Caliphs and ended up in the possession of the Ottomans. Poetry would not die! The touching poems of a famous poetess mourning her brothers who died in the cause of spreading Islam are still remembered.

For long centuries, the rules of poetry strictly adhered to were unknown, yet never broken! One day, 1250 years ago, one notable plilologist (whose name was al Khaleel) was walking through the market place in Basrah. The pounding sounds of the copper-beaters sparked a thesis in his mind… and he "discovered" and formulated those rules. All poetry fell into 16 main categories, which he called "seas". The secret was in the rigid sequence of consonants and vowels following in a particular order. Each "sea" had its own unique order. He gave names to those seas which are retained to this day. A magnificent feat! Incidentally, that gentleman had two lines that sometimes come to my mind when I read comments from some readers of my blogs. They say something like:

If you knew what I was saying, you would have forgiven me…
…If you knew what you were saying I would have blamed you.

But you know not what I was saying, so you blame me…
…And I know that you are ignorant, so I forgive you.

In the centuries that followed, and with the rise of Islamic civilization, poetry reached new heights. There were some truly magnificent poets in Damascus, Baghdad and elsewhere. There were so many of them – hundreds. But the shining stars among them were only a few dozens! They reflected numerous facets of moods and attitudes – the warrior, the thoughtful, the dreamer, the reflective, the boastful, the religious… and of course, the decadent!

The Decadent of Baghdad in 750 was the famous Abu Nawas. He was extremely fond of women and wine and made no secret of it. He was (and still is) the hero of many popular "decadent" jokes. His poetry had a distinctively sweet musical tone to it. A street on the riverbank in Baghdad was named after him. Appropriately, that street was the center of the outdoor bars of Baghdad up to the mid 1970's. That street is on the other side of the Tigris from the Presidential Palace (now known as the Green Zone). This was a reason for its decline in fortunes even before the present religious revival.

My personal favorite is someone called "al Mutanabbi" (which literally means: The one who claimed to be a Prophet) who lived in the first half of the 10th century AD. He was relatively terse on love poems, but he truly exemplified all that was noble, soaring and proud in the human spirit. Many people found him, and many still find him, too arrogant. He took liberties with metaphors and broke new grounds. No other poet anywhere was the focus of so much debate and controversy for 10 centuries. But he had a way with words that to my mind is unequalled by any other. He could say so much and capture so many things in so few words! Many of his words have been enshrined in popular proverbs that are still used today. A true genius. I hope I can sometime post something about him.

But after Islam, poetry generally became the second religion in Iraq (and in many other places). During the last century, politics took the second place. Poetry became third. During the last 3 or 4 decades, it lost more of its status.

But there are still many corners where love for poetry still lives on.

***

I can still remember those poetry matches in Baghdad where, in a coffee house for example, people (ranging from a daily-wage laborer to a university professor) would have what was known as "Poetry Chases": The chase is usually run between two people. One contestant would start with a line of poetry. The opponent would have to come up with a line that starts with the same letter as the last one of the previous line. Some letters are difficult and there was a great deal of skill and memory involved. Usually onlookers would act as arbitrators. I haven't seen such a match in decades.

In Iraq, Look beneath the Surface

2004-12-25T13:54:00.000+03:00

Those Ugly Little Mounds

Iraq does not present a pretty picture. It looks scruffy, dusty and almost worthless to the casual onlooker. Also, it does not offer awesome or breath-taking views like the Egyptian pyramids or the Chinese Great Wall. None of that!

Iraq is literally littered with little ugly mounds of dirt locals and archaeologists call "tels" or hills. There are many thousands of these scattered all over the country – certainly more than any Department of Antiquities has resources to investigate. All they could do was fence some of what they think are important ones… and hope to look beneath them sometime.

To archaeologists, these ugly dirt mounds usually indicate early settlements. Generally, beneath… they still don't yield beautiful and flashy objects. There are only few breath-taking treasures of gold and jewelry to be found in most of them. Their cache is generally little ugly-looking tablets of baked mud with scribbles on them.

Iraq's central and southern plains, the areas where it all began, are sedimentary in nature, with no rocks or minerals. Those ancient, hard-working peoples had to make do with what materials they locally had to build some truly magnificent civilizations. They formed mud into writing tablets and used stems of reed for pencils. The tip had a triangular shape; hence their writing was called the "Cuneiform". Then they baked those clay tablets to preserve their records.

[I see this tradition of making do with what's available maintained to this day. It is so reminiscent of what Iraqi engineers had to do after the previous Gulf war where almost everything of any value was bombed to evict Saddam from Kuwait. In the field of power generation, entire power plants were leveled; many switching and control stations were obliterated. Sanctions meant no access to spare materials and components. It looked like an impossible task, but somehow they did it.

In one district of Baghdad, an electrical switching station was thus hurriedly re-constructed using boards of wood, "Dexion" frames and salvaged parts. It was a make-shift affair. It certainly looked offensive and unprofessional. Any self-respecting engineer would not touch it! This way, some electricity was restored within 3 months. This was 14 years ago. That horrible-looking station still works until now!]

Mother Earth preserved those baked-mud records for us, sometimes for more than 5000 years. They survived numerous invasions, ravages by savages and utter devastation to everything that was over-ground. In one site alone, in the remains of an ancient city called Sippar, more than 50,000 such tablets were discovered.

Some of those treasures were re-discovered by Westerners: British, Frenchmen, Germans and Americans. This is so fitting… the latest torch bearers finding out about where the torch was originally ignited! A full circle! Iraq's contributions were more global than most people realize. We all still use many of their concepts of time, of stars, words and of God.

Human civilization, although so many people are not aware of it, is basically the same creature– born here and started its long and arduous journey here in Uruk, Ur, Akkad, Babel, Nineveh, Mesopotamia or Iraq. A lot was added to it through so many centuries by so many peoples and nations around the world in so many foreign lands. It is truly global, whether in mathematics or in spiritual belief.

So, in those ugly tablets, lying deep under those ugly mounds, you can find record after record of man's dull record-keeping, boring business communications, calculations, written laws and glimpses of man's attempts at wisdom… as well as epics of glory, of the Flood and of man's seeking of immortality. They hold the roots of our common humanity.

All those treasures and all that beauty are there… beneath the ugly and unappealing surface.

Religious Anecdotes for Christmas

2004-12-18T12:24:00.000+03:00

Little Sunni-Shiite Girls

The Sunni Shiite talk started "in earnest" in Baghdad after the 1991 uprising. Much of it was fueled by political reasons. Prior to that, so many people in Baghdad never bothered with it.

Here are two true stories - not fabricated jokes - that happened to people I know, from that period.

***

Our Christian neighbor's 10-year old daughter rushed into their house in a hurry following an argument with other neighbor friends to demand from her mother to tell her whether they were Sunni or Shiite.

***

A 14-year old girl was asked one day by her school friends whether she was a Shiite or a Sunni. She told them she was both. When they asked what she meant, she said that her mother was this and her father was that.

After school, she told her mother of the incident. The mother laughed because her daughter got it the wrong way around!

***

Conversion

[I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the following story.]

When Moslems are "religiously awed" by something, the usually exclaim: "Salawat ala Mohammed!" [Prayers be upon Mohammed].

When Europe "re-discovered" this corner of the world in the 18th century, naturally some missionaries followed the adventurers.

This missionary decided to go to some remote, backward village in the Marshes to convert those "savages" to Christianity.

After a long sermon outlining the basics of the Christian faith, and to impress those people, he went on to mention one of the miracles of Jesus Christ.

As soon as he did that, the whole gathering cried out in unison: "Salawat ala Mohammed".

Have a Merry Christmas!

The "Abu" Business

2004-12-11T11:28:00.000+03:00

Rose recently published an interesting post explaining the meaning of the words Abu and Um as used in names in Iraq. I thought that perhaps an extension of the outline may be useful.

Regarding the ready-tags for names, it may be interesting to note the historic and religious spread they cover. In origin, they are not restricted to father-son relationships as may be seen from the following examples:

Ibrahim (Abraham) – Abu Khaleel – title (more on this in a future post, I hope))
Mousa (Moses) – Abu Haroon (Aaron) – brother
Yousef (Josef) – Abu Ya'goob (Jacob) - father
Isa (Jesus) – Abu Mariam (Mary) – mother
Qais – Abu Leila – beloved (Qais was a notorious poet, Leila was his Juliet)
Mohammed – Abu Jassim – son
Faisal – Abu Ghazi – son (Faisal was King of Iraq, 1921-1936)

As you can see, these name relations span a period of over 4000 years and cover all major religions and other facets of history. These were just a few examples for illustration. The list is long!

It is quite customary to use these name-tags as nick-names for young people too. Some people get so used to it that they give their son or daughter the same name, just to keep their nick-name!

In addition to Rose's description that "Abu" means "father of" and "Um" means "mother of", the words Abu and Um sometimes mean "the one with" or "owner of".

For some reason unknown to me, every soldier is called Abu Khaleel (and no, I am not a soldier and have nothing to do with any army!). Every policeman is called Abu Ismael (Ishmael).

In the early 1970's a serial killer who terrorized Baghdad was referred to in police reports as wielding a metallic tool. Baghdadis quickly nicknamed him "Abu Tubar": the one with the hatchet.

A man with unusually thick, "prominent" mustaches may be called "Abu" mustaches.

A Baghdadi family of cheese-merchants were given, and still retain, the name "Abul Jibin" (Jibin = cheese"; Abul is an abbreviation of Abu al ... al=the).

Job association: We say Abul-water (water-meter reader), Abul-electricity (electrician or electric meter reader), Abul-buawri (plumber), etc.

The English are usually referred to as "Abu Naji" by Iraqis. Naji al Karradi was a Baghdadi land-owner who was on very good terms with the British when they "liberated" Iraq. He was particularly friendly with the outstanding Miss Gertrude Bell, the influential Eastern Secretary at the British Embassy. He also benefited from these good relations and did well, materially and politically. He was later elected to the parliament.

This naturally brings up the question of what the Americans will be called by Iraqis in the future. Perhaps "Abu Allawi"?

The Poet's Grandson

2004-12-04T12:25:00.000+03:00

Amir was a young military officer. He was a captain in the old Iraqi army before it was disbanded. He joined the resistance in July of last year.

A few days ago, he and eleven others set up an ambush for a US army convoy. It was said that they had hit and destroyed six Hummers. It so happened that another, unexpected convoy came from the opposite direction and the group was over-powered. There was a lot of fire from both sides. The team withdrew. All the others made it to their rendezvous point except Amir. They couldn't go back and check on him while it was light, so they waited for nightfall. They found him dead.

Shakir was a young police officer in the old police force. He joined the new Iraqi Police force several months ago.

A few times he was warned by the "resistance" to quit. He didn't pay attention. Last month, his brother was kidnapped and then released a few days later with a warning message to Shakir, but Shakir didn't pay heed. A few days ago he was attacked while at home by several masked men with guns. They killed him and set fire to his car.

Amir and Shakir were distant cousins. They both lived in the same area in the countryside. They died within two days of each other. Some people may find it quite ironic, perhaps even incomprehensible, that Amir was a Shiite and Shakir was a Sunni!!

I was told of the two stories when I went to the farm yesterday. I didn't know either of the two young men personally, but I knew Amir's grandfather, Fadhil, rather well. Fadhil is a poet of some renown locally - quite an outspoken old man made of tough material. He is well over 80, judging by the events he remembers from his childhood. I had missed the Fat-ha [A reception of three days' duration where people go to express condolences to the deceased's kin]. So, on my way back to Baghdad, I stopped by Fadhil's home.

I found the old man sitting on a rug, outside his home, enjoying the afternoon sun. He was busy talking to a beautiful boy of around 5 – his great-grandson… Amir's only son.

I always enjoy chatting with Fadhil; he is usually full of stories. He has had a full life. Yesterday, he was so full of himself remembering how they fought the British in 1941 and must have recited more than a hundred lines of his poetry in the hour and a half I spent with him. He was so proud that many people from so many far way places came to Amir's fat-ha. It was so busy and full of people coming and going… unlike Shakir's!

He recited the poem he was busy teaching the little boy when I arrived. It was in praise of his grandson, Amir, and how he will always be remembered as a hero in these parts. When I told him that the boy was probably too young for all this and that he is not likely to remember the poem, he simply said: "He will. I will make sure that he does before I die!"

Injured Soldier

2004-11-27T12:16:00.000+03:00

[A post on a lighter note to balance some of the gloom and depression of the previous ones!]

Soldiers in a small battalion of new recruits for the Iraqi National Guards were in training. One of the soldiers was careless and apparently had his finger on the trigger of his loaded and cocked machine gun. The gun went off and the man shot his own foot!

The person telling me of this incident said that he was surprised by the reaction of the two different groups of people there: Iraqi and US personnel. While the US boys rushed to inspect the wound and try and stop the bleeding and so forth, the Iraqi boys, the injured man's comrades-in-arms stood over him scolding him and saying things like "Fool… idiot… donkey!"

Mayhem in Iraq

2004-11-27T12:04:00.000+03:00

[The following is an article written by an Iraqi living in the Britain and published in the Guardian. It gives another glimpse of present-day Iraq.]

Kidnapping and killing is a daily reality in Iraq, but in the west the atrocities go unrecorded and the dead are unnamed

Haifa Zangana
Monday October 25, 2004
The Guardian

The kidnapping of Margaret Hassan is shocking but not surprising. We have come to accept that the same thing might happen to any of our family or friends. In fact, it already has happened to my dearest friend Nada.

Last month, her nephew Baree Ibrahim, an engineer, was kidnapped. I remember Baree very well from the mid-70s. Here is his aunt's account of what happened:

"Dear Haifa,

"My nephew Baree was picked up on September 25 and no ransom was asked. Actually the kidnappers didn't contact his family, and this led us to believe that they mistook him for someone else as he looked so European. He was beheaded on Saturday October 2.

"I had a phone call from his brother to tell me to tune to al-Jazeera. I saw on TV, Baree talking with mute sound and the writing at the bottom of the screen saying that Iraqi engineer Baree Nafee Dawood Ibrahim was beheaded by 'Jamaa ansar assunna' and the detail of the beheading procedure can be seen on one of the Islamic sites. I called my sister immediately. She was unable to answer the phone. They couldn't mourn him traditionally because the body was not found. A couple of days later his brother was in Baghdad. He and his cousins went every day to the hospital's mortuary to look for Baree's body but they couldn't find him. They even went to look for his body in side streets but to no avail.

"My sister and her immediate family are all now in Amman, Jordan and my other brother and sisters and their children are preparing to leave Iraqs for Syria. At the moment there are about 2 million Iraqi in Jordan and the same in Syria and Lebanon. Some 200,000 Christian Iraqis have fled the country in the last couple of months. This is the freedom and democracy promised to the Iraqis. Nada."

This is the daily reality in the new Iraq, especially in Baghdad. An average of 100 Iraqis are killed every day. Kidnapping for profit or revenge is widespread. Young girls are sold to neighbouring countries for prostitution.

Madeline Hadi, a nine-year-old girl, was kidnapped from her father's car in the al-Doura district of Baghdad. Zinah Falih Hassan, a student in al-Warkaa secondary school, also in Baghdad, was kidnapped on her way back from school. Asma, a young engineer, was abducted in Baghdad. She was shopping with her mother, sister and male relative when six armed men kidnapped her. She was repeatedly raped.

Mahnaz Bassam and Raad Ali Abdul Aziz were kidnapped last month along with two Italian aid workers and subsequently released. Unlike the Italians, the two Iraqis did not receive media attention in the west. No one prayed for them.

And aid workers are not the only victims - 250 university professors and scientists have been killed in the past year, according to the Union of University Lecturers, and more than 1,000 academics have left the country

Iraqi journalists are also frequently harassed, threatened and attacked by occupying troops. This year, 12 of the 14 journalists killed were Iraqi, and six Iraqi media workers were also killed. Many journalists have also fled the country.

More than 100 Iraqi doctors and consultants have been killed or kidnapped in the past year. A spokesperson for the Iraqi Medical Society described the kidnappings as "intimidating and forcing them to leave the country". The latest victim was Dr Turki Jabar al Saadi, chair of the Iraqi veterinary society. He was shot in the head on October 21. None of these killings has been investigated. These atrocities go unrecorded. The dead are unnamed.

… Death is covering us like fine dust. …

Nihad Had to Die

2004-11-20T14:17:00.000+03:00

Nihad was a young man aged 23 who lived in a small town. He made his living by collecting fresh milk from the countryside and delivering it to a wholesaler in Baghdad.

While going through one such round, he was about 300 yards from an American army convoy when the convoy was hit by some explosive device. The soldiers started shooting at anything in sight. Nihads car was targeted (I saw the car and counted 19 bullet holes in it, eight in the windscreen). He received a bullet in the thigh. A second bullet brushed against his head.

Nihad threw himself from the car, crawled into a drainage canal and made his way to a near-by village where the people took him home.

During that time, someone passing by, who knew Nihad's car, went into town (about 15 miles away) and told his father. The father rushed to the scene with two of his other sons and was desperate when he saw his son's blood on the cushion but no sign of the boy.

He approached the American soldiers and tried to gain any information from them. It was difficult through the language barrier. One of the US boys slipped him a small piece of paper. A few days later he showed me that slip. It was 3x1" scrap with something like (x Inf Div 186 PC) -) hurriedly scribbled on it. I can't remember the numbers exactly, but the father still has that piece of paper

I know Nihad's father well. I saw the young man a few days later and was amazed at the incredible sight of the bald patch on the crown of his head, left by the near-fatal bullet. I urged the father to take the matter up with the US army authorities (US soldiers are not subject to Iraqi legal jurisdiction), but he wasn't interested; he had no faith in the Americans!

Nihad pulled through.

On the 40th day of the first incident, Nihad was driving through his own town at 9:30 pm. He was several hundred meters from his home. There was what they call a foot-patrol of some 10 infantry men going through the same road. Apparently, Nihad failed to see them or failed to stop. They shot at him. Again, he was injured and, again, he threw himself out of the car. One of the soldiers came close to him and, standing over him, fired five bullets into his chest and head. His brain was splashed onto the pavement.

There were quite a number of people out in the street at the time. More than a dozen people had a clear view of the proceedings. They were quick to point out to others the almost-vertical bullets in the road surface.

Nihad's body was taken away by the soldiers and returned to his family the following morning by the Iraqi National Guard.

When I saw his father again about a week after the incident, he showed me another piece of paper. It was a typed, A5 size page expressing the regret of the US army at the incident caused by Nihad's failure to stop at a check point. The father, again, refused to take the matter up legally with the US army authorities.

About two weeks later, the Army sent Nihad's father an envelope with $2,500 in cash in it. The father took the money and gave it to someone in town whom he knew to be with the resistance.

Inshallah & Mashallah

2004-11-13T13:35:00.000+03:00

Inshallah and Mashallah are commonly used expressions in Iraq. However, unlike shaku maku, they are not unique to this country and are used extensively all over the Muslim world. They are in fact also normally used also by Iraqi Christians.

***

Inshallah [Literally: If God Wills] Equivalent to: "God Willing"

An average Iraqi uses the expression Inshallah at least a dozen times in an average day! It is frequently used with the future tense of speech: "I'll see you tomorrow, Inshallah!", "I'll come to the meeting, Inshallah!", "I'll do it as soon as I finish this, Inshallah" and so on and so forth! In a way, it also offers some room for escaping firm commitments sometimes!

Iraqi Airways, when we had airways, had the initials "IA". Due to its frequent delays, some people referred to it as Inshallah Airways!

***

Mashallah [Literally: Whatever God Wills] Equivalent to: "Praise the Lord".

This is most frequently used to express exclamation at something good or pretty; a cause for happiness, a success, a fortune, a beautiful child…

The dear father of a dear, life-long Kurdish friend was terminally ill with cancer a few years ago. He had a wife, three sons and one daughter who were all abroad. Actually, they had taken the old man abroad but he insisted on coming back to Iraq. [Kurds are notorious for being rather stubborn - that's the general stereotype anyway!] There was no one to look after him but a niece.

She unfortunately had a husband who was paralyzed from the neck down whom she had to look after. Her home was several miles away from her uncle's. She solved the problem by moving her husband to her uncle's home. The two men didn't get along when they well both well. But under those conditions that didn't matter much!

So, she kept each in a separate bedroom and dedicated herself totally to looking after them. I and three other friends frequently visited them.

It so happened that both men died in the same morning. A mosque's Imam was duly informed and he came with some entourage. They brought one coffin with them. Someone told him that the deceased were two. Instead of the usual mumbles of resignation usually uttered in such occasions, the man raised his hands and reflexively exclaimed: "Mashallah!"

I and my friends were so surprised by his reaction! We kept referring to that incident for years. But some very devout Muslims look at death this way [The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away?]. They not only believe it but genuinely feel it!
Little did we know then that we are in for a lot more of this.

CIA Waasta

2004-10-30T11:03:00.000+03:00

Waasta [Literally: means] In Iraq, nepotism, favoritism and lobbying are all usually lumped into this word which generally indicates using some means to obtain preferential treatment.

I was told of this incident by a friend who owns a tannery on the outskirts of Baghdad. A few days ago, they were raided by a party of American soldiers who told them that they were looking for insurgents. All those present were ordered to lie, face down on the floor in a single room while the soldiers searched the premises. Nothing was found.

The owner noticed the disappearance of money in a plastic carrier bag from a cabinet in his office. Through an interpreter, he told the officer in charge, mentioning that it was pay day and he needed the money to pay his staff. The officer went to have a word with the soldiers and came back to tell the man that there was no such thing. The soldiers had denied any knowledge of it.

So the man told the soldier that he lived next door to a CIA station in Baghdad, and that he was on good terms with them! The officer thought about it for a moment and asked him to sketch a street plan of the location of his home. The man duly did.

The officer went out again. After some time, one of the soldiers came into the office, placed the carrier bag with the money in it on a desk… and left without saying a word.

This is a true waasta by the CIA for the tannery man… unwittingly of course!

Mischief and Revenge

2004-10-23T11:11:00.000+03:00

I never met Salman. I was told that Salman was 25 in 1982, good looking, married with one 2-year old baby, Uday, and lived in the countryside. He used to visit a neighboring village populated mainly by people from a different tribe to call on friends.

He once apparently made some advances to a married woman in that village. She complained to someone. An elder from her village paid a visit to one of Salman's older relatives and had a quiet word with him about Salman's conduct. The old man, in turn, warned Salman about such behavior and advised him not to go to that village again. Salman did no pay heed.

The next time Salman went to that village again and, apparently again made a pass at the same woman. Her husband was away at the time. So, a cousin of his, Fadhil, killed Salman. Being a lawyer by profession, he knew he couldn't live as a fugitive, so he drove immediately to the police station in a nearby town and surrendered himself.
He was sentenced to 14 years.

For 10 years, there was bad blood between the two tribes. The prison sentence was not enough! There was a state of semi-permanent tension. You couldn't even say hello to a friend or share tea at the local coffee house in town if he was related to Fadhil.

Before Fadhil finished his sentence, incredible mediation efforts were made to arbitrate the matter so that scores were settled before Fadhil left jail. Efforts finally bore fruit in 1992 and there was a Fassul [arbitration council] between the two tribes in the presence of some intermediaries.

It was during that council that I came across a most peculiar doctrine: apparently what made many of Salman's people angry most was that Fadhil had no right to kill Salman; he was not the woman's husband. It turns out that even the husband did not have automatic right! The doctrine simply says: "The bone does not leave its kin". The woman's blood kin had priority in defending her honor. If somebody else does, it implies that they may not be honorable enough!! The proper thing to do in such cases is to inform the woman's kin first. If the woman errs, all her husband can do is to send her back to her family.

I find that doctrine amazing – yet it is so little known. I have met 'experts' on tribal matters who have never heard of it. Nevertheless, it is there… to be used when needed!

To cut a long story short, the matter was tribally settled. Fadhil left jail and everything was back to normal. However, I could notice people averting their eyes or grinding their teeth when Fadhil was around!

One day in 1997, Uday, Salman's son, now a young man of 17, was playing football with some friends. Fadhil walks by. Another young man (who apparently had a problem with Uday) yelled at him: "Hey Uday, there goes your father's killer walking tall!"

The next morning, Uday goes into town, walks into a real estate office where Fadhil was sitting and says: "Fadhil, I am Uday… Salman's son!" and shoots the man at close range.

Uday fled his home and village the same day. His folks claim not to know his whereabouts. Some claim that he is in Syria; it has also been rumored that he has visited his mother a number of times late at night.

To date, the matter still stands. Fadhil's tribe refuses to even consider arbitration, even as "agba" [breach of agreement which automatically carries a penalty 4 times the original one].

Reporter in Baghdad

2004-10-16T11:28:00.000+03:00

I thought I should publish a reference to an article by a lady reporter who is the main correspondent in Iraq for The Wall Street Journal. She recently wrote a private email to a number of friends describing her perception of what was really happening in Iraq today. One of her friends posted the email without her permission and it has been circulating around the web ever since.

The article was sent to me by a reader inquiring if it is accurate. By and large, it is… but I have a few reservations about some of her conclusions and predictions. It gives a fairly good glimpse of the present situation in Iraq (Compare her account with that of the Australian lady I posted only 18 weeks ago).

***

WSJ reporter Fassihi's e-mail to friends, excerpt:

9/29/2004 2:58:10 PM
From: [Wall Street Journal reporter] Farnaz Fassihi
Subject: From Baghdad

Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest. Forget about the reasons that lured me to this job: a chance to see the world, explore the exotic, meet new people in far away lands, discover their ways and tell stories that could make a difference.

Little by little, day-by-day, being based in Iraq has defied all those reasons. I am house bound. I leave when I have a very good reason to and a scheduled interview. I avoid going to people's homes and never walk in the streets. I can't go grocery shopping any more, can't eat in restaurants, can't strike a conversation with strangers, can't look for stories, can't drive in any thing but a full armored car, can't go to scenes of breaking news stories, can't be stuck in traffic, can't speak English outside, can't take a road trip, can't say I'm an American, can't linger at checkpoints, can't be curious about what people are saying, doing, feeling. And can't and can't. There has been one too many close calls, including a car bomb so near our house that it blew out all the windows. So now my most pressing concern every day is not to write a kick-ass story but to stay alive and make sure our Iraqi employees stay alive. In Baghdad I am a security personnel first, a reporter second.

It's hard to pinpoint when the 'turning point' exactly began. Was it April when the Fallujah fell out of the grasp of the Americans? Was it when Moqtada and Jish Mahdi declared war on the U.S. military? Was it when Sadr City, home to ten percent of Iraq's population, became a nightly battlefield for the Americans? Or was it when the insurgency began spreading from isolated pockets in the Sunni triangle to include most of Iraq? Despite President Bush's rosy assessments, Iraq remains a disaster. If under Saddam it was a 'potential' threat, under the Americans it has been transformed to 'imminent and active threat,' a foreign policy failure bound to haunt the United States for decades to come.

Iraqis like to call this mess 'the situation.' When asked 'how are thing?' they reply: 'the situation is very bad."

What they mean by situation is this: the Iraqi government doesn't control most Iraqi cities, there are several car bombs going off each day around the country killing and injuring scores of innocent people, the country's roads are becoming impassable and littered by hundreds of landmines and explosive devices aimed to kill American soldiers, there are assassinations, kidnappings and beheadings. The ituation, basically, means a raging barbaric guerilla war. In four days, 110 people died and over 300 got injured in Baghdad alone. The numbers are so shocking that the ministry of health -- which was attempting an exercise of public transparency by releasing the numbers -- has now stopped disclosing them.

Insurgents now attack Americans 87 times a day.
…

Beautiful Death!

2004-10-09T13:21:00.000+03:00

Homage to an unpublished Iraqi scholar

He went abroad to study engineering on a scholarship in the 1930's, switched to Economics after his first year in college and came back to Iraq with a Ph. D. during WW2.

After a short career in academia, teaching economics, he joined the then-young Iraqi civil service. For 25 years he contributed a great deal to giving this country its modern shape and held senior posts in that service. He was put to early retirement in the 1960's and spent the best part of the following 30 years studying history and economics.

I sometimes feel that no one knows of the existence of that incredible man. He certainly was one of the most outstanding people I have known. Throughout the 1980's and half of the 90's I never tired of talking to him, discussing things with him and listening to him for hours on end. He never ceased to amaze me with the depth of his universal knowledge and profound philosophy.

He actually lived beyond love and hate, certainly beyond trivial aspects of sectarianism and petty issues in politics; beyond the worlds so many people spend their lives in. His was a world dominated by concepts and the movements of history, economy and the forces of reason! At the same time he was watching like a hawk every little detail (including everything written in almost every newspaper he could lay his hands on and every word Saddam said on TV… and they were many!) But he was not a happy man.

He spent the last 30 years of his life reading and taking notes. He never shared those with anyone! After his death, I couldn't make sense of those notes – hundreds of notebooks packed with scribbles (I have no right to pry deeper). For some reason, he was convinced he would never be published! Only once in the 1970's, when I was in England, he sent me a manuscript of a paper (which, to me, looked more like a book!) for publication. He insisted on two journals specifically for some reason. I duly sent the manuscript… and it was promptly rejected by both! He never discussed the subject.

I still have a copy of that "paper" and it certainly makes very enlightening reading. The basic idea, as ever, is that the ancient Iraqis were creatures of reason and good book-keeping. He starts with several of the available ancient Sumerian "King Lists" and, through beautiful reasoning, demonstrates that the "unit" to measure the year changes over time. This naturally puts some rationale into those incredibly long years the ancient Iraqis and the Biblical figures lived and reigned (!). He produces a new, modified "king list" that looks more reasonable and goes back to the "beginning of time" in Iraq!!

A truly magnificent piece of investigative history! I often wonder what gems his writings may hold.

***

It was early in the morning of a pleasant autumn day in 1997 that I received the telephone call announcing his death; he had been having heart problems for several years. He was 83. I went to see him. He was lying in bed on his back, his right arm lying casually across his chest… and there was a definite trace of a smile on his face. He looked so peaceful. That peacefulness and that smile took away much of the pain that usually accompanies the death of a dear one. I remember thinking: now this is a beautiful death!

I had known that wonderful old man for decades. I sat with him and discussed all sorts of things with him for many, many hours. But now, seven years after his death, I can only remember his face in death, with that smile on it.

Art of Compromise

2004-10-02T12:56:00.000+03:00

It is always amusing to listen to people (including some Iraqis) accusing the Iraqis of not being able to compromise. These people evidently know little of Iraqis!

Anyone who has seen a tribal arbitration council [Fassul] in the countryside cannot help but smile at this. When a problem reaches the stage of arbitration, it usually means that the two sides involved are ready for it. No such council can be held without the consent of both parties. This usually happens after a long-drawn process of mediation conducted by acceptable intermediaries- either from well-doers' initiative or from the efforts of one of the parties that wants to contain the conflict… or, sometimes, after both sides have had enough of the conflict! This usually involves the intermediaries to listen to the same story and claims several dozen times!

There are generally two types of such councils. When both parties claim that they have right on their side, this is held on neutral grounds – such as a mosque a Husseynia hall or the house of a local dignitary -usually in the afternoon.

The other type of Fassul involves what is known as [Mashya – literally: a Walk!] where the guilty party sends a sum of money [known as Farsha] several days ahead of the meeting through one of the intermediaries to cover the meeting's expenditure to the host. A lot of people who are well off, well known, a sheikh or a hamoula [a house of good repute] frequently don't take any Farsha and regard taking it as being beneath them! I find the Farsha a good practice; if the guilty party does not show up to the meeting for any reason, they lose their money, and the others can have a good free lunch! Nevertheless, it remains a grave offence not to show up for such a meeting.

The meeting usually takes place at the house of the injured party. The guilty party takes a number of dignitaries that they think that the other side holds in high regard. The meeting is usually held in the mornings at 9 or 10 am and ends with lunch. Lunch is served after the noon prayers.

It is absolutely fascinating to observe the etiquette, maneuvers, verbal skills, allusions to previous similar incidents, fables, religious and social references at play in these discussions. An intricate framework of beliefs may sometimes be displayed during those discussions, depending on the incident being debated.

The nature of the discussion naturally depends on the nature of the offence. An insult, a traffic accident, a land-border dispute, a hit-and-run incident, theft, robbery, revenge, murder, multiple murder, rape, etc., etc.

To the casual, inexperienced observer the proceedings may seem to be chaotic! But almost everything said and every gesture has some significance. Sometimes, someone makes a blunder. Immediately somebody else jumps into the "arena" to try and "fix" it! These proceedings can be extremely exhausting to anyone taking part in them.

Usually the tribal sheikhs or elders do the negotiations – watched by hawkish eyes of their own kin. When someone doesn't like what his own sheik is saying or about to say, a well-behaved person squats in front of the elder and whispers his concern or opinion. Ill-mannered people don't - sometimes they do that on purpose to show the other side the extent of their anger! When one of the sides is not headed by someone they respect then you can expect things to turn chaotic in earnest!

Sometimes things seem to get out of hand with people getting really angry and leaving the negotiations. In such cases, it is usually the intermediaries' responsibility to jump to prevent them from leaving and to convince them to come back. Sometimes, tempers run extremely high.

But, almost always, sometimes almost miraculously, a solution is found in the end that satisfies all sides… sometimes one of the sides is coerced or even "shamed" into accepting the settlement terms by the intermediaries!...and almost always in time for lunch! Noon prayers usually act as some sort of an alarm bell to announce the expiry of time left for discussions.

Settlement varies according to the offence. Most of the time, things are settled through sums of money to be paid by the offender. Sometimes, an offender may be banished, alone or with his entire household, for up to 7 years if his offence is unforgivable and if he resides in the same area as the injured party. Sometimes the wrongdoer of a particularly ugly offence may be disowned by his people [meaning that they will not avenge him if he is killed].

In all these things, precedence is extremely important; existing penalties of the area or those that exist between the two parties involved are followed as far as possible. People try to shy away from making new rules. It is frowned upon but not unheard of.

If the penalty involves a sum of money, deductions are usually made in the honor of the dignitaries present or even the guilty party's tribe. Farsha [the meeting's expense] is not deduced from the final settlement in central and northern Iraq, but usually is in the south. The Farsha is sometimes returned as an extra gesture of good will or benevolence.

If the law is involved, the injured party usually goes to the police station the following day and waives what is known as "personal rights" in the case.

***

This art of arbitration and compromise is still practiced today in rural areas of Iraq. It is an integral part of a complete social system that works whether or not there is a central government, a police force or law courts. When these are present, they are easily accommodated within that system!

NNN-Day!

2004-09-25T13:26:00.000+04:00

Baghdad is only 100 miles from the desert! We have our fair share of dusty days. We get several a year, mainly in late spring. The sky turns "foggy" and the next morning everything is covered with a thin layer of dust.

During the invasion, for a reason unknown to me yet, there were more sand storms than usual.

The dust we usually get is yellow-brownish in color. On that particular day, the dust was reddish in color, which was quite unusual. The other odd thing is that we had some drizzle with it. Someone remarked that the sky wept in blood over Iraq during those sad days.

I suppose you can imagine the nasty result: everything was covered with ugly dirty red stains… trees, windows, walls, pavements...

To add insult to injury, most people had most windows in their homes open to reduce the chances of shattering glass from bomb explosions. The result was that the inside of most homes was also given the same treat. To add further insult, water was short.

Throughout most of the following day, most people were busy cleaning everything. It was quite a distraction. I called it NNN-Day – National No-Nagging Day!

Complex Iraq

2004-09-18T14:06:00.000+04:00

Spectrum

Iraq has a large number of educated people; sometimes it seems that not a day passes without you bumping into one or two PhD's! Yet, there are millions who cannot read and write!

Populations are said to usually display what statisticians call a 'normal distribution' curve. It simply means that the main bulk lies in the middle with fewer, and decreasing numbers as you move on either side of the mean.

In the USA for example, and in terms of mentality, outlook and attitude, the curve has a 'confidence interval' of something like, say, 50 years. At one extreme, you find people living in the past and at the other extreme you find people looking ahead (and sometimes living) in the future.

I suppose this is true for all societies.

The problem in Iraq is that the spread (or 'confidence interval') is something like a few thousand years! On the one hand, there are people living truly in the 21st century both materially and mentally. Yet, less than 100 miles away, there are people with a mentality that precedes Christianity or Islam.

It is complex. It is even difficult for many Iraqis to come to terms with.

Ali Al-Wardi, the father of modern sociology in Iraq, attempted to look into the social make-up of Iraq. He wrote six volumes of an inspiring study that had much effect on a whole generation of Iraqi sociologists. Yet, he could only call his work "Social Glimpses of Iraqi Modern History"!

I find my own title for this blog "A Glimpse of Iraq" a bit ambitious and probably even pretentious.

Superman

When I go to the farm, I spend a lot of time with country people, mainly farmers whom we call Arab (!) or "Urbaan".

After an initial period of repulsion, I was fascinated by these truly intricate people. Simple they are not. Several years later, I was fluent in their local dialect and accent. Now I always use their drawl when talking to them. It removes at least one obstacle in the way of communication… exactly as using English to express these thought to you with these words.

In the evening, when I come home I have to "switch" back to my Baghdadi accent, otherwise I wouldn't be accepted as an urbane, modern man! The problem was: it was not just the accent or the way to say words; it was a whole mental set-up and frame of mind.

I had to go through that transformation within an hour. I always saw myself as doing what "Superman" of the comics' magazines did: move across several centuries in a short interval. Quite exhausting I admit, but it enriched my life considerably. It also helped me understand my own society and its history better.

One evening, while entertaining some 'sophisticated' friends, I made the "fatal" error of slipping into "Urbaan" dialect. I could see the look of bewilderment in some eyes. It took a long time for my wife to forgive me.

I am talking about two tiny locations in Iraq. There are many, many variations on those across the country.

Perhaps that was the real motive behind my plan of government that uses tiny self-governing "cantons" to let people live their own lives and develop in the direction they choose within one country.

Dear Amanda

One gentle soul, Amanda, who sensed my pain in writing these blogs wanted to send me a big hug with an email message but was a bit apprehensive that that might not be acceptable in our culture. So considerate and perceptive of her!

Well, it depends on the location. There are places where it would be completely natural; there are places where I would think twice before hugging my own wife or daughter… and there are places where I wouldn't dream of doing that!

_______________

Update 9/20/2004

After reading this blog yesterday, my wife expressed two reservations:

1. She has not forgiven me yet for that "accent" blunder! [God, that incident is more than 15 years old!!]

2. She has no objection to Amanda's hug as long as it remains within the realm if the internet!

Shaku Maku

2004-09-13T13:16:00.000+04:00

Shaku Maku is a colloquial term frequently used by Iraqis and distinguishes them - it is not used anywhere else. It is roughly equivalent to the American "what's up?" The term is not Arabic. Many people therefore think that it must be Persian or Turkish; it is not. In fact, it is Babylonian in origin and about 3000 years old!

I have just received this joke from an Iraqi friend who lives in the States. I don't know whether its source is Iraqi or Iraqi-American.

***

Bush calls the head of the CIA and asks him "How do Iraqis know everything before us, even with all our advanced spying technology and training?"

CIA head: "Well sir, they have this __expression in Iraq called "shaku maku", which translates to "what's the latest news" - and they use that a lot, which is how info travels fast."

Bush is impressed, so he tells the CIA head that he wants to go to Iraq in disguise and see for himself how this method works.

So he gets "prepped up" by the best makeup artists and wears the traditional Iraqi clothes with ghotra and all. An unmarked plane secretly drops him by parachute just outside Baghdad. Even his closest advisors and military people both in Iraq and the USA are not told about this.

Half an hour later he walks into Baghdad and eventually reaches a busy street. He approaches the first Iraqi he meets and asks him in a whispering voice "shaku maku?"

The guy looks around and whispers: "Didn't you hear? They say Bush is in Baghdad!"

Baathification of Iraq

2004-09-09T13:27:00.000+04:00

Over two decades, there was a systematic and concerted effort to turn all Iraqis into Baathists! Some examples:

• All entrants into colleges of education had to be Baathists. Education, it was said, was a “closed” field to non-Baathists. All teachers had to be Baathists.
• All secondary school graduates (at 18+) who wanted a military career had to enroll into the Baath Party.
• Anybody who wanted to go on a scholarship abroad had to be a party member (from about 1976).

All others were subjected to extreme pressures to become Baathists. Those who did not succumb to that pressure were openly by-passed in promotions, etc.

***

My Boy!
My youngest son was 12 when he went to intermediate school. It was decided by someone that that particular school was to be "closed". He was put under considerable pressure to become a Baathist. He was forced to attend party meetings to get him accustomed to the idea. We did not interfere with his decision.

At the end of the campaign, he was one of only two students in a class of 35 who did not join the party! The party comrade in charge told him that his father must be a traitor!

Radhi's Pride

2004-08-28T14:01:00.000+04:00

Allah bil Khair:

In Iraq, when someone enters a room or joins a gathering, he salutes all by saying "al Salaam alaikum" [May peace be upon you]. This is practiced not just in Iraq but all over the Muslim world. One of the social etiquettes unique to Iraq is that as soon as the person sits down, those present would say "Allah bil Khair!" [A truncated form of a sentence that means: May God bless you with a good morning, evening, etc.]. The person would respond with the same words. For some reason, this procedure is followed mainly by men and not often by women.

Share-cropping:

In farming in Iraq, tenant farming and farm hired labor are virtually unknown. The traditional form is known as share-cropping. The land-owner provides the land, management, working capital, irrigation water, seeds, fertilizers, machinery for working the land or harvesting. The share-cropper, who lives with his family on the land, contributes his labor. Once a year, usually after harvest, accounts are settled. After deducing all expenses, the net profit is shared 50-50. If the share-cropper bears the expenses, he takes two-thirds of the profits. This is the system most commonly used in central Iraq.

***

Radhi is a share-cropper at my farm; he is in his late 30's, mild-tempered and poor. A few years ago I noticed that Radhi was somehow unhappy, and even cross; he remained so for a number of weeks. I finally decided to find out what was bothering him. After a long and an oblique conversation, he came out with it: he reminded me that on one occasion, about a month back, he had come to join a gathering where I was too busy discussing something with somebody and I did not say "Allah bil Khair" to him!

I really had to work hard at convincing him that I had not intended to insult him or to imply in any way to others present that he was too insignificant!

I was reminded of this incident by someone who commented on an earlier post and was apparently angered by my contention that army officers felt bitter about being humiliated. His or her thesis was that life is more precious than pride.

You cannot ask these people to change their structure of values overnight… no more than you can ask Americans to do so. As a matter of fact, Islam, as does Christianity, frowns on pride and vanity… and it could not change that aspect in 1400 years of trying!

The issue is really even more compound. I think there are a lot more people in this country who can live with feelings of guilt than those who can live with shame!

Who is What

2004-08-21T13:35:00.000+04:00

Sunnis and Shiites (3)

Much of what people (including some Iraqis) think are differences between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq are usually in fact differences deriving from geography and not from the two sects… very much like, say, the differences between Texans and Californians. It may well be worthwhile to expand on this subject in this blog sometime.

I hope that after all that I have written you cannot yet tell whether I am a Sunni or a Shiite or, for that matter, whether I am a Muslim or a Christian. Don't worry. It definitely isn't due to any lack of perception on your side. At the moment I am all three. I have never, never felt out of place with any of those "categories" inside Iraq.

***

About this time last year, and two weeks before that horrible terrorist blast at the UN headquarters in Baghdad, I went to see a UN representative from the Election Assistance Division. A friend of mine came along. One of us was a Shiite and the other a Sunni.

The naïve hope was to advocate the idea of Rapid Democracy in Iraq to the UN. After more than an hour of a very good discussion, the matter naturally went into the Sunni-Shiite question. We argued that this insistence on the issue had very considerable danger of polarizing our society.

To demonstrate the point, we challenged him to tell which one of us was which. He guessed wrong!

Everything else aside, he had a fair, 50-50 chance. I'm glad he was unlucky. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to write this post to illustrate this point!

Englishman in Baghdad

2004-08-16T14:25:00.000+04:00

Justin Alexander is an Englishman who works with Jubilee Iraq, a volunteer organization committed to the cancellation of odious Iraqi debt and putting an end to reparations payments.

Against all advice, he decided to come to Baghdad during these turbulent times in his effort to help the Iraqi people through means other than bombing them. Below is an excerpt from his blog post describing his visit. He left Baghdad last Wednesday.

***

The last 5 days in Iraq have been tough and on the few occasions where I've had 15mins to blog I've felt overwhelmed and therefore wimped out. Apologies to friends who've been worried by the silence...

Would you believe I only managed to write that first paragraph when there were five heavy explosions so I quickly quit the hotel internet cafe (to avoid flying glass if a mortar rounds lands outside, and more importantly to avoid all the excited journalists scurrying around with a hungry look on their faces) and headed up to my room. It's quieted down now, so I'm going to have another go!

Iraq, as you may guess, is hot and chaotic. Until last night I was staying in a cheap hotel without air-conditioning (and often without any electricity most of the night) which meant I got no sleep but did get a little understanding of how exhausting and frustrating it is just trying to live a few nights in Baghdad at the moment - quite a few people have suggested that I'm brave coming here but I reply that what takes real courage is to live out here permanently and remain as friendly and self-giving as so many Iraqis are.

However the situation has changed considerably from my last trip in October 2003 when I used to travel alone around the city by foot and taxi, chatting with so many people along the way. Baghdadis whose opinions I respect have insisted that I can no longer do this. It is heartbreaking not to be able to interact so freely now, and my schedule is difficult to juggle as I am dependent on friends to pick me up and drive me around Baghdad's gridlocked streets. One change for the better is a reasonably functioning mobile network, although that results in another variable to juggle - keeping one's phone charged is not easy when the electricity supply is so hit and miss, and the stakes are much higher if the battery suddenly dies (as mine did yesterday evening when I was trying to arrange a pick up at night in a dodgy area).

But anyway, life here still goes on of course. And not just the daily chores and tasks. Love is in the air. I kid you not. …

***

No, Justin! Those people have to live here. It is their home. Most have no choice. You are the brave one, willingly choosing to come and help, taking so much risk in doing so. I am happy that you are back safely. Hamdilla ala assalama.

If You Can't Beat Them...

2004-08-14T13:50:00.000+04:00

I was asking a businessman I know about his business the other day and he said he was coping. I knew that his business required steady shipments from Jordan.

When I inquired about the dangers and the kidnapping problems on the Baghdad-Amman road, he said "Well, that is no longer a problem. The Jordanian company is now only employing truck drivers from Fallujah"!

Neighborhood Vanguard

2004-08-08T13:56:00.000+04:00

Even the bleakest of times may have their lighter moments.

During those awful days of total government collapse, lawlessness and looting, as I have already mentioned somewhere in these blogs, young men took it on themselves to defend their neighborhoods.

***

This incident happened in the early afternoon of one of those days. Someone with an 18-passenger bus full of loot was making his way through the streets. He was challenged by some of the boys but didn't stop. They fired at all four tires; he kept going. However, the shots and the funny noise those tires started making brought many people of the neighborhood out – most of them armed! Seeing that he had no chance of getting away, he leapt from the bus and started running. He got away with a few kicks and slaps from the boys who let him run for his life leaving the bus and the loot behind!

For some inexplicable reason, the sight brought some joy to my heart.

***

The young men organized themselves into groups to take shifts at night duty. My two boys (24 and 14) and my three nephews who live next door (16, 18 and 20) had a night shift from 3 to 6 am. They were all armed with AK47 machine guns except the youngest, who had a revolver (there was no question in his mind about being armed; I thought a revolver was a "safer" weapon).

These young men stationed themselves at road crossings and arranged with others to signal every once in a while to each other with flashlights to make sure that everything was alright. They even agreed on a password.

I sat on a chair behind our main iron gate within hearing distance just to be close by and decided to spend the time listening to the BBC, as was the usual routine during those nights.

Less than an hour into their shift, I suddenly heard the unmistakable clatter of AK47's being loaded and shouts of "Stop"…"Friend"… and something. I was with them - gun in hand - in no time! There was this man, some distance away raising his hands as if trying to lift himself to the sky. His machine gun was hanging on his shoulder.

I went forward to see what all that was about. It turned out that this fellow had taken it on himself to make a tour of the "stations" like an officer would make his rounds. Unfortunately however, he had forgotten about the password!!!

I really didn't know whether to laugh or to be angry. The fool was so close to being killed – and it would have been murder by my own boys!

Belated Thanks

2004-08-02T13:49:00.000+04:00

The following is an e-mail message I sent to a number of friends living abroad in February 2003, a few weeks before the war, expressing gratitude to people who made a stand against the war. It is unlikely that it reached many of those people. I now feel that I have a duty to post it in the hope that some of those it was directed to may read it. They have been proven correct. There is no such thing as a clean war.

***

Dear All,

Following the events of February 15th, I was bewildered and amazed at what happened and I feel a need to share with you my feelings about what I think is a unique world event and to express to someone my gratitude!

Such a memorable day! Millions of people, all over the world took to the streets on the same day to protest against war on Iraq.

Even if war is not prevented, thousands of lives have already been saved! By making such a stand, people have let the bomb droppers and missile launchers know that they will be closely watched by a large number of people who care. So, when the bombs fall, they will not be as carelessly destructive as they would have been otherwise.

And all this took place before the event! People saving the lives of other human beings by going out to the streets to protest against a probable war!

It’s a new era in human history and development and the nucleus was our own misfortune!

On a personal level, this event has ignited some hope that my children may one day live, not in isolation, but as part of this world- in peace. A world in which people care about Planet Earth and the people on it no matter how far. A world in which, although governments may still have their own agenda, calculations and priorities, people have other, more humane priorities.

The past few months have been spent hectically making provisions for the worst and then brooding over probabilities and what-ifs concerning family, loved ones, country, … hundreds of possibilities! Suddenly, millions of people in far away places march to tell you that you are not alone! I am deeply touched.

A Special Note for Britain:

I lived in Britain … … at a time when the image of an Arab was an unpleasant one, to say the least.

That image was not improved by the oil embargo of the early 1970’s or by the Arab-Israeli conflict and some Arabs’ acts of misguided violence bred out of despair and ignorance. During all those years I can hardly remember any instances where the mass media had something good to say about my country or people.

Being rather proud of my heritage and my country’s contribution to human civilization (albeit very long ago), I felt a great deal of bitterness and resentment at that image.

Nevertheless, people -individuals- were generally civil, decent and compassionate. It is to the credit of the country and the people that I left Britain with mainly warm feelings for them.

And now, I have no idea of whether that image has changed or not. For decades, we have been isolated from the mainstream of life in other countries and those feelings were relegated to almost forgotten corners of memory.

Last weekend, this message came along loud and clear: the country is still full of decent and compassionate people!

Order in Chaos!

2004-07-28T14:54:00.000+04:00

Sunni-Shiite Strife (2)

Sunnis generally go to mosques; Shiites go to Husseineyyahs. A Husseineyyah is, for all intents and purposes, a mosque where, in addition to the usual prayers and services, additional services are performed in mourning of the Imam Hussein [Profit Muhammad's grandson who is much revered by most Muslims but particularly by Shiites for his stand for what he believed in, in the face of certain death. In an uneven battle, he and all 72 of his extended family were massacred].

***

The following events took place several months ago, in those days of total chaos and lack of government, police and courts. The timing, which coincided with fears of Sunni-Shiite possible strife, could not have been worse.

In a small town of mixed Shiite-Sunni population and governed by tribal relations, the Shiites didn't have a Husseineyyahs and wanted to build one. Some Sunnis objected to the plot of land chosen for that purpose as being too close to the existing mosque. Tempers ran high.

Some Sunni young men fired some shots at the metal sign announcing the building.

Hajji Obaid [A Hajji is one who has made pilgrimage to Mecca] was an elderly Sunni man living in that town. He paid a visit to the man in charge of the project, Abu Ammar, and told him that he could see trouble brewing and that he would bear all responsibility for any mishap following his insistence on going on with the project.

Two days later, that man was shot dead in broad day-light by people unknown in the area.

Abu Ammar's tribe accused Hajji Obaid of being behind the killing and naturally there was much coming and going, mutual threats and bad feelings.

Hajji Obaid was declared "Persona non Grata" by Abu Ammar's people and word was sent that he would not be welcome at the Fat-ha [A reception of three days' duration where people go to express condolences to the deceased's kin]. It seemed that things could easily get out of control.

Hajji Obaid's tribe decided to go to the Fat-ha in exceptionally large numbers to express solidarity and friendship.

Tribal chiefs and elders from other tribes in the area started working like a beehive to mediate and prevent things from getting worse. Hajji Obaid insisted on his innocence throughout. The murdered man had been his friend; he wouldn't dream of inciting anyone to kill him, he maintained.

Finally, more than two months later, a "tribal court" was convened. Heads of five different tribes (Shiites and Sunnis), agreed on by both sides, sat as arbitrators. They listened to the arguments of both sides and to their witnesses, retired to discuss the matter among themselves, and came out half an hour later with their verdict:

They were convinced that Hajji Obaid's tribe was responsible for the shooting of the building sign. They were fined the sum of two million Dinars (around $ 1400).

As to the killing, they said that there was not sufficient evidence to incriminate Hajji Obaid. Knowing that the man was pious, they had decided that an oath would prove his innocence unless Abu Ammar's tribe objected [implying that the man's sworn word was not acceptable]. They didn't.

Within a week, Hajji Obaid's tribe went to Abu Ammar's people to pay the fine. The fine was accepted in principle but returned. Hajji Obaid swore on the Holy Koran that "his hands, tongue and ears" were all completely innocent of Abu Ammar's murder.

Hajji Obaid's tribal chief donated a sum of money to help build the Husseineyyah. There was a lot of cheek-kissing hugging and pleasant words. The matter was settled completely.

The murderers are still at large… probably doing similar mischief somewhere else on behalf of the many forces of darkness operating freely in lawless Iraq.

This is just one story of many that we have heard of during the past year (and still do). I only told it because I witnessed some of its details first-hand. Any of those many horrible incidents could have ignited a civil war had they not been handled with wisdom and tolerance by the people involved.

A Traitor in Our Midst

2004-07-25T15:24:00.000+04:00

After a few of people were arrested by the Americans (one of them spent 8 months in Abu Ghraib) in a rural area not far from Baghdad, they suspected someone. So there was a tribal court where he was convicted and fined ID 7 million ($ 4 800) to be paid to those arrested!

The old man who was speaking for the clan told him that the fine was probably small if the Americans have been paying him enough! However, he and his children will now have to live with the disgrace!

Sunni-Shiite Strife!

2004-07-22T13:47:00.000+04:00

Adhameyyah and Kadhimeyyah

During the early days of the invasion, there was so much talk about Shiite-Sunni potential conflict and strife in Iraq that we ourselves began to feel apprehensive about the gruesome possibilities!!

Adhameyyah and Kadhimeyyah are two districts of Baghdad. They lie to the north of the city on the two banks of the River Tigris which runs through Baghdad splitting it into two halves. They were both built about a thousand years ago around the shrines of two very holy men, one Shiite and one Sunni, much revered by people of the two sects. People of both districts are traditionally "partisan" Sunnis and Shiites respectively. There are many jokes regarding their sectarianism and prejudice!

***

A few months ago, during one of the holiest Shiite days, there was another horrible blast in Kadhimeyyah. Many were killed or injured.

My son, who is a junior doctor in a major hospital at the southern edge of Adhameyyah, was on duty. The following day I asked him how they managed and he said they were generally able to cope with almost everything except the chaos caused by the flood of people from Adhameyyah who rushed in to donate blood to the injured.

Life is Tough!

2004-07-19T16:13:00.000+04:00

Most of you must have some idea what Baghdad was subjected to during the last invasion.

After April 9th, one telephone exchange remained functional in our side of town, so anybody who knew anybody in that area rushed to contact relatives and loved ones to let them know that they were ok.

This lady called her brother who was living well in a first-world country, and during the conversation she mildly reproached him for not calling when the phone lines were working during the early days of the war.

He said “I’m sorry dear, but I have been so busy. You have no idea how tough life is here!”

Sumerians

2004-07-15T16:10:00.000+04:00

There were numerous civilizations in ancient Iraq and most of those magnificent civilizations were built by Semites who came to Iraq from the south – the Arabian Peninsula.

However, the very first of those civilizations (believed by most historians to be the earliest of mankind) was built by a different race - the Sumerians.

The Sumerians were definitely not Semitic. No one knows where those people originally came from… and they were not preserved as a people after their brilliant civilizations, which lasted for a couple of thousand years, withered.

The main point here is that the Semites and the Sumerians are two very distinctly different races.

Arabs are Semites! [For decades, it was always a constant source of amusement for Arabs to be branded as anti-Semitic by European and American media!]. The largest tribe in the marshes of Iraq is called "Bani Assad". They are of "undisputed" Arab descent!

***
It was the summer of 1985. The Iraq-Iran war was still raging fiercely. I had a chance to spend some time in the marshes of Iraq – near the area where ancient Sumer existed.

One day, I noticed a young boy around 15 years old hovering around us in his little reed-and-tar canoe which he handled with the same ease an American teenager would handle his skates.

I asked him what his tribe was and he proudly replied in the local dialect "Bani Issad".

The odd thing was that his facial features were the embodiment of everything that characterized those ancient Sumerians.

Ever since then, whenever the Sumerians are mentioned, an image of that young boy comes to my mind. In that young boy, I feel that ancient Sumer lives on... unaware of its own sacred antiquity!

Regina

2004-07-12T16:06:00.000+04:00

For more than a decade in the 1990's it looked as though only thieves, villains and government cronies were well-off. This is strictly not true of course… but that was the general impression!

During those triple-figure inflation years of UN sanctions, where most people were literally crushed financially and a few became excessively rich, I often remembered a little story I had heard from an old relative.

[Regina was a rich woman of ill-repute who had considerable influence on Iraqi politics and politicians in the 1930's and 40's.]

***

He was a young military-school graduate who was on a visit to a distant relative in one of the provinces. That relative was the proud owner of a newly built mansion. He took the young man on a tour of his home and, at the end of it boastfully asked him "Do you have such grand houses in Baghdad?"

The young man replied "No uncle, in Baghdad only Regina does!"

The Injured Laborer

2004-07-07T14:00:00.000+04:00

I do most of my work at an internet shop nearby. Every hour or so, I take a break and go out for a smoke and a stroll to stretch my legs, ease the pain in my back and to do some damage to my lungs.

Next door, there is a building site. Yesterday, as I emerged I noticed a young man in his early thirties (evidently a casual laborer) sitting in a chair looking rather apathetically at an injured toe. He had been injured by a make-shift winch they use at building sites. About half an inch of his toe had disappeared together with the nail.

At his feet, a boy and a girl of about 9 or 10 sat, staring at the wound and at a glass which had a milky liquid – evidently an antiseptic… not certain whether to apply it or not! His feet were filthy! He had those slippers many Iraqis seem to wear (now of international fame since used to bash at a portrait of Saddam Hussein). Work at the site was going on as if nothing had happened!

There wasn't even the slightest hint of pain on his face (That would have been unmanly, of course). I said that a doctor should look at his wound. He said "Do you think so?", thought about it a little and went limping on his way - probably to seek medical attention.

Iraqi Greetings!

2004-06-27T12:55:00.000+04:00

The following exchange of greetings is between three friends. All three are Iraqis living in three different countries!

Friend A (from Iraq): Ayyamkum Saeeda! [Tr: “May your days be happy!” Traditional Eid Greeting] I wish you all Health and Happiness...May God bring us all peace and prosperity under the wise leadership of … [names of some “imported neo-politicians” Iraqis are fond of making fun of]...amen!

Friend B (from UK) Thanks and God bless you... I must rise to this unfair statement. A year ago many people in Baghdad were scared from Ali Hassan Al Majeed, Sabawee & Sons and any good looking daughter they had was a target of bedding Udday... Love to all.

Friend C (Jordan): Eid Mubarek. Thanks for writing to me. The issue you bring up is worth discussing...A year ago we knew who to be scared of. Can we NAME who are we scared of today? and are we not still worried when our ladies go out? God Bless You All

Baghdad Burning

2004-06-23T13:38:00.000+04:00

I only came across this blog yesterday. It is written by an Iraqi lady who calls herself Riverbend. Her banner says:

... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...

Beautiful words!

This lady gives a good glimpse of Iraq. Here is an honest, eloquent and penetrating testimony without the “diplomatic” restraint that comes with age!

She offers considerable insight into the feelings, fears, attitudes and political views of so many Iraqis elegantly sprinkled into reports of everyday life and little happenings.

I literally spent hours yesterday reading her postings. What I admired most was her fierce, uncompromising patriotism unmarred by any petty sectarian taints or blind prejudices. When she comes to the prisoner abuse episode, she doesn’t mince her words:

"I sometimes get emails asking me to propose solutions or make suggestions. Fine. Today's lesson: don't rape, don't torture, don't kill and get out while you can- while it still looks like you have a choice... Chaos? Civil war? Bloodshed? We’ll take our chances- just take your Puppets, your tanks, your smart weapons, your dumb politicians, your lies, your empty promises, your rapists, your sadistic torturers and go."

Highly recommended to anyone interested in how people in this country feel about things.

The Mason and the Architect

2004-06-09T12:43:00.000+04:00

A friend once (sometime in October, 2003 - a few months after the invasion) blamed another friend for being so negative and not helping the Americans who were so eagerly working to re-construct our country.

He said that he had met a number of these people both military and civilian and he was convinced that they were decent people who really wanted to help.

The other friend replied’ “Well, I’m sure you are right. Many of these people are decent and full of good intentions. I honestly believe that”. He then added, “In a construction site, if the mason laying bricks was a good, decent professional but the architect had designed prison cells for me and my people…do I give the good mason a hand?”

A major difference in mentality and outlook between Americans and Iraqis is that most people in the west generally concentrate on being proficient in doing their job, leaving the “grand designs” and the “philosophical visions” to “management” or other “specialists”.

Many Iraqis, on the other hand, keep looking for the grand design to see where they fit in the scheme of things…and don’t spend so much time on getting the job done!

A “ whole human being” should do both!

Healing Iraq

2004-06-04T12:45:00.000+04:00

Yesterday, I stumbled on this blog, written by an Iraqi which had a few touching and revealing passages.

…

Healing Iraq …

So how am I supposed to explain Iraqis to other people, when I sometimes, even as an Iraqi, don't claim to quite understand them myself. I wasn't raised as an Iraqi, actually until the age of 8 I was a typical British child. My parents (and I hold that against them) never taught me a word of Arabic or anything about my country or religion when we were living in the UK. I used to listen to them converse in this weird language and shake my head. However I remember having an overwhelming nostalgic desire to go to this strange place called Iraq which was supposed to be my homeland. When we returned I experienced symptoms of shock. Everything was so different. I was made fun of at school and by relatives my age because of my broken Arabic. But I never complained, I wanted to blend in and make myself belong to this society. So I adapted slowly until I became what I am now; A full-fledged Iraqi, but still not quite a regular Iraqi. Regular Iraqis suffered daily for decades. I never really suffered. So it's maybe not my place to talk for Iraqis.

…

If you were here now you would almost feel Iraq bleeding from its wounds. You would almost see the palm trees weeping and shedding tears. You would almost hear the two rivers murmuring and moaning in pain. You would almost hear Baghdad wailing and crying for help. You would smell the tension in the air which even rain is unable to wash away. You would sense the years of deprivation and negligence in its soil. Who is trying to steal the smile from its weary face? Who is going to heal Iraq? Who is going to help it stand on its feet? And is this going to be the end to all its sorrows or is there more?

Despite all of the above I am proud to belong to this ancient land. A few days ago I noticed somewhere on the walls of Baghdad a slogan that said 'Raise your head high, you are Iraqi', so I did. Whatever people may think of me or my nation I will sneer at them and say 'I am Iraqi'. However there were times when I hated Iraq with all my heart. There were times when I was ashamed to be associated with it or its people. There were times when I just wanted to pack and leave. There were times when I just didn't care about whatever happened to Iraq. And there were other times when I wept with my face in my hands and begged Iraq to forgive me for my weakness and selfishness.

...

# posted by zeyad : 1/27/2004 08:57:31 PM

Tribal Codes:

2004-06-03T12:41:00.000+04:00

According to the last general census, about 35% of all Iraqis live in rural areas. A good portion of city dwellers are first- or second- generation migrants from the countryside. All those people subscribe to some tribal code of conduct. That should not be under-estimated when evaluating the effect of recent events on Iraqis and their possible reaction to them.

[A “Hasham” is a penalty for injured dignity.]

A Woman’s Scream
Many tribesmen look down on women! It often infuriates me!
Yet, in the tribal code of many of the tribes in Iraq, if a woman is insulted or violated in any way that she screams, the offence is equivalent to murder!

The House’s Hasham
In the tribal code of many of the Iraqi tribes, entering a house by force or uninvited is equivalent to killing a man (unless you were a fugitive!).

The Head-band
To some tribesmen, the “igal” or headband is such a symbol of dignity that it has a “hasham”!

A slap on the Face
A slap on the face has sometimes led to murder. It is invariably regarded as an insult of some magnitude. The greater the social status of the person offended, the greater the offence!

Sex is Taboo
Sex and any sexual talk is almost universally taboo in the traditional Iraqi society! To know that a woman has been abused is one of the greatest possible crimes that can be committed!... even touching somebody’s mother, wife or daughter is a crime that can only be rinsed with blood. Otherwise, the man in question cannot look anybody in the eye or share a gathering!

Bedouins!
Country folk never tire of telling the story of the Bedouin who, upon taking his revenge after 40 years, said: “maybe I have rushed things a bit!”

Low Expectations!

2004-06-02T12:36:00.000+04:00

Here is an extraordinary response from a young medical student living in Baghdad writing about the news of the prisoner abuse and the subsequent outrage…

______________________________________…
It is not fair to compare that way, I totally disagree... In Saddam's time, there was no media covering what is happening 24 hours, day and night. Now days, we have million TV Channels just wanting something to happen... If someone sneezes (there in Falooja or anywhere else) the whole world would know few secs after....and the papers write and the politicians talk...

OK, It is not heaven in here... I hate living here, OK, OK...

There were thousands who were killed, tortured, and buried alive... I know the whole world knew about that, but they have not seen it live or few days after.

No comparison should be made between the past and the present... Every time has its advantages and disadvantages....

It is not heaven in here... There is an army... Any army in the world could do this and even worse... especially if they are being killed everyday... I am not saying it is justifiable... Never...My country men are being killed everyday by them...and we should work to liberate it from the Americans IN A CIVILIZED WAY...

But, has anyone of you ever imagined an army invading a country and goes out without crimes, if so tell me what that Army was ?!!!

Saddam is gone, That is something everyone should be happy of.... If no one is happy , I am sure I am ....and I am living here...In Baghdad..

If we want to talk about the disadvantages of this time, they cannot be counted, but it was not heaven where we lived before...everyone Should believe me....

I believe we have hope, though little, but in Saddam's there was no hope...
In 20 years time, Baghdad MIGHT be a wonderful place to live in...
But before, in Saddam's time, WA Allah 1000 years and Baghdad would remain ruined and destroyed...

Abdullah
______________________________________

A young man like Abdullah who wrote that touching letter shows a magnanimous soul and it seems that he is prepared to accept such things because now there is at least some hope!

Two words come to my mind when thinking about his reaction: nobility and ignorance! The nobility part is obvious. The ignorance part has to do with accepting the fact that any army would do such things and that these events are to be expected. Such low expectations!

The Day We Were Raided!

2004-05-30T11:17:00.000+04:00

A few months ago we had a visitor: - a lady from an organization called UK Universities whom an English friend had asked to contact me to discuss the state of Iraqi universities.

I had sent her a map of our houseÂs location so that her driver would know how to get here.

We had lunch and a good time discussing universities and how to improve them, etc. She stayed for about two hours.

What we didn't know was that there were two cars and some security guards with her...and the entire neighborhoodd was in a state of high alert thinking that the Americans have raided our home!!!!!!

* The boys in the neighborhood had tried to misdirect them so that they wouldn't find our house, sent word to give us some warning...and filled the street thinking it was an emergency.

* Mother, who lives next door, was visiting her sister when she was told that we were raided by the Americans and, sick with worry, rushed to check!

* My nephew, who also lives next-door, was at the barber shop when he was told by someone that the Americans had raided their-, and their uncle's houses. He shoved the barber away, had his face cut in the process and rushed running for a mile to check!

* A young man in the neighborhood, passing them, spat at them and they chased him for a while (or so it was said).

* One of my neighbors was going back and forth in front of my house to keep an eye on developments. When our guest left I had a chat with him to calm him down, he asked for details and, finding out that the lot were actually British, finally said that he knew that something was different: those people somehow didn't look like Americans!!

* My niece, who also lives nearby, was hysterical with worry...and was finally told by her genius husband that since they were taking so long in there, there was nothing to worry about!

* Another neighbour who was a big shot of the old regime went immediately under-cover, hiding his car and then himself for three hours!!

Such commotion... it was the funniest thing that had happened for a long time!!!

Parents and Schools

2004-05-29T22:15:00.000+04:00

So many people (mainly in the cities) have always considered their children's education as something almost "sacred". The government started the corruption process in the 70's (and it was a full-fledged war after '79) by making sure that all school teachers were Baathists by refusing all others admission to colleges of education. It was an undeclared war and, fortunately, many of the people taking part in it (on both sides) were not even aware that it was a war! It was something that took its toll from people, particularly during the 90's: many people spent unreasonable hours helping their children with their studies; many suffered considerable financial pains to provide their children with private tuition. Students, whose parents could do neither, had to rely on super-human efforts of their own if they wanted to get into a good college. It was a hardship, but the people won!! It is one of the unrecognised victories of people over tyranny and destruction! The most important "sacred cow" that remained almost intact up to now is the "Baccalaureate": the nation-wide general exam at 18+. All the government could do was to give extra marks (using various flimsy pretexts) to the sons of their cronies for purposes of college admission.

Now consider the following: during those times, education was almost a dead-end for future employment and livelihood prospects. The pay for university graduates was a laugh and by all standards there was no economic justification for pursuing one’s children’s education. In fact many, if not most, people in the countryside – being more practical creatures - turned their back to the whole business. The following story should be read with this background in mind:

True Story

When my youngest boy finished primary school in the summer of 2001, he got a sufficiently high score to encourage us to consider sending him to Baghdad College (still one of the best intermediate and secondary schools in the country).
Baghdad College had its own admission exam for which students had to get prepared, so we enrolled our son into one of the summer courses for that purpose. I had to drop him off to school and then fetch him back a few hours later.

It was July and the heat was something non-Iraqis have no idea of! Every single day, I noticed a woman in her 40’s holding her boy’s hand and walking him to the same school. The distance from the main road (where they evidently left the bus) was more than 2 miles.
When I went back to collect my son at noon, there was the same woman sitting on the stairs of the school waiting for her son to finish (apparently her journey home was too long to make it twice… so she preferred to wait on the stairs for 3 hours!) so she could walk back with him those two miles in the noon sun to the main road again to take a bus. Noon in July!

Man on the Bicycle

2004-05-29T21:14:00.000+04:00

One of the most touching stories I knew of happened during the invasion.

Two young brothers were shot dead in their car in the Saydeyyah district in Baghdad by the Americans a few days before the fall of Baghdad. No official business whatsoever! They were simply going to check on a sister.

An old man riding a bicycle was passing by, he stopped and took the two boy’s watches and wallets.

Examining their ID cards, remembering vaguely that their family (who happened to be an old Baghdadi family) lived in the Shawwaaka district of Baghdad (about 8 miles away), he went there on his bicycle under heavy bombardment to look for them. He was told that they had moved to another district, Hartheyyah – about 4 miles away.

He finally managed to locate the two boys’ family after two days, told them of what had happened to their sons, gave them their belongings and refused to take anything for his effort!

Deaths and Weddings!

2004-05-28T19:13:00.000+04:00

Abu Raashid (Literally: Raashid’s father. People are traditionally called by their eldest son’s name) was my neighbor at the farm. He was a peasant with his own small plot of land (given by the government in 1959 during the agrarian reform). For the period of more than twenty years that I knew him, Abu Raashid never once planted more than 10% of his land for lack of water (…but this is another story!). He was an unusually quiet man who spent much of his time fishing and hunting unlike most people in the countryside who spent theirs talking!

Abu Raashid’s elder son, Raashid, was killed in the war with Iran at the age of 19. He had one boy left, Taha.

One day, sometime in 2000, Abu Raashid sent word that he was ill and wanted to see me. I stopped by his place on my way back home from the farm. He told me that he was rather unwell and that a doctor had told him that he needed an operation urgently. He wanted me to ask a doctor I knew for a second opinion.

That same evening, a friend dropped by and I gave him Abu Raashid’s x-rays. The following day he showed the pictures to his brother-in-law (a specialist doctor) who said that the man was in the final stages of an advanced lung cancer and did not have more than a week to live.

On my way to the farm, I stopped at Abu Raashid’s and rather bluntly told him the truth and that he doctor who had advised him to have an operation was a criminal (some criminal-doctors did that in those sanction-years, for the money! A few still do). He had less than a week to live. It was a Monday.

On Thursday I was in the farm again. I heard some shots coming from the general direction of Abu Raashid’s house (which was about 3 km away). I was promptly told that Abu Raashid’s son, Taha, was getting married and there was a wedding! Abu Raashid had insisted on seeing his son married before he died.

The following Monday, Abu Raashid was dead.

Iraqis and Traumatic Situations!

2004-05-28T18:38:00.000+04:00

Iraqis spend much of their time complaining about the “Iraqi people” and expressing dismay, disappointment and disapproval of people’s behavior under the present conditions of lawlessness. Well, I couldn’t disagree more!

The way these people have dealt with, and survived, the impossible situations they have found themselves in during the past decades is simply magnificent! It never ceases to amaze me that, through noise and apparent chaos, these people find a way to live, and even thrive, through catastrophic situations!

This realization came to me after years of observation. Initially, after coming in contact with this society after years abroad, my attitude was one of repulsion and disgust, to be replaced a few years later by a feeling of admiration towards their truly incredible natural intelligence, resilience, ability to survive (and even benefit from) adverse conditions. I then found myself realizing with some humility that I could not judge these people from a “survival ivory tower” and criticize their recipe for surviving which they perform without even being conscious of and which has been fine-tuned for thousands of years!

In any case, for these things to begin to change, society must be put on a track where there is proper system of ethics and something that can put things right when wrong-doings are made. We cannot ask people to let go of an existing system of values that has preserved them for thousands of years without giving them a decent and tangible alternative that works on the ground…and definitely not empty promises and lies.

On the question of handling hardship…This is such a difficult subject to tackle! I can tell you that the whole of Iraq’s history is one long trauma lasting for at least six thousand years! I cannot begin to try and unravel this issue; what I’ll do instead is to tell you a number of true stories that have impressed me. This might help understand these people… and understand why I have come to love them, chaos, violence, ignorance… and all!

Baghdad - Through Foreign Eyes

2004-05-27T14:47:00.000+04:00

The following was forwarded to me by a friend. It was a message written by an Australian lady on life in Baghdad. I have no idea who the lady is, so I’m taking the liberty of publishing it without her consent hoping that she will forgive me.

________________________

As I head home, I want to give you an idea about what every day life in Baghdad has been like these past six months. The crazy, the comical, the everyday, the tragic.

You know you’re in Baghdad when…
One of the hazards of walking down the street is getting your skirt caught in razor wire.

- When you hear the fourth loud explosion during the night, the response is to roll over and go back to sleep as you mutter:… “Mmmm … that sounded like an R.P.G on The Palestine Hotel….”

- You start using acronyms such as R.P.G (Rocket Propelled Grenade) in everyday conversation with friends, and in your sleep!

You know you’re in Baghdad when…
- Mosques and churches live side-by-side in harmony.

- Most young people (under 30) I meet have a Masters Degree and are working on their Phd. (I’ve heard that Iraq has the highest ratio of Phd's per population in the world.)

- Hot water systems are called ‘giesers’.

- The smiles of children are wide, warm and cheeky.

- A glass of tea is tiny, strong and is served black with at least 5 sugars! Coffee is
smaller, stronger and served with 10 sugars!

You know you’re in Baghdad when…
- You are body searched at three separate checkpoints and forced to walk through a concrete jungle, razor-wire labyrinth just to attend a meeting at the building of the CPA (Coalition Provisional Authority, the polite name for the occupying force). I think someone is paranoid…

- Queues at petrol stations can stretch up to 2 kilometres long, often meaning 8-hour waits. In an oil-rich country? I don’t get it!

- Black market petrol is sold by the side of the road in plastic jerry cans with a 7-up bottle cut in half and a rubber hose used to siphon fuel into cars. I really don’t get it!

- Fancy hotels or any building that houses foreign contractors or media are barricaded with at least 100 metres of massive grey concrete blocks topped with rows of ugly razor wire that make the surrounding neighbourhood look like the plains of Mordor leading to Mount Doom. Not real subtle if you ask me!

You know you’re in Baghdad when…
- You plan your day’s activities according to electricity cuts.

- Children’s Amusement Parks are now military bases.

- There are demonstrations every day.

- University Professors, Lawyers and Engineers are taxi drivers.

- Rumours say mobile phones are bugged, but generally they don’t work because (ironically) the world’s largest capitalist system gave the contract to a corrupt, inefficient monopoly. One of the company director’s must have a relative in the White House?

You know you’re in Baghdad when…
- Crisps are bought by the kilo. They are stored in huge clear-plastic sacks displayed on the footpath outside the shops, the site makes you want to dive into one and eat your way out!

- It's the men who flock to ‘salons’ to be preened and get their eyebrows plucked.

- The tall, tall, palm trees sway with grace in front of the large red sunset when the evening breeze comes.

- Like my country, everyone is crazy about sport, especially the blokes, and especially about football, (what I call soccer!) Which is played around Baghdad on dusty fields without nets.

- Green-grocers take pride in their produce –fat bunches of Bananas are arranged on ropes that surround the fruit shops, oranges and apples sit in colourful neat rows.

You know you're in Baghdad when…
- The screeching roar of generators sitting on the footpaths makes you feel like you're at a lawnmower expo when walking down the street.

- Major roads, highways and bridges are randomly blocked without notice for the convenience of the military, causing traffic jams that make New York peak hour look like a country lane on a slow day.

- A trip that should take 10 minutes can take three hours because of said traffic jams.

- Wild excuses for being late for an appointment such as “five American tanks cut off the bridge near my house” are plausible and must be accepted.

- Successful businesses have closed or struggle to survive because the US has permanently blocked several major inner-city roads. Customers no longer have access to the shops, but there is no compensation for loss of livelihood.

- Cars drive on the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic, across medium strips, the wrong direction at roundabouts, basically anywhere really. Why? Because they can. “This is my freedom!”, the young boys cry from a battered old pajero that
should’ve gone to the wreckers 20 years ago.

- Said freedom and resultant chaos, means traffic lights, stop signs, and all road rules have long been abandoned so that every trip in a car becomes a ‘demolition derby’ experience and you just pray that your taxi driver comes out on top!

- Said freedom, and resultant chaos, means that crossing the road involves a ritual of making peace with your maker, taking a deep breathe, stepping into oncoming traffic and hoping the drivers care enough about their car to stop. I’ve been hit twice.

You know you're in Baghdad when…
- The thunderous sound of military helicopters ‘coming and going’ drowns out the
conversations in your living room.

- Watching Black Hawks swoop as you eat your lunch makes you feel like you’re on the set of a Russell Crow movie, or was it Tom Cruise?

- You make bets about ‘which variety of bomb or gunshot was that?’ with your friends.

- Every household has a gun. Women carry guns on the street.

- Large reconstruction contracts are always granted to foreign companies rather than local ones.

- Parents are so fearful of lack of security, many don’t allow their children to go to school.

- A by-product of freedom has meant an influx of pornography, hard drugs, prostitution, and a dramatic rise in armed robbery, kidnapping and rape.

And you know you’re in Baghdad when…
- The ancient River Tigris flows with a confident dignity despite its years of neglect.

- You can buy one egg at the shop. But not less than 2 kilos of rice.

- Locals say ‘chicken’ when they mean to say “kitchen’, and vice versa.

- Locals say “hallo!” when they mean ‘goodbye’

- I start saying ‘hallo!” when I mean ‘goodbye’!

- You can get all the latest computer software for free, because there are no laws – anyone need anything?

- Juicy barbecue chickens rotate over hot coals in glass cabinets outside restaurants with tables and chairs set up on the footpath!

- Hommous is always good. So is falafel.

- The domes of mosques shine with beauty and pride.

- Piles of rotting rubbish grow on street corners and encourage the spread of disease because there is no local council to come and pick it up.

- Everyone you meet is exhausted about having to cope daily with the above conditions and wonder how on earth they will cope another day.