The Ancient Land of Iraq

The Ancient Land of Iraq From the ancient land of Iraq emerged complex irrigation systems and

the earliest writing. Baghdad was once spawned great mathematicians

and poets. Today, Iraq looks like a wreck on TV. The cost of American

and British troops toppling Saddam Hussein's 23-year regime is writ

large in the shells of buildings and general state of lawlessness. But

once, it was paradise.

According to Sumerian and Judeo-Christian lore, the land flanked by

the Tigris and Euphrates rivers was the site of the Garden of Eden

where human civilization began. Now called Iraq, the country was known

in the ancient world as Mesopotamia, which is Greek for "land between

the rivers". From about 4000 BC, some of the most accomplished peoples

and cultures in history have occupied this land.

First were the Sumerians, who developed sophisticated irrigation

systems as well as the earliest writing.

Then came the Babylonians who built the spectacular Hanging Gardens of

Babylon. They were followed by the Assyrians, mathematical whizzes who

invented longitude and latitude in geographical navigation.

With the coming of Islam and the rule of the Abbasid caliphs (the word

"caliph" loosely means "successor to the Prophet Muhammad") from the 9th

to 12th century AD, Mesopotamia was the site of the golden age of Arab

culture.

Its capital was Baghdad, but what a different Baghdad from today.

Under the caliphs, it was prosperous, well-lit and drained, with

beautiful mosques and palaces, 100 bookstores and the grandest library

of its time.

There was no city to r...

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...music is hot in Baghdad. A popular local band under the

name Bee-Gees plays covers of Western rock, and there is an

English-language radio station, Voice Of Youth. Controlled by Saddam's

son Uday, it plays everything from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Britney Spears.

Ø At end-2002, audiences were packing Baghdad's National Theatre every

night to laugh at themselves. A play written and directed by Abed Ali

Qaed, titled Vagabonds, gently mocked Iraqis for having become a

nation of beggars.

Ø Among the ancient Iraqi recipes collected by author Nawal Nasrallah

in her new cookbook are sweet and sour salmon in almond prune sauce

and mustard and kubbut halab, balls of crunchy rice dough stuffed with

ground beef, currants, toasted almonds and spices. Her book, Delights

from The Garden Of Eden, can be ordered online at www.1stbooks.com