The New York Times: The Iraq International Book Fair reflects Baghdad's cultural identity

[size=52]The New York Times: The Iraq International Book Fair reflects Baghdad's cultural identity[/size]

[size=45]Translation / Hamed Ahmed[/size]
[size=45]Today, the American newspaper The New York Times published a report on the Iraq International Book Fair, in which it stated that whoever enters the fair's corridors forgets all his worries and lives in another world, wandering between the corridors of the exhibition's wings to publishing houses of different countries displaying their books on shelves and tables.[/size]
[size=45]When the word “Book” is erected in the facade, which was designed by pasting dozens of books together, visitors stand there to take selfies with them. It is an opportunity for many Iraqis to express their joy and reflect the true identity of Baghdad away from the hustle and bustle of politics and security concerns.[/size]
[size=45]Maysoun al-Damluji, a former deputy of the Ministry of Culture, who was visiting the exhibition, said, “There is a big gap between the people in the street and the political elite. People on the street do not have that interest in what is happening in the corridors of politics.”[/size]
[size=45]Damluji said that the current cultural renaissance that Baghdad is experiencing has been further enhanced due to the improvement in the security situation, and that the young segment of the people is eager to communicate with the outside world.[/size]
[size=45]She added, "New generations now have access to ideas that were forbidden to previous generations. Many things happen here in the exhibition."[/size]
[size=45]On another side of the book fair floor, models simulating the old Baghdad buildings were erected, as well as the arrival of buses carrying students wearing school uniforms on an internal school trip to the fair. Other groups of friends sat at outdoor cafes enjoying Arabic coffee.[/size]
[size=45]Zainab Al-Juri, 30, a psychiatrist who came to visit the exhibition, was standing at the Kuwait pavilion, where she bought books related to the civilization of Mesopotamia and a translated novel by Stephenson. “Reading books is my favorite method of treatment,” Al-Jouri said. Just visiting this exhibition, which I have been waiting for so long, is a joyful thing that makes me happy even if I do not buy books. Iraqis love books, and there is an old saying that says Cairo writes, Beirut publishes and Baghdad reads.”[/size]
[size=45]The New York Times indicates that the Iraqis are proud of the history of their ancient civilization and that they are the owners of the first known civilizations in Mesopotamia. The first person who knew the writing revealed by clay tablets in cuneiform dates back to more than 5,000 thousand years ago. During the ninth century, when Baghdad was the largest city in the world, translators would gather in the House of Wisdom and they would be tasked with translating all the important existing works into Arabic, as well as conducting other cultural matches. Scholars from all over the Abbasid Empire, extending from Central Asia to North Africa, travel to this institution to participate in research activities and promote scientific development.[/size]
[size=45]Another 12 centuries later comes Al-Mutanabbi Street, where a love for writers and ideas thrives in the Friday market there while sellers display their old and new books along both sides of the street in a tradition that represents the beating heart of Baghdad's cultural life.[/size]
[size=45]Hisham Nizar, 24, has a university degree in banking and economics, but he works according to his choice in a book publishing house. Among the prominent books displayed on the shelves of his publishing house's booth in the exhibition is the book American Nietzsche on the influence of the philosophy of a German man on the United States. Nizar declares that this German philosopher, Nietzsche, is considered the second largest mentality in human history for him after Leonardo da Vinci.[/size]
[size=45]Nizar says his bestseller is the work of Iraqi writer and novelist Burhan al-Shawi, who has written a nine-volume series of novels, including The Baghdad Morgue, that criticizes the backdrop to the post-war violence in Baghdad. The history of the violence and turmoil that has befallen Iraq since the US invasion of the country in 2003 provides a rich material for the book.[/size]
[size=45]A visitor to the exhibition, Gauri, said, “Most of the visitors to the exhibition are young people. The book provides comfort to the reader when he is in the most difficult circumstances.”[/size]
[size=45]When ISIS invaded large areas of Iraq in 2014 and took the city of Mosul as the seat of its alleged caliphate, the life that was known to the people of Iraq's second largest city came to a halt. Where the organization prevented the circulation of most books as well as music. The women were locked in their homes. During the nearly three years of ISIS occupation of the city, many Mosul residents were staying in their homes, reading books in secret.[/size]
[size=45]In the first reading festival in Mosul, after the city was liberated from ISIS, thousands of people attended the site of the event, which was held in a public square that the organization had previously used to train child gunmen. Families with their children, the elderly and the young, all thirsting for a second read in the open space.[/size]
[size=45]Nizar, the owner of the publishing house, said that while many people are now reading books on the Internet, he and many others prefer holding the book in their hands to read it.[/size]
[size=45]He added, "When you open a book in your hands, it is as if you are entering a journey with the writer. The paperback carries the spirit of its author.”[/size]
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