Abstract
Shortly after the Ba‘th accession to power, activities to promote Iraqi folklore received an enormous official boost,1 which found its initial expression in legislation. A law promulgated early in 1969 created the ‘General Directorate for Cinema and Theatre’, whose province was to include festivals and congresses devoted to folklore, and the fostering of that art and its preservation on film ‘so as to protect our historical, artistic and literary heritage’.2 The first practical undertakings of this nature to enjoy official support were folklore museums. In 1969–70, a museum of folklore handicrafts was founded in Kirkuk, and a small folklore museum in Mosul was greatly expanded.3 Apparently in response to an open letter to the president calling for the establishment of a special museum to preserve and exhibit ‘life in old Baghdad’,4 such a museum was, indeed, established, housing traditional crafts, apparel, models of living quarters and domestic utensils, and scenes from social life in Baghdad, commencing from the city’s foundation in the days of al-Mansur in the 8th century AD and up to the twentieth century. The museum was honored with visits by Iraqi leaders and quite frequent mentions in the press.5
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Notes
Jum, 18 October 1982. The moving force behind the reconstruction of old private houses seems to be Engineer Ihsan Fathi. In 1986 he was made head of the new architecture department at al-Mustansiriyya University. See his book with Jabra Ibrahim Jabra, Baghdad bayna al-ams wal yawm (Baghdad, 1987), pp. 135, 192. And John Warren and Ihsan Fathi, Traditional Houses in Baghdad (Sussex, 1982). Fathi used to preach for preservation of old buildings before the Ba‘th takeover but only under the Ba‘th he managed to get official support (an interview with a foreign diplomat).
Milton Viorst, The New Yorker, 19 October 1987, p. 86.
Saddam Husayn, al-Thawra wal-nazra al-jadida (Baghdad, 1981), p. 81–2.
Muhammad Khalifa, Th, 24, 25, 26, February 1969. And see Mahmud ‘Abta, TuSh, no. 1, vol. 1, pp. 4–5; Fadil Akram, in a Prologue in the book by Hillu Mansur, Suwar mulawwana, dirasa fi al-shi‘r al-sha‘bi (Baghdad, 1970), p. 4.
Lutfi Khuri, TuSh, no. 9, vol. 1, May 1970, pp. 3–6; and ibid., no.7, vol. 11, 1980, pp. 59–60. And at the All-Arab Folklore Congress in Baghdad, Jum, 2–5 March 1977. Also: TuSh, no. 9, vol. 1, May 1970, pp. 3–6; no. 7, vol. 11, 1980, pp. 59–66. And folklore as preserving ‘the pan-Arab personality’ of the Palestinian people, see Jum, 4 March 1977; Th, 6 March 1977
Khalil Hamudi (archeologist), Afaq ‘Arabiyya, September 1977, pp. 94–5.
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© 1991 Amatzia Baram
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Baram, A. (1991). Folklore and Mesopotamian Culture. In: Culture, History and Ideology in the Formation of Ba‘thist Iraq, 1968–89. St Antony’s/Macmillan Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21243-9_3
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