THIEVES OF BAGHDAD: According to the Thousand and One Nights story of Ali Baba and the slave girl Morjanan, a statue of whom (right) adorns one of the city's main squares, Baghdad nights are idyllic. However, this was certainly not the case seven years ago in the spring of 2003, when the Shock-and-Awe bombing campaign on the city took place (above). Thieves descended on the city in the night, enveloping Baghdad in a long and heartless war. Built as the capital of the Abbasid Empire in 762, Baghdad has been repeatedly conquered by would-be emperors, some local, many foreign, with imperial success dictating that the symbols of past glory are both eclipsed and emulated. Baghdad has been conquered, sacked and rebuilt over and over again since time immemorial. Once the heart of an empire that itself wrought havoc on distant lands, the city's caliphs and sultans were also the patrons of the arts. They were the connoisseurs and sometimes also the composers of some of the most beautiful poetry to have survived in the collective memory of the Arabs. Marking seven years since the US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq, Al-Ahram Weekly this week presents a series of special pages focusing on the experience of the past seven years. Beginning with an interview with Professor Charles Tripp of London University's School of Oriental and African Studies, a leading western expert on Iraq and the author of a standard history of the country, the supplement concentrates on the country's prospects in the wake of the March 2010 elections, with Salah Hemeid, Mustafa Labad and Mona Anis looking at the meaning of the elections, Iraq's relations with its neighbours, particularly Iran, and the questions thrown up by the continuing US occupation. Arab and western writers and filmmakers have found fertile territory in Iraq, with the country's experience over the past seven years inspiring more than one Hollywood-style production. Anglo-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla, who appears in the latest of these, British director Paul Greengrass's Green Zone, reflects on what it means to him as an Arab actor to appear in films about Iraq. Finally, Iraqi poets Saadi Youssef and Sargoun Boulus, both of whom have long lived in exile outside Iraq, are represented in a critical account and translations from their works.
