SPRING 2012 PAGE 1 TAARII Newsletter The American Academic Research Institute in

ISSUE NO. 7-1 SPRING 2012 © TAARII

MODERN ART IN IRAQ: FROM THE PIONEERS OF THE 1930s TO THE LOOTING OF 2003

Figure 1.1. Artworks stolen in 2003 that have yet to be recovered include those of (from upper left to lower right): Jawad Saleem, Alaa Basheer, Atta Sabri, Faraj Abou, Fouad Jehad, and Hafidh al-Dorooby PAGE 2 TAARII NEWSLETTER

Following the collapse University of North Texas of the Ba‘th Regime in (UNT), and Williams 2003, over 7,000 artworks College began with a brief in Iraq were damaged or overview of the breadth of stolen. Only about 700 modern followed have been recovered. The by a detailed account of history of modern art in the looting of the artworks Iraq, the looted artworks, from such locations as and the efforts to recover the Center them were the topics of for the Arts, Baghdad a TAARII-sponsored International Airport, Al- lecture tour in three Rashid Hotel, and former states in February and palaces. Sabri described March 2012 with Salam the various efforts to Atta Sabri, an Iraqi artist, recover the lost artwork, founder and Director his own involvement, of the Iraqi Pioneers and the successes they Committee, and the Figure 1.2. Salam Atta Sabri gave three public lectures during his U.S. have had. Many of the Director of the National visit, including one at Portland State University (Photo credit: Karen audiences’ questions and Lickteig, Middle East Studies Center, PSU) Museum of Modern Art comments centered on in Baghdad. Sabri drew ways that they can help on his own experience and that of his East Studies Center of Portland State support the recovery of the stolen art. father, Atta Sabri, a pioneer of modern University, Dr. Nada Shabout of the Along with his public lecture at PSU Iraqi fine arts. The lecture tour was University of North Texas, and Dr. and an extensive tour of the Portland Art made possible by the collaboration of Magnus Bernhardsson of Williams Museum, Sabri visited two of Portland local partners and funding provided College helped arrange lectures and Community College’s (PCC) campuses by the Council for American Overseas visits in their local areas. and the Pacific Northwest College of Research Centers (CAORC) through a Salam Atta Sabri’s public lectures at Art (PNCA). He addressed a painting grant from the Carnegie Corporation of Portland State University (PSU), the class about elements of Iraqi modern art New York. and art history students Salam Atta Sabri was and faculty members invited to the United about the history and States as one of the development of modern twenty recipients of art in Iraq. At PNCA, a Getty International Sabri spoke to students Travel Award from and guests in a seminar t h e C o l l e g e A r t on the “Theory of the Association (CAA) Object.” He also visited to attend its annual several art galleries with m e e t i n g i n L o s the students, sharing Angeles and learn his experiences and ways to promote the exchanging ideas. Sabri teaching of art history also met with members in their own countries. of the Iraqi community The CAORC-Carnegie in Portland, including f u n d i n g a l l o w e d two artists. TAARII to expand In addition to a public the audiences that lecture sponsored by benefitted from his Figure 1.3. In his public lectures, Salam Atta Sabri gave a brief history of the the Contemporary Arab visit to the United pioneers of modern Iraqi art, including his father, Atta Sabri, who painted the and Muslim Cultural States. The Middle above untitled picture in 1942 (Photo credit: Modern Art Iraq Archive S t u d i e s I n s t i t u t e [http://artiraq.org/maia/]) SPRING 2012 PAGE 3

(CAMCSI) and the University up a small show at of North Texas (UNT), Sabri the Williams College participated in a dual interview in student center about the Dallas-Fort Worth area with the missing art works Dr. Nada Shabout for a local news from Iraq in order to station, Channel 8 WFAA-ABC, on a raise awareness. story regarding the recovery of looted S a b r i a l s o artworks. In this interview, Sabri visited the nearby communicated his optimism about M a s s a c h u s e t t s the recovery process, as well as his M u s e u m o f commitment to the recovery in the Contemporary Art risky years ahead. Sabri visited the (MassMoca), a large arts district of both Fort Worth and c o n t e m p o r a r y a r t Dallas and met with various members museum set in an old of the Iraqi-American community. textile factory that Figure 1.4. Salam Atta Sabri (center) joined Dr. Nada Shabout At Williams College in closed down in the (left) and Dr. Robert Milnes (right), Dean of the College of Williamstown, Massachusetts, Sabri 1960s. MassMoca Visual Arts and Design of the University of North Texas, at a gave a public lecture on campus. He n o t o n l y h o u s e s dinner celebrating his visit. (Photo credit: Nada Shabout) also presented to an undergraduate interesting art but class on Iraq and in the twentieth also serves as an century an overview of daily life in intriguing economic experiment. for the National Museum of Modern Iraq and what he thought young people MassMoca has led the revival of the Art in Baghdad to partner with could do to improve the situation city of North Adams, demonstrating Williams College Museum of Art on there. Afterwards, he discussed with that culture and art can be a positive an exhibition in the summer of 2014. several students specifically what contributor to economic development, At the end of his visit to the United they could do. Sabri encouraged two an idea that interested Sabri for the States, Salam Atta Sabri met with students who were considering going future of Iraq. Sabri also toured the administrators at the Museum of to Jordan this summer to work at a Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Modern Art in New York City and sports camp for Iraqi refugee girls and a first-class art museum that is known visited the Metropolitan Museum of three other students who spoke with for its collection of impressionist art. Art, all before heading to the airport him about the possibility of putting In addition, Sabri discussed plans to return to Iraq.

Figure 1.5. Salam Atta Sabri addressing students at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (Photo credit: PNCA) PAGE 4 TAARII NEWSLETTER

IRAQ’S ARTISTIC HERITAGE: FROM HAIFA STREET TO THE BERKSHIRE MOUNTAINS

Niralee Shah, Iman Lipumba, Laura Villafranco, Aseel Abulhab & Javier Mariscal March 7, 2012, was a unique day for moved a group of us to expose ourselves our history class on Iraq and Iran and the Williams community at large to with Professor Magnus Bernhardsson this unknown and too-often overlooked at Williams College. The rustling of face of the : the bookbags and papers calmed, ears destruction and looting of Iraq’s artistic perked up, and bodies perched forward heritage. Following Sabri’s visit, we as Salam Atta Sabri, director of the created an art exhibit displaying works National Museum of Modern Art in from the National Museum of Modern Baghdad, began his story of the looting Art. Though there were over a hundred and destruction of this great Iraqi premier Iraqi artists from which to national landmark. choose, we limited our exhibit to five Students at Williams College, a small individuals: Mahoud Ahmad, Layla al- Figure 2.1. First-year student views Iraqi liberal arts college nestled in the rural Attar, Khaled al-Jader, Faraj Abbu, and art exhibition (Photo Credit: Niralee Shah) Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, Rafa al-Nasiri. often complain of being cut-off from On the evening of April 27, 2012, asking the international community for the “real world.” During our time at in a study lounge in an academic assistance. Another laptop displayed Williams, we exist in a shell of security building chosen for its retro gallery the Modern Art Iraq Archive (MAIA), and privilege, which at times causes vibe, we created a space for Iraqi art an online project to collect and archive our educational experience to lack the and culture. Multiple collages placed information on the lost art. A reel of on-the-ground, human perspective of throughout the lounge exhibited works slides projected onto the wall covered the issues we discuss. However, March by each of the featured artists, along additional works by other Iraqi modern 7 was different. As Sabri described with the information that we managed artists. The exhibit remained on display the state of Iraq’s largest modern art to gather on the works and their for one week. museum, the real human impact of the creators. We displayed articles about What moved us about Sabri’s visit looting was palpable. the museum and set up a laptop where was not only his heartfelt passion and Sabri’s visit to our class and the the public could watch a clip of Sabri grief over Iraq’s artwork, but also his encouragement of Professor Bernhardsson discussing the museum’s trials and personal account of the difficulties of everyday life in Iraq. It highlighted what we take for granted here in our academic “bubble”: electricity, safety and security, and even the online excess of information on the most minute things. The event felt even more significant after we learned about the bombings near Sabri’s home on Haifa Street in Baghdad. Sabri’s perseverance and dedication inspired us to join his efforts, and in return we hope to have inspired others to appreciate Iraqi art and culture — a topic that seems so detached from our own reality, but one that teaches us about the Figure 2.2. Professor Magnus Bernhardsson, TA, and friends accompanied the students at human connection we share the opening night of the exhibition at Williams College (Photo Credit: Niralee Shah) with Iraqis. SPRING 2012 PAGE 5

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

McGuire Gibson

In the past few months, American engineering, and the sciences, as In April, TAARII, along with the scholars and research teams have Iraqi education has historically director of the Columbia Center initiated projects in Iraq. Elizabeth tended to be, there is a commitment for Oral History (CCOH), received Stone and Paul Zimansky’s Stony to training Iraqis in a wide variety of funding from the Hollings Center Brook team began excavations at a fields. The impetus for the meeting is for International Dialogue to small site near Ur (see p. 17) and an Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education develop guidelines for the collecting Jason Ur of Harvard established program to send, over the next two and curating of life stories in the groundwork for a survey in years, thousands of fully funded Iraqi environments and populations that the vicinity of Erbil (see p. 20). students abroad to earn graduate have been ravaged by political Carrie Hritz has a permit to do degrees. A percentage of those conflict and violence. The small archaeological work at the ancient students will be coming to American grant project features a six-way city of Girsu (Tello) and hopes to be universities. The U.S. contingent in collaboration and a topic that build in the field later in 2012. We hope the meeting was composed mainly directly on the recent Hollings that these are signs of a return to a of state universities, only a few of Center Higher Education Dialogue more normal research situation in which are members of TAARII. I in Istanbul on Oral History in the Iraq. As the security situation keeps hope that more of our institutional Middle East and Central Asia (see improving, we can make a case to our members will become involved in the article p. 9). Dialogue conference funding agency to lift the restriction this program. During the conference, participants Mary Marshall Clark of that prevents TAARII from funding I met all of the Iraqi deans, five the Columbia Center for Oral History American fellows for work inside of whom expressed an interest in (CCOH), Doug Boyd of the Louie B. Iraq. sending students for social science Nunn Center for Oral History at the TAARII has been engaged in a and humanities training. They also University of Kentucky Libraries, number of activities that should bring sought to make agreements on Ramazan Aras of Mardin Artuklu the organization and our institutional bilateral exchanges of faculty. During University in , Mohammad members into a closer working the meeting, I met briefly with the Mohaqqeq of Kabul University, relationship with the educational Iraqi Minister of Education and I and Lucine Taminian, TAARII’s institutions in Iraq. In February, at will follow up with him to further Resident Director, along with Beth the invitation of the Iraqi Embassy introduce TAARII and our plans to Kangas, will meet in New York City and the Iraqi Cultural Center in move our activities to Iraq when the in June 2012 to begin crafting the Washington, D.C., I took part in situation allows. guidelines. The June 2012 meeting and chaired a session at the Iraqi In March 2012, Beth Kangas, coincides with the second week of American University Conference. TAARII’s Executive Director, was the CCOH summer institute in New Attended by the deans of eleven invited by the Iraqi Cultural Center York City on “What is Remembered: Iraqi universities and more than in Washington to participate in their Life Story Approaches in Human fifty representatives of American Iraqi-American Women’s Day event. Rights Contexts,” an opportune universities and educational The evening program included short working environment and expansion organizations, the conference was presentations from various Iraqi of resources and discussion on which designed to strengthen already women based in the United States the Hollings-funded team can draw to existing relationships between — journalists, artists, poets, writers, produce its guidelines. U.S. and Iraqi universities, which and others. Kangas introduced the One last item: This year, TAARII have been accepting Iraqi students audience of about eighty people awarded six research fellowships to for several years, and to expand to TAARII and invited them to Iraqi scholars in several universities the group of U.S. institutions that participate in TAARII’s three main in Iraq. The disciplines of the Iraq will train the next generation of activities: research fellowships, fellows include literature, sociology, Iraqi academics and researchers. conferences, and its oral history psychology, community medicine, Although skewed toward medicine, project. history, and biology. PAGE 6 TAARII NEWSLETTER

2011–2012 U.S. FELLOWSHIP RECIPIENTS

Alda Benjamen, History, University of Maryland College Park “Contextualizing Assyrians in Iraq’s History”

Hilary Falb, History, University of California Berkeley “Educators in Iraq, Jordan and Palestine; the Formation of State and Subject 1917–1958”

Amy Gansell, Art History, Emory University “Dressing the Neo-Assyrian Queen in Identity and Ideology”

Karen Wilson, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago “Inanna Temple Publication Project”

Alda Benjamen

Benjamen’s doctoral thesis will be the first comprehensive study that contextualizes the Assyrians in Iraqi history by analyzing their role in ideological and social movements of the twentieth century. In her study, Assyrians will be contextualized within the broader intellectual and social movements of Iraq, including the Iraqi Communist Party, the Kurdish uprising, and nationalist movements, from the period following World War II up until the 1980s. Benjamen is interested in the role of women in these movements and their portrayal by intellectuals. Her project will also analyze the interaction of the state with the Assyrians, and their inclusion and/or exclusion during this period. For her study, Benjamen will draw on a variety of sources, including those located at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Library of Congress, National Archives at College Park, Public Record Office in the United Kingdom, and the Modern Assyrian Research Archive (MARA) at the University of Cambridge. In addition, Benjamen will conduct oral history interviews with activists in Assyrian organizations and political parties operating in the second half of the twentieth century, along with singers, producers, and musicians in the West.

Hilary Falb

Falb’s dissertation offers a new account of education and political culture by examining school teachers and administrators employed by the British Mandates for Iraq, Palestine, and Transjordan throughout the seminal period of state creation in the Middle East, 1917–1958. Using oral histories, social history, and discursive analysis, Falb will analyze the politics and pedagogical techniques of these educators across imperial and national boundaries. British policies were remarkably similar with regards to education in all three Mandates. Yet, the outcome of schooling in each Mandate and later nation varied widely due in large part to the educators who implemented, undermined, or adapted British educational policies and syllabi. Falb will use her TAARII fellowship to fund research for the portion of her study relating to Iraq. She will spend two months in London, dividing her time between interviews with Iraqis and ongoing archival work at the British Library and the National Archives. By analyzing education in Iraq in the context of the British Mandates, Falb’s dissertation will highlight the importance of individual educators to the consequences of schooling throughout the region. These educators provide a unique perspective into how identity and affiliation become resonant in a colonial framework.

These fellowships are funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs through a sub-grant from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. SPRING 2012 PAGE 7

Amy Gansell

In 1988 and 1989, Iraqi archaeologists discovered four royal tombs beneath the Northwest Palace at Nimrud. They contained Neo-Assyrian burials dating to the ninth and eighth centuries b.c. Inscriptions identified some of the dead as the mothers and wives of kings. Gansell’s project focuses on the hundreds of luxury items related to dress that were found in their sarcophagi. Based primarily on the published archaeological evidence, and supplemented by visual and textual records, her project will reconstruct royal female assemblages of dress through technical illustrations. These models, then, will provide a basis for interpretations of the women’s identities and the ideological messages conveyed through their dress, in life and death, at Nimrud.

Karen Wilson

Wilson, in cooperation with a team of scholars, will prepare a final report on the excavation of the Inanna Temple at Nippur. The site of Nippur is located on the southern Mesopotamian floodplain 180 km south of Baghdad. From 1951–1962, the University of Chicago excavated the temple of the main Mesopotamian goddess, Inanna, at Nippur. These excavations yielded the longest continuous archaeological sequence currently available for Mesopotamia, with more than twenty building levels spanning the time from roughly 3500 b.c. to the second century a.d. This material includes architecture, sculpture, relief, cylinder seals, and vessels of ceramic and stone that will enable scholars to make badly needed refinements to the chronology of early Mesopotamia and will shed new light on many aspects of life and culture in ancient Iraq.

FELLOWSHIP OPPORTUNITIES The annual deadline for submission of applications to both the U.S. Fellows Program and the Iraq Fellows Program is December 15, for projects beginning as early as March of the following year. Applications from U.S.-Iraqi collaborative teams are welcome on a ROLLING basis. For additional information, please visit the TAARII website: www.taarii.org/fellowships. To submit a collaborative proposal, contact [email protected].

LANGUAGE ANNOUNCEMENT As readers may be aware, TAARII is committed to producing a bilingual newsletter in English and Arabic. We regret that we are now printing our newsletter in English only. We are seeking funds to resume printing a bilingual newsletter and to include full Arabic translations of English-language newsletters on our website. We appreciate your patience and understanding in the meantime.

TAARII PROGRAM: Research Affiliates in Jordan

TAARII invites applications for a Research Affiliate status for U.S. scholars working on Iraq while based in Amman, Jordan. As increasing numbers of American researchers undertake Iraq-related research in Jordan, TAARII aims to support their needs and work and to include them in the broader TAARII community. To apply for Research Affiliate status, please submit a brief project statement, together with a CV, to [email protected]. There is no deadline and scholars can apply for Affiliate status on a short-term or long-term basis. PAGE 8 TAARII NEWSLETTER

EXCAVATOR OF THE ASSYRIAN QUEENS’ TOMBS TOURS U.S.

The discovery of tombs under rooms o f M u z a h i m in the domestic wing of the Northwest H u s s e i n ’ s Palace of Assurnasirpal II at Nimrud, m a n u s c r i p t o n near , drew widespread the tombs and attention in 1988 and 1989. With his other work at inscribed items in the tombs, there Nimrud, which was evidence, for almost the first i s c u r r e n t l y time, of the names of several queens, being edited for from about 850–620 b . c ., who publication as a had been buried with many items, full-color book. including gold jewelry of astounding T h e O r i e n t a l beauty and expert craftsmanship. Institute Press Although a few magazine articles will publish the indicated the importance of the finds, w o r k , w i t h a and there was one short German subvention from Figure 3.1. From left to right: Atheer Abood Al Saedy, Third report with great color photographs a g r a n t g i v e n Secretary at The Embassy of Iraq; Dr. Muzahim Hussein; Dr. Eric in a publication from Mainz, the First b y t h e S t a t e H. Cline, Director of The Capitol Archaeological Institute; Katie Paul, director of programs at The Capitol Archaeological Institute Gulf War prevented the full analysis Department and (Photo Credit: Shmulik Almany at ImageLink Photography) and publication of the tombs, as well a d m i n i s t r a t e d as canceling of a projected tour of b y I R D , a n some of the material that was to be Arlington, Virginia, NGO. in the U.S. in 1994–95. The book will expand on the printing problems. The new book, As part of its project to publish author’s earlier book, Nimrud, a translated by Mark Altaweel and Iraqi archaeological reports in City of Golden Treasures (Baghdad, edited by McGuire Gibson, will be English and Arabic, TAARII took 2000), which unfortunately has submitted to the press in 2012. on the preparation and publication inadequate illustrations due to In order to make it possible for the author and the editor to work over details in the manuscript, TAARII sponsored a trip by Hussein to the U.S. from November 12 until December 5, 2011. After an initial few days in Chicago, which included a lecture by him on his work, he attended the ASOR meeting in San Francisco where he again gave a talk, then another at the Cotzen Institute at UCLA. He returned to Chicago over Thanksgiving and worked with Gibson again before delivering lectures at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., at the University of Pennsylvania, and at the Columbia University seminar. TAARII is grateful for the Figure 3.2. Dr. Muzahim Hussein showing a woven gold diadem from Tomb cooperation of colleagues at all the II at The Capitol Archaeological Institute (Photo Credit: Shmulik Almany at venues. ImageLink Photography) SPRING 2012 PAGE 9

TAARII REPRESENTED AT ORAL HISTORY WORKSHOP IN ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Lucine Taminian, TAARII Senior Researcher in Residence, Amman, Jordan

In February 2012, the Hollings Center can the safety of interviewees living their “Telling Lives” program. The for International Dialogue organized a under tense security circumstances Innovations for Successful Societies four-day workshop in Istanbul, Turkey, be ensured, especially once the program at Princeton University on “The Future of Oral History in the interviews are made available to uses case studies to support public Middle East and Central Asia.” The scholars and the public? How do the servants in low-income and post- workshop brought together participants measures taken for this purpose, such conflict countries to be able to carry from the U.S., Middle East, and Central as pseudonyms, omitting all references out their core tasks more effectively. Asia who were new to the field of that might reveal the identity of the The Arab American National Museum oral history with those who have long interviewees, etc., devalue oral history in Dearborn, Michigan integrates the experience in collecting oral histories, as a legitimate scholarly source? oral histories of the Arab American and those who are experts in the use How do the legal requirements for community in their exhibits aimed at of oral history in education and in archiving jeopardize the safety of the educating the public on Arab American archiving and digital technology. interviewees? history and culture. Researchers in On the first day of the workshop, The workshop was a great Turkey use the oral histories of Turks the participants discussed the essential opportunity for participants to and Armenians to encourage the two components of oral history projects: exchange ideas and best practices communities to speak to each other. In planning, conducting interviews, on the diverse uses of oral history in Afghanistan, historians are preserving archiving, and using oral histories teaching and scholarship. For example, oral traditions in order to make history in teaching and scholarship. The Columbia University’s Center for a living experience. In Tajikistan, oral participants stressed the dialogic Oral History, which offers an M.A. in histories are helping to build and nature of the interview and the ethics oral history, makes their oral history enhance women’s networks. of conducting interviews, both in archive available to the public through A workshop session on “Access, general and in conflict and post- online exhibitions and to school Preservation, and Technology” conflict situations in particular. How and community educators through was particularly informative. The

Figure 4.1. Participants in the Oral History Workshop, Istanbul, Turkey (Photo credit: David Trilling) PAGE 10 TAARII NEWSLETTER discussion here focused on the use of digital technologies at two phases: first, in transcribing, editing and indexing, and second, in making oral history available to scholars, educators, and the public. Douglas Boyd, the director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries, presented the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) system, an open source that synchronizes text with audio and video online. The hard work of the Hollings Center staff and their meticulous planning made attending the workshop a very Figure 4.2. TAARII Senior Researcher in Residence Lucine Taminian participating in the Oral History Workshop productive and pleasant exercise, even (Photo credit: David Trilling) with the cold weather of Istanbul.

GENDER AND CITIZENSHIP IN MODERN IRAQ

Orit Baskin, University of Chicago

Karen M. Kern. Imperial Citizen, Marriage and Citizenship in the Ottoman Frontier Provinces of Iraq. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2011. xiv + 186 pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 978-0-815- 63284-6.

Gender relations are of immense in Iraq. The first book I will review and the Republican states defined importance in Iraqi history and here is Karen M. Kern’s outstanding their relationships to their subjects. society. In the modern era, Iraqi Imperial Citizen, which deals with Moreover, it seems that the field intellectuals, men and women Iraqi women during the late Ottoman of Ottoman-Iraqi studies will take alike, discussed such issues as period. on even greater significance in the emancipation, women’s education, In recent years, the study of years to come, since the destruction seclusion, suffrage, veiling, and Ottoman Iraq has emerged as one of of many Iraqi archives and the family law. The conversations the most exciting endeavors in the disappearance of press collections about the roles of women in Iraq exploration of Iraq’s social, political, and private libraries after 2003 have always been political, since and cultural histories. The important has magnified the importance of conceptualizing their rights and works of Dina Rizk Khoury, Hala the Ottoman archives and their duties was connected to Ottoman, Fattah, Thabit Abdullah, and Gökhan documents relating to Iraq. Arab, and Iraqi considerations of Çetinsaya, among others, illuminate It is with this framework in citizenship, secularism, religion, the continuities in Iraqi history, and mind that Kern’s excellent new and nationalism. In light of current illustrate that processes relating study should be viewed. Building debates in Iraq on women’s rights, I to modernity, secularity, trans- on sources available in Ottoman will consider over several TAARII regionalism, and identity formation archives, the book offers a unique newsletters new publications on Iraqi which began in the late Ottoman and original perspective from women in the hope of generating period shaped, in many ways, the which to consider gender relations discussion about gender relations manners in which the Hashemite in Iraq. Kern’s work examines how SPRING 2012 PAGE 11 the Ottoman Empire adopted and yet Kern intentionally shies away Kern’s endeavor to explore the legal adapted concepts of nationality from essentialized notions of these actions of Ottoman bureaucrats and and citizenship to the geopolitical religious identities dating back to the lawmakers as part of a modernizing exigencies of controlling the frontier seventh century, and grounds them imperial project sheds ample light on provinces of Iraq. Her work, then, instead within the conflict between the ways in which legal institutions investigates how the Ottoman state two empires: the Ottoman, on the one introduced modern methods of impacted gender relations in Iraq hand, and the Safavid and the Qajar, inspection that enhanced the ability and how its politics with respect to on the other. Within this context, of the state to control its subjects’ women were shaped in a context of Kern also presents a very interesting lives. Modernity, in this book, is not processes of centralization and new discussion of the legal and religious simply a heroic tale in which male imperial definitions of citizenship Ottoman texts that challenged elites as its agents grant women and reform. The book does so by Shi‘ism. more rights, but rather a domain deftly analyzing a series of laws that The book exposes the great in which the state intervenes to prohibited the marriages of Sunni anxieties of the Ottoman state an increasing degree in women’s women to Iranian men. concerning the spread of Shi‘ism marriages and their reproductive The significance of this research among the Iraqi population during choices. Furthermore, Kern maintains is threefold. First, the book engages the nineteenth century. It looks that control over reproductive in an important conversation with at Shi‘i propaganda and Sunni choices was an expression of the theories of empire and nationalism counterpropaganda efforts, and the perception of women as symbols of and utilizes a rich theoretical attempts of the state to prevent the the nation. Being an imperial citizen literature regarding the connections spread of and conversion to Shi‘ism, thus meant being subject to wider between citizenship and gender. It ranging from a ban on the printing measures of the state’s regulations likewise draws on the innovative of the Qur’an in Persian and the and intercessions. works of Homi K. Bhabha, Selim confiscation of pamphlets labeled Kern focuses not only on the Deringil, and Ussama Makdisi in propagandistic to the expansion of acts of legislation (although she reflecting on Ottoman imperialism Sunni education. Kern recognizes does examines closely the various and the Ottoman civilizing mission that different rulers of Iraq during Ottoman, Islamic, and French in Iraq, and in underscoring both the Ottoman period faced these codes that inspired the legislation the similarities and the differences challenges in diverse fashions. At the about marriage), but also presents between Ottoman imperial forms beginning of the nineteenth century, legal cases of Sunni women who of governance and other imperial Da’ud Pasha tolerated Shi‘i rituals, married Iranian men, and discusses models. but processes of centralization their interactions with the state. Second, Kern’s thoughtful reading that followed the Pasha’s demise, The Iraqi context in which the accentuates the impossibility of especially during the era of Hamidian legislation prohibiting marriages considering gender as an exclusive imperial nationalism, sought to Iranian men was enacted was category, by showing how the to counter the Shi‘i expansion. a very complex one. As Kern understanding of gender relations Nonetheless, Kern establishes that notes, accounts from 1888 by the in Iraq was intertwined with the Shi‘i community also learned governor of the Baghdad Province, perceptions relating to statehood to expect certain rights from the Mustafa Asım Pasha, mentioned and religiosity and the production of state. For example, she notes that in that 15,000–20,000 residents in sectarian discourses. In other words, 1894, 270 Samara Shi‘is petitioned the province were of Iranian origin, Kern convincingly demonstrates the Ottoman court concerning some some of whom had migrated to that the duties of Ottoman women Sunni imams whom they claimed had Iraq or married into Iraqi families as imperial citizens ought to be threatened them; the court found the fifty years prior. To introduce new contextualized within the dynamic accusation to be substantiated and legislation prohibiting marriages relationships between the Sunni punished the imams. to Iranians (who had retained and Shi‘i communities in Iraq, as Third, and most importantly, their Iranian citizenship to avoid conceptualized by the Ottoman state. the book tells us much about the taxation and conscription into The book opens with a very trenchant connections between the state’s the army) into this Iraqi maze discussion of Sunni–Shi‘i relations; gendered policies and modernity. of citizenships was a rather PAGE 12 TAARII NEWSLETTER convoluted business. One of the studies in Arabic on this period (by Alevis, and those in Iraq itself. The more interesting features of the ‘Azzawi and Wardi, for instance) differences between such cases, I book is that it devotes attention to or scholars familiar with Persian think, should have been emphasized all the actors who figured in these accounts, would tell us more about more. inter-sectarian marriages, from the the reception of these laws in Iraqi Nonetheless, as I have indicated, women themselves to the qadis society beyond what was recorded this book is a rich and exciting and Ottoman officials (including in the official state archives. The addition to our field. I hope many of those who performed these Sunni– three provinces of Ottoman Iraq us use Kern’s book in our classroom Shi‘i marriages, although they included mixed tribes (Sunni– discussions about modern Iraq. The were not allowed to so legally), Shi‘i) and a variety of Sunni and book includes useful appendices, and the Iranian embassy, which Shi‘i ‘ulama whose thinking about which offer Kern’s translations went to great lengths to protect sectarianism and its relationship to of the rulings and laws regarding such marriages, notwithstanding marriage went through important marriages between Sunnis and Shi‘is the limited capitulatory rights Iran transformations during the of 1822, 1869, 1874, 1914, and 1926, had within the empire. Moreover, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries thereby making the state’s language Kern highlights cases in which (as evidenced by the writings of the accessible to students and scholars. women manipulated the system for salafi Alusi scholars, for example). As historians of Iraq, many of us their own benefit. For example, I also wonder whether the great are familiar with the attempts of the she discusses a case from 1899 anxieties regarding the spread of Hashemites and later of the Ba‘th to regarding a certain widow, Fatma Wahhabism affected in some ways use the Iranian citizenship of Iraqi Zehara Hanım, whose father and the anxieties of the state vis-à- Shi‘is as a pretext for a variety of husband were Iranian, and whose vis Shi‘ism in Iraq. Furthermore, legal actions, especially the denial of estate was claimed by the Iranian the gendered dimensions of the residency in Iraq. Kern’s remarkable Embassy. Based on the fact that Shi‘i relationships with the empire work, however, presents us with new her father had immigrated to were only one component of their ways to reconsider the roots of these Istanbul and married her mother, complicated rapport with the state, twentieth century phenomena and Esma Hanım, who was an Ottoman as local and imperial developments, their connections to modernity and citizen, the Ottoman cabinet which were not always related to gender. actually ruled that Fatma Hanım Iran, shaped these relationships. and her son were Ottoman citizens, In the intellectual domain, Pan- and thus their property did not Islamic ideas, especially those Next book reviewed in this series: Women in Iraq: Past belong to the state of Iran. articulated by Jamal al-Din al- Noga Efrati, Meets Present Afghani, were extremely important (New York: Columbia My only critical comments have University Press, 2012). to do with questions of context. to Iraqi Shi‘is and made for a The introduction, I think, could more accepting policy towards have benefited from additional Pan-Islamic Sunnis. Moreover, attention to the literature on discussions about reform and identity formation in late Ottoman constitutionalism and the support Newsletter Submissions, Iraq, especially the works of Fattah of Shi‘i elites for the 1908 Comments, and Khoury, so as to acknowledge Constitutional Revolution, as well & Suggestions that the state’s efforts to shape as the support expressed by Iraqi To submit articles, images, or certain sectarian identities were Shi‘is for the Ottoman war efforts announcements in either English or met with a variety of responses in Libya, the Balkans, and World War I, indicate the vast array Arabic, please email Katie Johnson in Iraq, and also as a way of at [email protected] for submission of domains in which the state’s including further material on the details. Sunni and Shi‘i subjects of the policies were reworked in the Iraqi For all other inquiries, comments, Iraqi provinces. Hopefully further context by Iraqi Shi‘is. Finally, at and suggestions, please visit our collaborative projects, between times there is a certain slippage website, scholars such as Kern and scholars between cases of Shi‘is outside of www.taarii.org. familiar with Arabic chronicles and the three Iraqi provinces, including SPRING 2012 PAGE 13

RESEARCH AT THE IRAQI NATIONAL LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES

Alda Benjamen, University of Maryland College Park

On December 6, 2011, I traveled to near the archives adds to the already Baghdad, Iraq, to conduct research at busy Baghdadi traffic. Scholars should the Iraqi National Library and Archives be wary of the security situation in the (INLA). Conducting this research country when deciding to embark on a contributed to my doctoral dissertation, research trip to Iraq. which will contextualize the Assyrians The INLA’s archives are open to in Iraqi history by analyzing their researchers from 8:00 a.m.–1:30 p.m. role in the ideological and social from Sunday to Wednesday. They close movements of the twentieth century. earlier on Thursday and are closed Before my departure to Baghdad on Friday and Saturday. The INLA’s I had been in communication with library operates on a slightly different Figure 5.2. Statue of Abu al-Ṭayyib Dr. Saad Eskander, the director of schedule. As I walked through the al-Mutanabbī, 10th century Arab poet the INLA. I was informed that no INLA building, I could not see any born in Kūfa, at Iraqi National Library and procedure was required of foreign traces of the structural damage from Archives (Photo credit: Alda Benjamen) researchers to access the INLA the 2003 fires.2 The building was facilities. Dr. Eskander also gave me well cared for and appeared to be in at the INLA, where I spent most of his number and asked me to contact good condition. They have expanded my time, was large enough to hold him once I arrived in Baghdad.1 with a new digital library to preserve about seven microfiche and two The INLA is set in a very busy Iraq’s cultural history, in the format microfilm machines. There was also a and popular neighborhood (Bab al- of music and film, along with a new photocopying machine (15 copy limit Mu’aẓam), close to an open market, national library for children. There per day, per researcher), a research colleges, and the Ministry of Defense. is also a small cafeteria that extends computer, and two long tables to be According to Dr. Eskander, the outside to an enclosed garden; food and used by researchers. Two assistants archives’ proximity to the Ministry refreshments are sold there. were available to help researchers of Defense, which has been targeted Upon arriving at the archives, find relevant sources and retrieve as recently as the summer of 2011, researchers present their identification microfiches for them. Researchers complicates the security situation for to guards at the gate. Once cleared, provided the assistants with a reference the archives. The ongoing construction researchers walk to the building, number for a particular source. have their identification Assistants searched for the source rechecked, and register promptly and handed it over to the their names and the name researcher, sometimes in less than half of their institutions. an hour. If microfiches were missing, Researchers’ personal the reference number was forwarded belongings are inspected to another department that held the and can accompany the original files. This search took much researchers in the archives. longer and most often the original files The security measures taken I requested were not found. Usually, are similar to those followed no more than six researchers were at research institutions in present in the room at one time. Most North America, such as researchers were locals; the INLA also the National Archives and welcomes researchers from other Iraqi Records Administration and provinces, and has had visitors from the Library of Congress. Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Researchers Figure 5.1. Exterior View of the Iraqi National Library The archives room were allowed to use their own cameras and Archives (Photo credit: Alda Benjamen) PAGE 14 TAARII NEWSLETTER to take photos of microfiches/microfilm of periodicals from the images and other material. A couple of twentieth century, focusing the microfiche machines were set to on religious and cultural print, but this option was not available material in Arabic, modern when I visited. Assyrian, and Classical Researchers interested in the history Syriac. The Dominican’s of twentieth-century Iraq will find private library in Baghdad archival material up until the 1960s or holds over 8,000 books, so in the INLA. I was told that sources mainly in French. In not deemed “sensitive,” such as reports Duhok, the Assyrian on agriculture, from the Ba‘thist period Cultural Center and the are still available at the INLA. The Oriental Cultural Center overwhelming majority of Ba‘thist also have a good selection documents are currently housed at of periodicals and books Figure 5.3. Staff Members of the INLA with the Author. the Hoover Institution in California. published in Iraq in the From left to right: Mrs. Dawod, Alda Benjamen, Mrs. Readers of the TAARII newsletter are twentieth and twenty-first Shatha Ismail, and Mrs. Dina Abbas (Photo credit: Alda likely to be familiar with the ongoing centuries. In addition, Benjamen) dispute with regard to the Ba‘thist numerous individuals archives in the U.S., and the demands have impressive private of the Iraqi government officials and collections, which can be found through 2 For an overview of the destruction of INLA staff to have them returned to community and religious centers. the INLA see: Nabil al-Tikriti, “‘Stuff Iraq.3 In Iraq, certain organizations For more information on the Happens’: A Brief Overview of the have some Ba‘thist sources as Iraqi National Library and Archives 2003 Destruction of Iraqi Manuscript well. These include: Iraqi political researchers can visit the INLA’s Collections, Archives, and Libraries,” parties, certain organizations (e.g., website (http://www.iraqnla.org/fp/ Library Trends 55/30 (2007): 730­–34. organizations dedicated to martyrs), News/news3.htm) and contact them for 3 http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2011/1071/ and a few Iraqi professors.4 The lack of further assistance. re10.htm; http://www.rferl.org/content/ Ba’thist archives in the country makes iraq_united_states_archives/24364123. it difficult for Iraqi graduate students html. 1 I wish to express my sincere gratitude to and researchers to conduct research on 4 In a conversation with an Iraqi graduate Dr. Saad Eskander at the INLA, and his their country’s modern history. student doing research at the INLA, I staff, Mrs. Dina Abbas, Mrs. Dawod, and learned that a certain professor in Najaf Many smaller libraries and publishing Mrs. Shatha Ismail, for their hospitality has a collection of Ba‘thist documents. houses have useful material as well. and assistance. A grant from the History According to her, graduate students In Baghdad, Nagem al-Mashriq’s Department, University of Maryland, contact him and he readily shares archival publishing house (Chaldean Church) supported this trip and I am thankful for material with them. has a small library with a wide range their generosity.

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A GREAT MAN IN A GREAT LAND: SIR VICTORY HORSLEY IN MESOPOTAMIA

Prof. A. Hadi Al Khalili, Iraqi Cultural Attaché in Washington, D.C.

An old Arab poem says: “Not every children, was born in wish of a man comes true; the wind Kingston, London, on might not blow to the covet of the April 14, 1857. His ship’s pilot.” Alas, this is what Sir parents were prominent Victor Horsley, British neurosurgeon, writers and musicians scientist, and professor, faced during with extremely high his life trip. During World War I, he moral values. From his landed in Iraq after joining the British childhood, Horsley was Army. After almost three months, he an unusual person. He passed away in the city of Amara. kept away from tobacco, Goethe, the German philosopher and a l c o h o l , a n d “ l o o s e poet, said: “It is impossible to understand talk.” He was educated Figure 6.1. Dr. A. Hadi Al Khalili by the wall listing the the present without knowing the past.” at Cranbrook school, names of casualties (Photo credit: Dr. A. Hadi Al Khalili) Many individuals in the past changed the a t t e n d e d U n i v e r s i t y history of humankind: Hammurabi as a College Medical School in lawmaker, and medicine’s Hippocrates, 1874, and graduated with a gold medal a monkey, which then showed Avicenna, and Rhazes. More recent in surgery. As a medical student, he myxoedema. He also grafted a sheep individuals in medicine include the received several distinctive nicknames: thyroid subcutaneously to treat such a great surgeon Ambroise Pare; Claude “the Germ,” for his long hours in the condition. He was appointed secretary Bernard, with his extracellular fluid and lab; “Vulture,” for his keenness with of the Commission on Rabies in the catabolism; Lord Lister with his carbolic postmortem; and “Archibald Right,” U.K. He went to and learned from acid; and William Osler, the father of for his encyclopedic knowledge. Pasteur all about rabies prevention. modern medicine. In neurosurgery, While he was a house surgeon, Horsley Then he was the Chairman of the many individuals contributed to the studied his own subjective reaction Society for Prevention of Hydrophobia. development of surgical neurology. The to chloroform anesthesia, by being In 1886, Horsley was elected a pioneers were McEwan and Godlee in anaesthetized no fewer than fifty fellow to the Royal Society and the U.K., Durante in Italy, and, more times, a heroic research project. He Professor of Pathology. Later that recently, Harvey Cushing in the modern used to ask his junior colleagues in the year, he was appointed surgeon to the era in the U.S.A. However, the father doctors’ lounge to write down changes National Hospital for the Paralyzed and founder of modern neurosurgery in his level of consciousness while he and Epileptic, Queens Square, was Horsley. laid on an armed chair until he became London, a post that brought him to the Sir Victor Alexander Haden Horsley, unconscious. leadership of the great field of surgery. the second son in a family of seven In 1884, Horsley was appointed He was only 29 years old, but was professor superintendent to the exceptionally well qualified for the Brown Institute of the University position. His experimental work on of London. There, he made his monkeys with nothing to guide him great research contributions: except for the localization of function the action of the thyroid gland, had familiarized him with cerebral a protective treatment against surgery. Before the end of 1886, he rabies, and the localization of had done ten cranial surgeries; nine of brain function. He was the first to them were successful. In that year, he prove beyond any doubt the action was elected as a fellow of the Royal of thyroid gland. This followed Society. Figure 6.2. Entrance of the Amara War his pioneering experiment of In 1887, Horsley removed a tumor Cemetery (Photo credit: Dr. A. Hadi Al Khalili) removing the thyroid from from a spinal cord, the first operation PAGE 16 TAARII NEWSLETTER

trephine,” which is trephine his last call on a sick officer whom he that can be taken apart and knew. The temperature was 43.3° C cleaned; and “Horsley’s wax,” (109.9° F) in the shade. On July 15, which is a wax in petrolatum he became ill and was moved to No. and phenol. 2 British General Hospital. On July Horsley made time, even 16, his temperature rose rapidly and early in his career, to give he became unconscious. Horsley died himself actively to the politics of heat stroke that evening, at the age of the medical profession. of 59. He was buried in Amara city, He was the president of the with palm leaves laid on his grave, in Medical Defense Union, which a cemetery with 4,620 other casualties protected doctors from others, of World War I. Figure 6.3. Top of the Amara War Cemetery and one of the leaders of the When a visitor enters Amara from the Entrance (Photo credit: Dr. A. Hadi Al Khalili) British Medical Association north and crosses the Kahla Bridge, he and Counsel. faces the cemetery where Sir Victor ever of its kind and an event that As a social reformer, Horsley Horsley is buried. Interestingly, Kahla has a great place in the history of fought hard for the right of surgery. In 1893, he performed a long women to vote. In addition, series of experiments on the effect in 1907, he proposed a of bullet wounds on the brain. The resolution that was passed experiments proved that the cause by the House of Commons of death was respiratory — and not “that the principles and cardiac — failure. Horsley standardized practice of hygiene should the operations for laminectomy, form a part of the education craniotomy, and the intradural division of every citizen.” This meant of the trigeminal nerve. among other things that a In 1902, Horsley was knighted and doctor and dentist should became Sir Victor Horsley. do quarterly inspections on In addition to his surgical work, school children, a practice Horsley published 127 articles of that has been applied all research, clinical observation, and over the world. Horsely Figure 6.4. Cemetery field with cross (Photo credit: Dr. A. Hadi Al Khalili) surgical techniques. Dorland’s Medical also took a leading role in Dictionary lists under his name: campaigning against alcohol “Horsley’s operation,” which is the (and tobacco) in Britain and jointly Bridge curves ninety degrees in order excision of an area of the motor cortex published a book on “Alcohol and the to avoid the cemetery. for the relief of athetoid movements Human Body.” Horsley’s death, although tragic of the upper extremity; “Horsley’s During World War I, Sir Victor indeed, came after his work in building Horsley was sent to Egypt the science and practice of neurosurgery and then to India. On April had been achieved. A pupil of his who 9, 1916, he left Bombay, later became a colleague noted: “If we India, and arrived on April were to judge of a man’s pre-eminence 16 in the port of Basra in by the reputation of his work obtained Iraq. Horsley was stationed both at home and in continental and as a doctor in Amara, a foreign schools of medicine, few city near the marshes of have equaled and none surpassed that southern Iraq, 190 miles which was universally acknowledged from Baghdad. To see as having been earned by Sir Victor patients, he often had to Horsley.” This was the life of a unique walk long distances in the individual, physician, and human burning sun. On July 14, being, whose grave can be found in Figure 6.5. Sir Victor Horsley’s name on the wall 1916, Horsley attended to Amara, Iraq. (Photo credit: Dr. A. Hadi Al Khalili) SPRING 2012 PAGE 17

EXCAVATION AT TELL SAKHARIYA IN DHIQAR PROVINCE IN SOUTHERN IRAQ

Abdulamir Hamdani, Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage; Ph.D. student at the State University of New York at Stony Brook

From late December 2011 through magnetic gradiometry, which had never season’s fieldwork, which consisted of mid-January 2012, a joint team from been used before in excavations in Iraq. a systematic survey followed by the the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities In the first week of our work, the excavation of several test trenches in and Heritage (SBAH) and the State SBAH sent the directors of eight order to understand the occupational University of New York at Stony Brook expeditions who had been working phases of the site. under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth in the Marshes Salvage Excavation The excavation results demonstrated Stone and Dr. Paul Zimansky began project to participate in our excavation that the site dates back to the mid- excavating at the late-third millennium in order to learn recently developed second millennium b.c. The team through later-second millennium b.c. and modern techniques of excavation. collected animal bones and recovered site of Tell Sakhariya, located 6 km Sharing these techniques with Iraqis seeds and plant remains by using a northeast of the ancient city Ur in was very valuable, as was introducing floatation machine in ways that had not southern Iraq. The site of Sakhariya them to field photography techniques, previously been used in Iraq. was chosen to find possible answers systematic survey, total station (a device We spent one Friday visiting the to questions related to the economic, that measures electronically vertical central marshes, north of Chabaish, political, and social relations between and horizontal degrees and distance), where we had been invited by engineer rural villages and small towns, and the and data collection. There were a Jasim al-Asadi of the Iraq Nature nearby major urban center at Ur. series of lectures and demonstrations Organization. In addition to seeing The expedition was the first foreign for them by various members of the the natural wildlife of the marshes, expedition to Iraq (outside of the international team: classification of we visited a large, late Mesopotamian Kurdistan/northeastern region) since ceramics; drawing and recording archaeological site that is covered the war of 2003. Following the 1991 pottery; field and object photography; partially by water, and which has now war and throughout the thirteen-year understanding Mesopotamian cities become a residential base for fishers, economic embargo, the SBAH was using GIS; remote sensing to determine water-buffalo breeders, and other isolated for political reasons from settlement patterns; and new methods dwellers (see http://www.natureiraq. undertaking scientific collaboration of survey and data collection. org/site/en/ node/313). and communication with international The group also participated in the first For the last two weeks of the a r c h a e o l o g i c a l expedition, there were i n s t i t u t i o n s . O n e two media crews who of the goals of the documented the work five-week expedition and the interactions was to reopen the among the joint team scientific gate of members. One crew cooperation that had was from official been closed by the Iraqi TV and the former Iraqi regime, other was a team a n d t o r e b u i l d of filmmakers and c u l t u r a l b r i d g e s journalists including between Iraqis and M i c a h G a r e n their international a n d M a r i e - H e l e n colleagues. Carlton. The latter A second goal of the crew documented expedition was to use the excavation and modern techniques made a documentary in archaeology, such called “Digging Out: as satellite imagery, Archaeology Makes remote sensing, and Figure 7.1. Field work at Sakhariya (Photo credit: Paul Zimansky) a Comeback in Iraq.” PAGE 18 TAARII NEWSLETTER

Figure 7.2. Map showing location of Sakhariya (Photo credit: Abdulamir Hamdani)

For more information, please visit On the last day of the expedition, we the joint Iraqi-American project at Tell http://www.fourcornersmedia.net/Four_ visited additional archaeological sites Sakhariya will lead to important and Corners_Media/Home.html. north of Ur, including Lagash (Tell al- significant work that will shed light Several days before the end of the Hiba), Girsu (Tello), Shmit, and Umma on the very critical — but not well- season, the Iraqi Writers Union in (Tell Chokha). documented — period in Mesopotamian Dhiqar province held an event at the Throughout the expedition, we were history, namely, the end of Old cultural center in Nasiriya. This event supported by the Iraqi government Babylonian period through the early included the opening of a fine arts (represented by the National Security Kassite period. After an analysis of gallery and the dedication of a statue Council), which provided visas for the bones and plant remains that have been of the late Taha Baqer, a very famous international team; the governorate recovered from the site and extracted Iraqi archaeologist. In addition, Dr. of Dhiqar, which furnished us with by floatation, Dr. Elizabeth Stone Irene Winter of Harvard University, the required logistics; and on top of will write a more detailed site report. one of the expedition team members, that, the local people who were really Moreover, this project will be one of gave a lecture about the relations very friendly, hospitable, and — most the promising steps in the new direction between art and environment in importantly — accepting of foreigners. of Iraqi archaeology, from destruction Sumerian arts. Overall, the coming four years of to construction.

Figure 7.3. The whole team with laborers at the site of Figure 7.4. The team during a visit to the Central Marshes Sakhariya (Photo credit: Micah Garen and near Chabaish (Photo credit: Jasim al-Asadi Marie-Helene Carlton [Four Corners Media]) [Iraq Nature Organization]) SPRING 2012 PAGE 19

Tell Sakhariya Project Members

Elizabeth C. Stone, Director Paul E. Zimansky, Co-Director Saleem Khalaf Unaied, Representative of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage Ali Kadim Ghanim, Representative of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage Wasan Abdulsahib Isa, Representative of the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage Abdulamir Hamdani, Team Member Irene Winter, Team Member John McGinnis, Team Member Demetrios Brellas, Team Member Stephanie Rost, Team Member

Figure 7.5. The team on the central staircase of the Figure 7.6. Poster of the cultural event and statue of Taha Ziggurat of Ur (Photo credit: Micah Garen and Baqir (Photo credit: Amir D. Jasim Marie-Helene Carlton [Four Corners Media] [Sindibad Bureau for Media])

Figure 7.8. Mr. Qais Hussein Rasheed, chairman of the SBAH, visiting the site of Sakhariya and listening to the explanation of Dr. Elizabeth Stone, director of the Sakhariya excavation. From left to right: Abbas Fadhel Al-Ubaidi, director of excavation department at SBAH; Saleem Khalaf, director of archaeological Figure 7.7. Conducting a systematic survey of investigations at SBAH; Mr. Qais Hussein Rasheed; and Muhsin collecting surface assemblages Ali, deputy director of the Iraqi Museum (Photo credit: Stephanie Rost) (Photo credit: Saleem K. Unaied) PAGE 20 TAARII NEWSLETTER

• TAARII’S INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS •

American Schools of Oriental Research Harvard University University of Arizona Hofstra University British Institute for the Study of Iraq Indiana State University Brown University University of Maryland, College Park University of California, Berkeley National University of Singapore New York University University of California, Santa Barbara University of Notre Dame University of Chicago University of Pennsylvania Museum Columbia University Portland State University Duke University-University of North Rutgers University Carolina Consortium for Middle East Smithsonian Institution Studies State University of New York, George Washington University Stony Brook Georgetown University Williams College

THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE KURDISTAN REGION OF IRAQ

Jason Ur, Harvard University

American forces have made their final in connection with an international the Assyrian city of Qasr Shemamok departure from Iraq, and the country conference. The visit gave me the and saw a range of important places, has seen increasing stability since the opportunity to see the region for myself both ancient (Erbil, Khinis, and worst days of 2005. After a gap of with an eye toward future research, and Bastora) and modern (Sulaimaniya, almost ten years (and for Americans, to get a sense of the possibilities of Dohuk, and Halabja). more than two decades), foreign intellectual and academic collaboration For the first time in decades, archaeological research is resuming. with local scholars. I met with Director archaeological research in the In the south, where sporadic violence General of Antiquities for the Kurdistan Kurdistan Region is flourishing. still continues, some intrepid American Regional Government (KRG) Mala From October 31–November 2, and Italian missions are returning. Awat, the directors of the Departments Salahaddin University hosted the The greatest resurgence, however, of Antiquities for all four of the KRG’s first International Meeting on Iraqi has been in the Kurdistan Region of provinces (Erbil, Sulaimaniya, Dohuk, Archaeology (IMIA), organized Iraq (hereafter the Kurdistan Region), and Garmyan), and President of the with the Institut Français du Proche- comprising the northern provinces of State Board of Antiquities and Heritage Orient (IFPO) and the State Board of Erbil, Sulaimaniya, and Dohuk. Since Qais Rashid. In addition, I met with the Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH) in 1991, it has been administered in a governors of Erbil and Sulaimaniya Baghdad. Participants were treated semi-autonomous fashion, and has and First Lady of Iraq Hero Talabani. to three full days of presentations on almost entirely escaped the post-2003 At Salahaddin University in Erbil, current and planned archaeological violence that swept the south. I was received by the president, research, museum renovations, and This overview stems from a short vice presidents, and the chair of the monument conservation. Many visit to the Kurdistan Region in Archaeology Department. I spent a projects in the Kurdistan Region late October and November 2011, week as part of the French Mission to projects were presented, generally by SPRING 2012 PAGE 21 foreign directors, and there was a large contingent of Iraqi archaeologists from the south, including the SBAH Director Qais Rashid. Impressive fieldwork is ongoing in the southern provinces, but remains unknown to international scholarship because of continuing difficulties that Iraqis have with gaining visas for international travel. In Erbil, a Czech project has investigated the citadel and a German project is excavating a cemetery and a Late Assyrian residential area in the western lower town, within the fabric of the modern city. Of the core Assyrian cities, Erbil is least known archaeologically, and these works represent substantial advances. At the fringes of the rapidly expanding city, Figure 8.1. The International Meeting on Iraqi Archaeology (IMIA), held at two small sites are being salvaged by Salahaddin University in Erbil. (Photo credit: Jason Ur) Polish and Greek teams; the former, the site of Kilik Mishk, is doubling have a smattering of collections heritage in the Kurdistan Region are as training for Salahaddin University from local sites (e.g., in Erbil, a nice being preserved and developed. First archaeology students. Near Erbil, a collection of artifacts from the late and foremost is the ambitious project French team has initiated a major 5th/early 4th millennium site of Qalinj to conserve and restore traditional project at Qasr Shemamok (ancient Agha, upon which the museum sits), mud brick architecture on Erbil’s Kilizu), an Assyrian provincial capital, but generally their collections are the citadel; when completed, visitors will and a team from Leiden University is result of an attempt at constructing a have the unparalleled experience of excavating a Middle Assyrian city at single national past under the former moving through a city with standing Satu Qala on the Lesser Zab River. regime, which installed a representative architecture of the late Ottoman In Sulaimaniya province, there are no sample of Sumerian and Babylonian Period through the 1950s. In western fewer than three archaeological surveys artifacts in all provincial museums. Erbil, the Mudhafariya Minaret has underway: two German and one French. Sulaimaniya has plans for a complete been magnificently conserved and Excavations are proceeding at the Late reinstallation of its collections in the anchors a well-maintained park. These Antique fortified site of Bazyan and the coming years. projects have been planned and carried large multi-period mound of Bakrawa A particularly successful — albeit out by foreign specialists, but local (CNRS and Heidelberg University, unheralded — story is the state of departments of antiquities are also respectively). More excavations are conservation. Housed in the former undertaking work, for example, at planned by a University of Reading Erbil Public Library is the Iraqi Institute the monumental Neo-Assyrian reliefs team in the Dokan region. Under the for the Conservation of Antiquities and at Khinis. Here one can perceive an leadership of Kamal Rasheed, the Heritage (IICAH). It was initiated with emerging conflict between foreign Sulaimaniya Directorate has undertaken American Embassy funds, but now it consultants and local antiquities salvage excavations at several small operates under funding from Baghdad officials over how these sites and sites threatened by the expansion of and the KRG. With academic oversight monuments are to be enjoyed. Khinis, the city. Finally, in Dohuk province, a from the University of Delaware, the for example, now has a modern new University of Udine survey project Walters Art Gallery, and the Winterthur monumental entryway, a parking lot, will investigate the Assyrian landscape, Museum, visiting lecturers from the and a stage and picnic facility; all three including the great canal systems for U.S. and Europe have trained over fifty of these elements sit atop the ancient Nineveh, starting in fall 2012. conservation professionals from twelve canal, which was the raison d’etre of I visited archaeological museums in Iraqi provinces since 2009. the monument itself. Furthermore, local Erbil and Sulaimaniya. Both museums The most visible elements of cultural landowners have constructed houses PAGE 22 TAARII NEWSLETTER overlooking the site, and a coffee noticed, and the Kurdistan Region is in the civilizations associated with house and picnic area upstream have developing at a breathtaking pace. speakers of non-Semitic languages, completely transformed the landscape Should the current internal status quo especially the Hurrians, the Mitanni, of the site. This conflict between persevere in Iraq, this may be the start and the Medes, and a definite lack cultural heritage and private property of a real flourish for archaeology in the of identification with the Semitic- will emerge frequently in the future, Kurdistan Region, and one that will speaking ancient Assyrians. The as the Kurdistan Region continues hopefully expand to the whole of Iraq. exception is, of course, among the to develop and its cities continue to This comes at an opportune time, since sizable Assyrian Christian community. expand. this burst of economic development In the Erbil suburb of Ainkawa, At present, only a few American throughout the country will come with for example, ancient Assyrian scholars are participating in this major costs to its cultural heritage. iconography can be found in and on renaissance. One American project Iraqi are proud of the new nearly every house, shop, and church. has begun at Tell Sakhariya, a small society they have built over the Indeed, the main street into Ankawa site near Ur (see p. 17), and a few last two decades, yet they seem runs past the enormous new Lamassu Americans have been involved remarkably open to writing their Hotel, named after the human-headed with other foreign projects. This history together with foreign scholars. winged bull that flanked doorways situation seems surprising for the The past is inescapably embedded in in Assyrian palaces. Regardless of Kurdistan Region, given the warm the politics of the present, however, whom they identify as their ancestors, and encouraging welcome that I and the Kurdistan Region is no we must hope that all groups in the received; in neighboring countries, exception. In informal conversations Kurdistan Region will appreciate that official responses to Americans with professional archaeologists they are jointly the stewards of its long have varied between indifference, and especially the next generation and ethnically diverse history. suspicion, and outright hostility. All of students, it is clear that there Many individuals helped make this government officials expressed a has been a shift in which pasts are trip a success, several of whom I must desire for collaborative research with most valued. There is great interest name directly. First and foremost, American teams and scholars, Najat Abdullah, director of especially if they opened Community and Culture for doors for more general the KRG’s Washington, D.C., academic collaborations and Representation was my escort exchanges. A perception of and cheerful companion insecurity is almost certainly throughout my visit. Olivier the reason for American Rouault and Maria Grazia reluctance. The security Masetti-Rouault, co-directors landscape is inescapable: of the French Mission to Qasr roadside checkpoints ring Shemamok, invited me to towns and cities, and join their project and shared armed security personnel their experiences. David and concrete blast walls Michelmore, principal of the are common sights. This Consultancy for Conservation landscape is disconcerting, and Development in Erbil, but it is not accompanied shared his home and his by violence. The Kurdistan unparalleled knowledge of Region in general, and Erbil the Erbil citadel. Jessica in particular, has become a Johnson, academic director haven of normality for Iraqi of University of Delaware Kurds and Arabs alike, for Programs at the IICAH, shopping and vacations. offered friendly advice and an Large families on holiday in entrée into the intellectually cars with Baghdad license Figure 8.2. The author at the rock relief of the Assyrian king vibrant expatriate community plates are a very frequent Sennacherib (704–681 B.C.) at Khinis in Dohuk province. in Erbil. I am truly grateful to sight. Investors have also (Photo credit: Jason Ur) all of them. SPRING 2012 PAGE 23

Figure 8.3. (Left) Rock relief attributed to Naram-Sin, King of Akkad (ca. 2254–2218 b.c.), at Darband-i Gawr near Sulaimaniya. (Photo credit: Jason Ur)

Figure 8.4. (Above) Qasr Shemamok, the ancient Assyrian city of Kilizu, near Erbil. The massive 40 m high citadel (at right) is surrounded by a 50 hectare walled lower town (left). This site, excavated by a French expedition, is one of many in the new renaissance of archaeological research in . (Photo credit: Jason Ur)

Figure 8.5. (Right) The western face of the Qaradagh mountains in Sulaimaniya province. (Photo credit: Jason Ur) TAARIIPAGE 24 TAARII NEWSLETTER The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq 3923 28th St., #389 • Grand Rapids, MI 49512 Ph. (773) 844-9658 • www.taarii.org

In this Issue “Modern Art in Iraq” 1 “Iraq’s Artistic Heritage” Niralee Shah et al. 4 “President’s Report” McGuire Gibson 5 2012 U.S. Fellowship Recipients 6 “Excavator of the Assyrian Queens’ Tombs Tours U.S.” 8 “TAARII Represented at Oral History Workshop in Istanbul, Turkey” ABOUT TAARII Lucine Taminian 9 TAARII has been formed by a consortium of universities, “Gender and Citizenship in Modern colleges, and museums, which comprise its institutional Iraq” Orit Baskin 10 membership. Each institution names a person to “Research at the Iraqi National Library act as its representative on the Board of Directors. and Archives” Alda Benjamin 13 Individual Members elect additional Directors. The “A Great Man in a Great Land” Officers and the Board of Directors are charged with A. Hadi Al Khalili 15 assuring academic integrity, organizational oversight, “Excavation at Tell Sakhariya in Dhiqar and financial and programmatic accountability. Province in Southern Iraq” Abdulamir Hamdani 17 TAARII is a non-governmental organization “The Present and Future of Archaeology and is incorporated in the state of Illinois as in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq” a not for profit organization and has 501(c)3 Jason Ur 20 status with the Internal Revenue Service.