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Home , Fast of Nineveh, Heather Raffo, Iraq Petroleum Company, Little Zab, Masgouf, Samoon

McGuire Proscenium Stage / Jan 11 – Feb 16, 2020

Noura by HEATHER RAFFO directed by TAIBI MAGAR PLAY GUIDE Inside

THE PLAY Synopsis, Setting and Characters • 4 Responses to Noura • 5

THE PLAYWRIGHT About Heather Raffo •7 In Her Own Words • 8 After the Door Slams: An Interview With Heather Raffo •9

CULTURAL CONTEXT The Long Sweep of History: A Selected Timeline of the Land That Is Now • 12 What’s What: A Selected Glossary of Terms in Noura • 19 Iraq: Ripped From the Headlines • 22 Chaldean Christians • 24 Meet Cultural Consultant Shaymaa Hasan • 25

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For Further Reading and Understanding • 27

Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2020

DRAMATURG Carla Steen GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves CONTRIBUTORS Shaymaa Hasan, Daisuke Kawachi, Heather Raffo, Carla Steen Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 EDITOR Johanna Buch

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2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PHOTO: GAMZE CEYLAN, KAL NAGA, LAYAN ELWAZANI, AARYA BATCHU AND FAJER KAISI IN NOURA (DAN NORMAN) “In letting go of the burden of silence — you open a door. Or maybe you close a door. Either way it’s a place from which you never return.”

– Noura to Rafa’a in Noura

About This Guide

This play guide is designed to fuel up on a play before you see it DIG DEEPER your curiosity and deepen your onstage. Or perhaps you’re a fellow If you are a theater company understanding of a show’s history, theater company doing research and would like more meaning and cultural relevance for an upcoming production. information about this so you can make the most of your We’re glad you found your way production, contact Resident theatergoing experience. You might here, and we encourage you to Dramaturg Carla Steen at be reading this because you fell in dig in and mine the depths of this [email protected]. love with a show you saw at the extraordinary story. Guthrie. Maybe you want to read

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PHOTO: GAMZE CEYLAN AND AARYA BATCHU IN NOURA (DAN NORMAN) Synopsis

Having fled their native Iraq years ago, Noura, her husband Tareq and their son Yazen live in as newly minted U.S. citizens. Their SETTING New York City. Christmas Eve, passports now carry their Americanized names — Nora, Tim and Alex — 2016. but Noura is uncomfortable with the change. She’s restless on Christmas Eve yet looking forward to a modest gathering of family and friends for Christmas dinner. She finally gets to meet Maryam, an Iraqi orphan she’s CHARACTERS Noura, an architect originally sponsored, who is visiting during a break from her graduate studies at from , Iraq. Now Stanford. Rounding out the guest list is Noura’s childhood friend Rafa’a. an immigrant living in New York City. When Maryam arrives ahead of schedule to drop off gifts, Noura is dismayed to discover that Maryam is pregnant — and unapologetic. Tareq, her husband, originally Maryam planned the pregnancy and wants the baby because she’s from . A former never had a family of her own. Noura is shocked at Maryam’s brazenness surgeon in Iraq. Now an and worries how Tareq will react. On Christmas, Noura must face past emergency room hospitalist in secrets, figure out how, or if, to move forward when she’s caught New York City. between two countries and determine what sacrifice is necessary to Rafa’a, Noura’s childhood make movement possible. neighbor from Mosul and a close family friend. An OB-GYN. Yazen, Noura and Tareq’s very American son. Maryam, a graduate student in physics studying at Stanford. Also originally from Mosul.

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Responses to Noura

Identity is the hottest topic in American theater these days, just as immigration is the hottest topic in American politics. But Heather Raffo’s “Noura,” a drama about a family of Iraqi Catholics who have fled to America to escape the “medieval madmen” (as one character calls them) who now rule their native land, is nothing like the issue-driven, stridently politicized plays about these subjects with which our stages are currently clogged. While “Noura” is palpably political, it preaches no sermons, PHOTO: FAJER KAISI AND GAMZE CEYLAN IN NOURA (DAN NORMAN) nor will it send you home inspired to do anything in particular. Part 2,” a variation on Ibsen’s 1879 life while simultaneously mourning Instead, Ms. Raffo has given us a tale of the feminist liberation of the loss of the “dying identity” human drama, the searing story of Nora Helmer. Noura is no less with which she admits to being five people who find themselves desperate to free herself from the “obsessed.” Hers is the exile’s fate, caught between the pulverizing dead hand of the past, crushed to be neither one thing nor the grindstones of politics and religion. as she is by “the weight of being other, and part of the dark beauty If it’s propaganda you seek, go erased. Of not belonging anymore. of “Noura” is that it shows us what elsewhere — but should you do so, Anywhere.” But … Ms. Raffo has she stands to lose by setting sail on you’ll miss one of the finest new given us a free-standing, fully the sea of freedom. plays I’ve ever reviewed in independent work of art, one which this space. … acknowledges that there can be Terry Teachout, “‘Noura’: The Weight of no easy answers for Noura, much Being Erased,” The Wall Street Journal, hinted by the title, “Noura” is, less her family, as she seeks to December 21, 2018 like Lucas Hnath’s “A Doll’s House, negotiate the thin ice of American

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In Heather Raffo’s play “Noura,” a family of Iraqi refugees in New York struggle with displacement, loss, post-traumatic stress and decades-old secrets on a snowy Christmas Eve.

The Brooklyn playwright based her 90-minute drama … on the classic Norwegian drama “A Doll’s House.” Yet while the lead characters and several plot elements were clearly inspired by Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, the inspiration proves an uneven fit.

In “A Doll’s House,” the lead character Nora is unfairly caged by the strict societal mores expected

PHOTO: AKSHAY KRISHNA AND GAMZE CEYLAN IN NOURA (DAN NORMAN) of 19th-century women. But the title character in “Noura” is trapped The name is no accident. “Noura” The story is barely Ibsen, though in the prison of her own mind. … is in part a response to “A Doll’s you recognize Ibsen’s Nora as House,” the Ibsen classic in which Raffo’s title character sneaks a Raffo, whose father grew up in Nora Helmer shocked the world cigarette. For Nora, the stolen Iraq, worked for three years with by leaving her husband — and pleasure was macaroons, but Arab-American women in New her children — in a flight of self- Noura’s husband, Tareq, isn’t nearly York to develop the 2018 play. That discovery. Still, this is no homage or the forbidding puppet master of lends great detail and color to the sequel. Ms. Raffo isn’t as interested the Ibsen drama. … memories, job challenges, traditions in the plot that led Nora to slam the and daily lives of the five fictional famous door on Torvald as in what The easygoing dialogue provides characters in “Noura,” who are she lost in the process. No wonder a nice window into middle-class Christian and Muslim immigrants Noura is obsessed with doors, both immigrant lives too seldom seen from Mosul and Baghdad. as an architect and a refugee: on U.S. stages. Noura’s Iraqi roots After allowing you exit they shut are deep, so she and Tareq have Pam Kragen, “‘Noura’ has tough act of you out. … sponsored Maryam, a college-age balancing past, present,” The San Diego woman fleeing the Islamic State. … Union-Tribune, September 29, 2019 This is a loving, productive family, adjusting well to snow and subways The finish is torrential, and the (both the transportation and the portrait of a woman torn between sandwich shop). Whether called cultures and family members is Tareq or Tim, Noura’s husband nearly searing. … But “Noura,” too, is no Torvald; he has a modern has tragic dimension, and even disposition and seems comfortable with its New York City setting, its catering to his wife. Alex, despite evocation of a shattered Iraq his jones for Minecraft, is not is haunting. so Americanized as to sass his parents too harshly or renounce the Nelson Pressley, “‘Noura’ is the best premiere pleasures of cuddling. of the Women’s Voices Theater Festival,” The Washington Post, February 14, 2018 Jesse Green, “In ‘Noura,’ an Iraqi Refugee Leaves More Than Home Behind,” The New York Times, December 10, 2018

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belonging for veterans and their families as well as .

Noura is Raffo’s most recent play, having its origins in a series of workshops she led for Epic Theatre Ensemble. Working with three communities of Arab American women in New York, Raffo helped the participants craft narratives about their personal journeys. When she introduced them to Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, they found Nora Helmer’s story resonated with their own. Noura premiered at Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., in 2018.

As an actor, Raffo has been seen at the New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Epic Theatre Ensemble, Skirball Cultural Center, Fulton Opera House, The Acting Company and The Old Globe as well as in the feature film Vino Veritas.

Raffo has had residencies at Vassar College and in the Department of Performing Arts at Georgetown University. She has taught and About Heather Raffo performed at dozens of universities and arts centers both in the U.S. and internationally, engaging Heather Raffo is the solo performer off-West End where critics hailed students about the politics and and writer of the off-Broadway hit it as one of the five best plays in arts of Iraq and about her own 9 Parts of Desire, which details the in late 2003. The show ran experience as an Iraqi American lives of nine Iraqi women. For 9 for nine months off-Broadway at playwright and actor. Parts, Raffo garnered many awards, the Manhattan Ensemble Theater, including a Lucille Lortel Award has been performed all over the Raffo received her B.A. in English and the prestigious Susan Smith U.S., including at the Guthrie in from the University of and Blackburn and Marian Seldes- March 2008, and has had her M.F.A. in Acting Performance Garson Kanin playwriting awards, numerous international from the University of San Diego. as well as Helen Hayes, Outer productions and translations. She also studied at the Royal Critics Circle and Drama Academy of Dramatic Art in League nominations for Raffo created the libretto for London. Originally from Michigan, outstanding performance. Falluljah, an opera about the Iraq Raffo currently lives in New York. War, with music by Tobin Stokes. Her father is from Iraq and her Raffo first performed 9 Parts of The opera details the life of a U.S. mother is American. Desire in 2003 at the Traverse Marine who served in Fallujah in Theatre in Edinburgh; it later moved 2004 and relates the haunting Sourced and edited from to the Bush Theatre in London’s experiences of identity and www.heatherraffo.com

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 7 CULTURALTHE PLAYWRIGHT CONTEXT In Her Own Words

I worked with these young women Where this play came out of very much the relationship between over a three-year period, and for me, is that I’m middle-aged mothering and marriage, modern ultimately, I realized I’d been sitting and a mother with two kids. I marriage. … on my own aggravation in relation was watching twenty-year-olds to the play [A Doll’s House]. I was navigating A Doll’s House, and Each person has a different as tired of watching Nora Helmer hardly any of them were addressing threshold. Some people immigrate be the beacon of feminist thought the motherhood issues; and all I and really identify with the place as I was watching Torvald stand in could see in A Doll’s House were they’re at, and they talk about for a husband. The women I know the motherhood issues. ... it. … And then there are people don’t run around acting smaller that are in a constant war with than they are, sneaking chocolates In our discussions about A Doll’s themselves about what they miss and barely parenting their House, we talked about things and why. That is something I was children. Yet women all around in the script that made us mad. really working with in the play. me, in strong marriages, with truly Like “I hate it when she does Some characters like the husband great husbands, were drowning. this”; “Why is their relationship were okay. He was happy to be A different conflict between like this?” ... You know how you here. The wife couldn’t grasp it. individualism and community was get riled up by things? One of the That was true of the workshops I playing out before my eyes, not just things I was constantly riled up by led. Each woman in the workshop as an Arab American but also as was, “Where are the kids?” In our would have a completely different modern wife and mother. … process, nobody was attempting an relationship to where they identify. adaptation; nobody even worried I am an artist, a mother, a wife and about the end product actually Heather Raffo, quoted in “Heather Raffo on an American woman with Middle relating to the Ibsen. It was purely Noura” by Heather Denyer, Arab Stages, Fall Eastern heritage. This play came an exercise in perceiving the play 2016 out of the shifting awareness that that would light a fire in us and get unfolds when any one of a person’s us to talk about the things we really many identities demands growth. needed to talk about. So mine was As we strive to grow, sometimes one aspect of ourselves calls out PHOTO: LAYAN ELWAZANI AND GAMZE CEYLAN IN NOURA (DAN NORMAN) above others. This play is not unrelated to the ever-present questions I hear talked about in my Brooklyn parenting circles: Can women be fully realized in all of their roles? Can they belong equally in each? Or is it inevitable that having a career, being a wife, a mother, a daughter, perhaps to aging parents — that one of these roles will become unsustainable? In the demand of playing roles for so many others, it is inevitable that we question who we really are ourselves?

Heather Raffo, “Playwright’s Perspective: Noura,” www.heatherraffo.com

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After the Door Slams: An Interview With Heather Raffo

By Johanna Buch Writer and Publications Editor

PHOTO: LAUREN B. PHOTOGRAPHY

The moment I asked playwright Heather Raffo my first question, snowflakes began falling gently outside, as if on cue. “Look at the snow being perfect!” she exclaimed. “It’s my play! It’s Noura!” In the script’s opening lines, Noura recalls a snowfall on a cold day in Mosul, her former home and a city that still has her heart. Raffo knows this feeling well as the daughter of an Iraqi immigrant, and she explores it with tenacity and depth in her latest play, Noura. We covered rich ground during our chat, but two things stood out: her passion for storytelling and her insatiable quest for truth.

JOHANNA BUCH: Here I am just write what I might do in a HR: It can be overwhelming to have interviewing you, yet you are a given situation. As an actor, that’s all that information sitting in your seasoned interviewer! Your work, where my muscle lies. When brain, but it eventually works its including Noura, is often born I’m preparing for a role, I study way out. Before I wrote Noura, I from years of research. Why are people and pick up on things. I do had been working with a group of conversations a gateway into the same thing in my writing. It’s Arab American women in Queens, your writing? studied. It’s researched. New York, for four years without intending to write anything. When HEATHER RAFFO: I never assume JB: Once you have a giant pile I realized how much of my own that I know what I think I know. of notes, what comes next? How story intersected with theirs — Embedding myself in a community do you transform a multitude of motherhood, marriage, Mosul, through deep conversation helps conversations, people and stories feeling uprooted — I sat down to me uncover what is true and not into a single play? write, and the play flew out of me.

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JB: How did the women feel about you sharing their stories through Noura? Was there an openness or did you receive pushback?

HR: There was more pushback with 9 Parts of Desire, which was written and produced during a time when Middle Eastern people weren’t on stages, there wasn’t an Iraqi female protagonist in the PHOTO: MARITA MEINERTS ALBINSON

English language and what I was Director Taibi Magar with the cast of Noura. Pictured (left to right): saying was hugely taboo. But I’m Taibi Magar, Layan Elwazani, Fajer Kaisi, Gamze Ceylan and Kal Naga. always careful to composite stories Not pictured: Aarya Batchu and Akshay Krishna. and hide exposing details in my work. Here’s what I’ve learned over the years: Once people see what theater can do and how audiences JB: I hear you have some with different communities and respond, they want to talk to you. connections with the cast. me listening to the zeitgeist of their Any resistance or fear or secrets what it’s like having familiar faces conversations is fascinating. they may have held before are in the play. replaced by an urgent desire to tell JB: Food is a focal point in their stories. HR: Fajer Kaisi, who plays Tareq, Noura like it is in many families, was in The Old Globe production especially during the holidays. JB: How did you wind up reading of Noura last fall and some of the Why was it important to bring Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House initial workshops. As a fellow Iraqi food to the forefront? during your workshops in Queens? American actor, I can artistically confide in Fajer in the most HR: A holiday meal is Noura’s way HR: When Ron Russell, the profound of ways. I also worked of getting everyone she loves in founder of Epic Theatre Ensemble, with Gamze Ceylan, who plays the same place at the same time. suggested the idea to me, I realized Noura, when I was leading the She isn’t a great cook, but she’s a that love stories about workshops in Queens. The women great architect. So the meal isn’t the door slam. They’re incredibly had written scenes in response to about making the food — it’s about satisfying. But they don’t like A Doll’s House, and Gamze was designing the moment. stories that explore what happens our lead actor, so she was already after the door slam. The women in inside the process of Noura. She JB: I love how we see Noura’s my workshops were in their 20s, loved these women and they loved architectural mind at work and they had fled or lived through her. It was powerful for everyone. during the play, but you can also atrocities that made A Doll’s see her struggling to believe House look trivial in comparison. JB: You’ve played the role of Noura that her dreams and visions Each of them had emigrated from in several productions. How does will be realized. their former country to America, it feel watching another actor and all they wanted to talk about embody her? HR: Individualism isn’t common in was, “Then what?” That’s why Middle Eastern cultures, so if you’re the play was so interesting to HR: It’s great because I get to a visionary like Noura and your discuss — not because I thought see the play from a distance. The capabilities are suppressed, it’s Middle Eastern women should rehearsal process is faster when extremely painful. When you visit a know Ibsen. I’m tired of A Doll’s I act what I’ve written, but things building like the Guthrie, you realize House being produced on stages slow down in tech or previews that architecture moves in a certain all over the world to comment on because I can’t sit in the house and way. If they hadn’t done this or modern feminism. What comes see what needs to be done. I enjoy that, things would look and move after Nora Helmer slams the watching different productions differently. Noura’s brain is wired to door feels like a better space for and considering them from the think like that. Every. Day. She can’t feminist discussion. outside. Seeing how the play lands stop. The late Zaha Hadid, an Iraqi

10 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAYWRIGHT who is arguably the greatest architect in the world, was my constant touchstone for Noura. Zaha didn’t have kids or over-worry about Iraq. To attain her dreams, she had to be a rugged individualist with a Western mindset and focus on nothing but her career. If you are like Noura — worried about your country, community, kids and family — how do you carry those PHOTO: LAUREN B. PHOTOGRAPHY worries while also being a visionary and implementing your vision? HR: I think Noura redefines who it looks like. The idea that Iraq is JB: The East-West contrast we’re comfortable thinking of a bellwether for America is very between individualism and as refugees. The play shows a unsettling, but Noura poses that. community seems to be the crux family of progressive intellectuals Across all communities, there is a of the play. Why set this conflict with a mother who is a visionary woven fabric of thousands of years within a family? architect. A family like this makes of history that is more than the sum people very uncomfortable, even of any past wars or discriminations. HR: That’s where I feel the most though you’d think the opposite. But that fabric is being torn apart pressure personally. My career had The national narrative around in a manmade, purposeful way. to take a big hit in order to have migrants and refugees is polarized Consider the Iraqi family in Noura: kids. I was willing to do it, but I into either victim or enemy. So There’s nothing but love on that often wondered why it had to be portraying a family that doesn’t stage, but by the end of the play, that way. I have great husband, sit in either camp is challenging everyone might walk out. If this is so it wasn’t about that. It’s just for everybody. happening in a loving family, what the way things are structured. is going on with us? We can’t undo My dad came to the U.S. in the JB: Your illumination of the the past, but we can examine why 1960s, and he was the only one of refugee narrative has resonated things are the way they are and try nine brothers and sisters to leave with audiences and critics alike, to build toward a better future. Iraq. He said he was just going for as evidenced by Noura winning college, but then he met my mom, the Charles MacArthur Award for JB: One of my graduate professors married her and stayed. And he Outstanding New Play. Congrats! said that the best endings is so happy, as though America is have both a sense of closure exactly where he needed to be. HR: Believe it or not, I got the news and a sense of beginning. Will Yet none of his siblings wanted when I was at home doing dishes. audiences experience this after any part of that. Everyone has a [laughs] It felt like such a gift in seeing Noura? different threshold for when — that moment! or if — they’re going to leave a HR: If there is an ending, it’s that place, community or situation, JB: I’d love to see a photo of you life as Noura knew it has ended. All whether it’s by choice or when holding the award with soapy her secrets are out in the open and circumstances are dire. In Noura, dishwashing gloves. that’s good. If there is a beginning, that threshold plays out differently it’s that Noura is asking the same for each character. HR: Yes, let’s make that happen! question the women in Queens were asking: “Then what?” She JB: At first rehearsal, Artistic JB: In all seriousness, why do you knows the answer will require some Director Joseph Haj commented think Noura hits so close to home? kind of sacrifice. She clearly loves that many Americans have a her friends and family, but she’s limited view of the Arab world. HR: I think belonging is something intrigued by what she might find How might Noura expand or every human being considers. if she walks away. Either way, it’s redefine these perceptions? It’s always vibrating within us, Noura’s move. and I think we will forever long for belonging and question what

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The Long Sweep of History: A Selected Timeline of the Land That Is Now Iraq

YEAR EVENT Take and read out from the lapis lazuli 3500–3000 B.C.E. Height of Sumerian civilization in tablet how Gilgamesh went through every hardship. Supreme over other . Sumerians produce cuneiform, kings, lordly in appearance, he is the the earliest known form of written language, hero, born of Uruk, the goring wild develop agricultural techniques like bull. He walks out in front, the leader, and live communally in towns. and walks at the rear, trusted by his companions. Mighty net, protector of his people, raging flood-wave who 2340 B.C.E. Sargon I establishes the Akkadian dynasty. destroys even walls of stone! Offspring The Akkadians are a Semitic people, and of Lugalbanda, Gilgamesh is strong Sargon becomes Mesopotamia’s first emperor to perfection, son of the august cow, as he begins blending Semitic and Sumerian Rimat-Ninsun; ... Gilgamesh is awesome civilizations. The Akkadian dynasty falls in to perfection. 2190 to a neighboring tribe. – The Epic of Gilgamesh, dating to approximately 2000 B.C., about the 1792 B.C.E. Hammurabi, an Amorite, establishes the Sumerian king who ruled circa 2700 B.C. kingdom of , with a capital in Babylon, 55 miles south of modern-day Baghdad. Hammurabi creates one of the world’s first legal systems, The Code of The Hammurabi Code is only a stage in Hammurabi. the juridical tradition of Mesopotamia, but it is a particularly significant one. In 1595 B.C.E. The Hittites invade Babylon and destroy the the Babylonia of the great kings, under first Babylonian dynasty. The Kassites later the aegis of a prosperous and powerful state, literature, art, and economic take up residence. and social organization flourish as never before; and, as never before, the 1500 B.C.E. The Kassites sign a treaty with the Assyrians Sumerian heritage and the Semitic to define their borders. From this point, lower contribution achieve a harmonious Mesopotamia is considered Babylonia, while synthesis. For this reason, the times is known as . of Hammurabi constitute the acme of Babylonian and Assyrian civilization; and the great king, warrior and 1365–1208 B.C.E. Assyria launches numerous military campaigns diplomat, builder of temples and digger to conquer the region. Babylonia finally falls to of canals, personifies this civilization Tiglath-Pileser I of Assyria in 1115 B.C.E. better than any other.

– Sabatino Moscati, “A Modern 1078 B.C.E. Aramean invade from , defeat Hammurabi,” Makers of the Western Assyria and divide Babylonia into smaller Tradition: Portraits from History, edited states. by J. Kelley Sowards

731 B.C.E. After conquering Babylon, Assyrian Tiglath- Pileser III names himself king of Babylonia.

689 B.C.E. Babylon revolts against Assyria; the Assyrians divert the River so it covers the site of the city.

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626 B.C.E. Aramaean rebels against failing Assyrian rule and declares himself king of a new Babylonian state.

605 B.C.E. Nebuchadnezzar II succeeds his father Nabopolassar and conquers Judah, beginning The king spake, and said, Is not this great Babylon, that I have built the Babylonian captivity of the Jews for the house of the kingdom by described in the Bible. His palace contained the might of my power, and for the the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king’s mouth, there fell a 539 B.C.E. Persian emperor Cyrus conquers Babylon. voice from heaven, saying, O king Nebuchadnez'zar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee. 331 B.C.E. defeats Darius III of Persia And they shall drive thee from men, and in a battle for Mesopotamia. Alexander dies thy dwelling shall be with the beasts in Babylon in 323 B.C., leaving his empire to of the field: they shall make thee to eat be divided among his generals. Seleucus I grass as oxen, and seven times shall receives Babylonia. pass over thee, until thou know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will. 305–64 B.C.E. Seleucid dynasty. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnez'zar. 209 B.C.E. Antiochus III of the Seleucids attacks Parthia. – Daniel 4:30-33, King James Version of the Holy Bible 144 B.C.E. Babylon falls to the , which places its capital in Ctesiphon, south of modern Baghdad.

116 C.E. Rome defeats Parthia and makes Mesopotamia one of its provinces. ca.200 C.E. Christian churches are established in Mesopotamia.

227 The new Persian empire of the Sassanids takes

over in Mesopotamia. Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Apostle of Allah 570 The Prophet of Islam, Mohammed, is born in and the Last of the prophets; and Allah Mecca. He dies in 632. His successor, known as is cognizant of all things. the first caliph of Islam, is Abu Bakr. – The Clans 33.40, The Holy Qur’an, translated by M.H. Shakir 642 defeat the Persians in Mesopotamia.

661 Caliph Ali, Mohammed’s nephew, is murdered. He is revered as the first leader of the Shi’a sect of Islam.

754 Abbasid Caliph Mansur begins reorganizing his Muslim empire. He moves the capital to Baghdad in 762.

786 The most famous Abbasid Caliph, Harun al- Rashid, comes to power. He is a prominent figure in Thousand and One Nights.

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During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the lands that were to become the territories of the modern state of Iraq were gradually incorporated 836–892 The seat of the Abbasid government is into the as three temporarily moved to in north central provinces, based on the town of Mosul, Iraq. Baghdad and Basra. The term al-‘Iraq (meaning the shore of a great river along its length, as well as the grazing land surrounding it) had been used 1258 The Mongols under the leadership of Genghis since at least the eighth century by Khan’s grandson sack and loot Baghdad and Arab geographers to refer the great end the . The Mongols ruled alluvial plain of the and Euphrates a united empire including Iraq, and much Rivers, a region known in Europe as Mesopotamia. It was here that the of until 1335. Ottoman sultans were extending their own domains during these years 1347–1350 The Black Plague hits the . and trying to check the ambitions of the Safavid shahs of Persia. Imperial 1401 The central Asian military leader Timur and doctrinal rivalries between the Sunni Ottomans and the Shi’i Safavids conquers Baghdad. touched the histories of the people of these frontier lands, requiring strategies 1501 The Shi’a Safavid Empire from Iran defeats the of accommodation or evasion from Timurid state. their leaders and affecting them in a variety of ways. The political world that 1514 The Turkish Ottoman Empire wages war resulted was a complex and fragmented one. against the Safavids. Iraq is the battleground

and eventually the spoils for the Ottoman – Charles Tripp, A , sultan. Iraq remains under Ottoman rule until London: Cambridge University . Press, 2000

1764 The first British outpost is established in Basra, followed by a second consulate in 1798 in Baghdad. The British use the Euphrates to [T]he Turkish Empire should be apportioned among the principal races transport mail from India to England. that inhabit it, which, by tradition, history, and their known fitness for self- 1899 A German company obtains a contract to government, are entitled to recognition build a railroad from Istanbul to Basra. among the Great Powers who, in the course of centuries, have fixed for themselves by common consent 1914 Britain invades southern Iraq after declaring spheres of influence. To wit: ... England war on the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

Bagdad...... 42,500 1915 Beginning of a genocide of Aramaic-speaking Basra...... 54,000 Assyrian, Chaldean and Syriac people in Hejaz...... 97,000 Turkey, Iran and Iraq by the Ottoman Empire ...... 75,000 Zor, or Mesopotamia, simultaneous to the Armenian genocide. west of Euphrates...... 20,000 Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire Moussoul, are almost destroyed. south of Little Zab ...... 15,000 TOTAL...... 808,500 1918 Armistice ends World War I. Iraq is carved out The right of England in the territories of the former Ottoman provinces of Mosul, assigned to her is well recognized Baghdad and Basra and mandated to the and, therefore, no additional comment British by the League of Nations. thereon is necessary.

1920 Iraq revolts against the British occupying forces. – “How Turkish Empire Should Be Made Over After the War,” by a student of Turkish affairs, The New York Times, January 24, 1915

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1921 Britain imports and installs King Faisal I of Syria as ruler in Iraq.

1927 Oil production reaches commercial levels in in northern Iraq.

1932 The British mandate ends. Although the British retain control of the Iraq Company and loom large in the political background, Iraq is officially an independent nation.

1941 Prime Minister Rashid Ali leads Iraq’s anti- British forces in war against the European power, but World War II stalls his quest for allies. Britain prevails and occupies Iraq for the duration of World War II.

1948–1949 Arab-Israeli War, in which fights with military forces from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and . Armistice agreements between Israel and each of the Arab states sets the frontier, and Israel secures its independence.

1958 Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt creates the United Arab Republic and a coup d’etat led by the pan-Arab Baath party overthrows Prime Minister Nuri Said in Iraq. The new ruler, Abdul Karim Qasim, soon abandons his pan-Arab ideals to embrace Iraq First thinking. In this new order, Saddam Husain played initially a minor, indeed almost a hidden, 1963 Qasim is overthrown by Abdus-Salam Arif, role. At the forefront of power was a who dies in a helicopter crash in 1966. He’s man of evident power and prestige. … succeeded by his brother Abdur-Rahman Arif. Saddam professed to be only his acolyte. … Both Arifs try to balance pan-Arab sympathies Coming from a poor, rural background, with the Baathists’ growing preference for Iraq he had little formal education. But driven from early adulthood to excel, he was First. The former Arif forms the Republican a voracious reader; with little taste for Guard and tries to end the civil war with the the “overview,” he delighted in detail; Kurds in the north. The latter Arif is forced to and with a phenomenal memory, he was give up on possible Kurdish independence. also a tireless organizer. … Through his efforts, even before he pushed General Bakr aside in 1979, the initially tiny Baath 1968 The Arif regime is overthrown in a bloodless coup would grow into a mass political party, by the Baathists. Hassan al-Bakr takes power, larger, proportional to the population, with waiting in the background. than Hitler’s Nazis, Mussolini’s Fascists, or Stalin’s Communists. 1972 Nationalization of the increases revenue from $1 billion in – William R. Polk, Understanding Iraq, New York: Harper, 2005 1973 to $26 billion in 1980.

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1979 Saddam Hussein assumes leadership of Iraq President Saddam Hussein of Iraq with the resignation of Hassan al-Bakr. announced in a speech published today that his country had invaded Iran’s northwestern province of . … 1980–1988 Iran-. Iran’s Ayatollah encourages Iraq’s Shi’as to rebel and shells Iraqi cities. Iraq In Teheran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gains Arab support and wants to recapture said today that Mr. Hussein had reached territory previously ceded to Iran. But the “a state of madness” in his quest for a war victory over Iran and “will go to hell most important cause of the war is likely soon.” that Iraq is a secular nation-state and Iran a

fundamentalist religious state. Between 1982 President Hussein said the Kurdistan and 1987, the Reagan administration in the U.S. invasion was intended to put more provides money, weapons and intelligence to military pressure on Iran to negotiate on Iraq while also selling missiles to Iran. Neither Iraq’s terms. He rejected any mediation that involved an Iraqi pullback in Iraq nor Iran wins the war. Khuzistan, Kurdistan or Iran’s western highlands before an “unequivocal 1990 Iraq invades Kuwait, claiming that the smaller Iranian recognition of full, active Iraqi nation’s high oil production is flooding the sovereignty over Shatt al Arab.” market and preventing Iraq from rebuilding its – “Iraq Invades Iran’s Kurdistan economy. Province, Extending Front Full Length of Border,” The New York Times, 1991 The United Nations calls for the withdrawal December 27, 1980 of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. After Iraq does not comply, the U.S. and allies invade. The resulting Persian lasts only a few months. Coalition forces quickly overpower the Iraqi army but fail to capture Saddam We were disappointed that Saddam’s Hussein. At the encouragement of the U.S., defeat did not break his hold on Shi’a and Kurdish forces revolt against power, as many of our Arab allies had Hussein’s government, but the U.S. fails to predicted and we had come to expect. support them and both revolts are bloodily The abortive uprising of the Shi’ites in suppressed. the south and the Kurds in the north did not spread to the Sunni population in central Iraq, and the Iraqi military 1991–1998 Following the war, an embargo is placed remained loyal. Critics claim that we on Iraq by the U.N., banning all imports and encouraged the separatist Shi’ites and exports and bringing the Iraqi people to near Kurds to rebel and then reneged on starvation. The regime change hoped for by a promise to aid them if they did so. President Bush repeatedly declared the U.S. does not occur. that the fate of Saddam Hussein was up to the Iraqi people. Occasionally 2001 September 11: Al-Qaeda terrorists hijack four he indicated that removal of Saddam U.S. airliners, flying two into the World Trade would be welcome, but for very Center towers in New York and one into the practical reasons there was never a Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The fourth promise to aid an uprising. While we hoped that a popular revolt or coup crashes in Pennsylvania after the passengers would topple Saddam, neither the apparently fought for control of the plane. United States nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the October: U.S. forces begin an invasion of Iraqi state. Afghanistan in response to the September 11 – George H.W. Bush and Brent hijackings, intending to flush out the Al-Qaeda Scowcraft, A World Transformed, New mastermind Osama bin Laden. York: Vintage Books, 1998

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2002 In his State of the Union address in January, We know Saddam Hussein pursued weapons of mass murder even when President George W. Bush draws a connection inspectors were in his country. Are between the terrorists in Afghanistan and we to assume that he stopped when growing terrorism elsewhere. He names an they left? The history, the logic, and “axis of evil” comprised of the regimes in the facts lead to one conclusion: North Korea, Iran and Iraq. Saddam Hussein’s regime is a grave and gathering danger. To suggest otherwise is to hope against the evidence. To assume this regime’s good faith is to 2003 The U.S. and coalition forces begin an invasion bet the lives of millions and the peace of Iraq, ostensibly because of suspicions of the world in a reckless gamble. And Hussein was developing weapons of mass this is a risk we must not take. destruction and could provide these weapons – George W. Bush, in an address to the to terrorists. Major fighting is over by May, U.N. General Assembly on September though guerrilla warfare continues. Saddam 12, 2002 Hussein is captured in December.

2004 The Coalition Provision Authority governs Iraq. Iraqi and U.S. military forces continue to battle insurgent fighters, including Al-Qaeda in Iraq and followers of the Shi’a cleric Muqtada al- All American troops were legally Sadr. obligated to leave by the end of the month, but President Obama, in 2005 January 30: Iraq holds a national election announcing in October the end of to send representatives to the new national military operations here, promised assembly and begin work on a constitution. that everyone would be home for the holidays. Jalal Talabani is elected president in April.

Still, the United States will continue to play a role in Iraq. The largest American 2006 Nuri al-Maliki becomes head of a new Arab- Embassy in the world is located Kurdish coalition government with Talabani here, and in the wake of the military departure, it is doubling in size — to remaining president. Saddam Hussein is tried, roughly 16,000 people, most of them found guilty and executed. Al-Qaeda in Iraq contractors. … and other extremist groups form the Islamic State in Iraq, known as ISI. History’s final judgment on the war, which claimed nearly 4,500 American 2008 Five years after the invasion, Iraq is still a war lives and cost almost $1 trillion, may not be determined for decades. zone. Progress has been made in some areas,

but various factions struggle for control. But as the last troop convoy crossed Attacks against Christians in Mosul send over, it marked neither victory, nor thousands fleeing. defeat, but a kind of stalemate — one in which the optimists say violence has been reduced to level that will allow the 2009 U.S. troops turn over security responsibilities country to continue on its lurching path to Iraqi forces. Per the agreement, the final toward stability and democracy, and in U.S. troops leave Iraq in 2011. which the pessimists say the American presence has been a Band-Aid on a 2010 Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi becomes the leader festering wound. of ISI. He expands the terrorist group’s – Tim Arango, “Last Convoy of American operations into Syria when its civil war begins Troops Leaves Iraq, Marking a in 2011. War’s End,” The New York Times, December 19, 2011 2011 The protests of the Arab Spring reach Iraq.

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2013 ISI becomes the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, known as ISIS, and declares Islamic law in territories under its control. The divided government under al-Maliki is unable to control sectarian tensions and violence increases. ISIS makes inroads in western Iraq and becomes a serious threat to Iraq’s Mosul was captured by rebels from the government. Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS — a group that evolved from Al- Qaeda’s Iraq affiliate. The capture of a major industrial and oil center and 2014 ISIS captures Mosul with relative ease, sending the main city in northern Iraq marked some 120,000 Christians (and other minority a major coup for a group that only populations) fleeing from the area into months ago was operating in the country’s vast desert hinterlands. Kurdistan and beyond. A new government is

formed under Haider al-Abadi. The U.S. begins It was the latest evidence of the to send troops back to Iraq to aid the fight disorganization that has beset Iraqi against ISIS. Kurdistan Regional Government security forces since the U.S. military forces in the north are able to halt and then withdrawal from the country in push out ISIS from Kurdish areas. December 2011. It also underlined the determination of ISIS to establish an Islamic emirate encompassing the Iraqi- 2017 Iraqi government and coalition forces push Syrian frontier, to weaken the already ISIS out of Mosul and most of Iraq. fragile Iraqi state and to expand the theater of the three-year-old civil war 2019 The Christian population in Iraq is estimated in neighboring Syria. to be about 250,000, down from 1.5 million – Ali A. Nabhan and Matt Bradley, in 2003. ISIS loses most of its territory, and “Islamists Drive Iraqis from Key City,” The al-Baghdadi kills himself as U.S. forces attempt Wall Street Journal, June 11, 2014 to capture him.

PHOTO: THE SET OF NOURA (SCENIC DESIGN BY MATT SAUNDERS)

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What’s What: A Selected Glossary of Terms in Noura

PEOPLE rule in India and was noted for his and other places it considered use of nonviolent resistance to idolatrous, including the Mosque of achieve political and social goals. the Prophet in Mosul as well as artifacts and ruins of previous Gypsy Kings civilizations. Kurdish militias and an A band that blends flamenco, international coalition worked to Western pop and Latin rhythms. stop ISIS’ gains in 2015, and by the The band was founded in the south end of that year and early January of in the late 1970s by 2016, Iraqi government forces cousins Nicolas Reyes and Tonino regained the cities of Ramadi and Baliardo (among others), who Fallujah. Iraqi forces recaptured still front the band today. The duo Mosul by July 2017. Al-Baghdadi draws on their Spanish Romani killed himself when U.S. forces heritage — their families fled attempted to capture him in Syria Catalonia during the Spanish Civil in October 2019. Dalai Lama War in the 1930s. The head of the Yellow Hat order In , ISIS is known as ’esh. of Tibetan Buddhism, reincarnated ISIS The term is a transliteration of an in 14 persons since the first Lama Short for the Islamic State in Iraq Arabic acronym into the English in the 15th century. The current and Syria (aka ISIL, the Islamic words that make up the acronyms Dalai Lama (born in 1935) was the State in Iraq and the Levant), this ISIS or ISIL. spiritual and earthly ruler of Tibet Sunni insurgent group operates until 1959 when he was forced into from eastern Syria and Western exile by occupying Chinese forces. Iraq and evolved out of the Iraq He received the 1989 Nobel Peace War that started in 2003. Al-Qaeda Prize for his leadership of the in Iraq joined with other extremist ongoing nonviolent campaign to groups in 2006 to become the regain Tibet from Chinese rule. Islamic State of Iraq (aka ISI), and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became its leader in 2010. During the Syrian Civil War in 2011, ISI expanded its operations into Syria and in 2013 became ISIL. In the areas under its control, ISIS declared Islamic law, engaged in brutal treatment of adversaries and recruited radicalized followers. It expanded Krishnamurti its territory, taking Mosul in June Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) 2014 with relatively little resistance. was a spiritual leader and Then it declared a caliphate with philosopher from India. When he al-Baghdadi as the caliph (the chief was a teenager, the president of ruler considered a successor to the Theosophical Society declared Muhammad). him the “World Teacher” that would Gandhi bring about global enlightenment. Mohandas K. Gandhi (1969–1948) Among the many horrible crimes In 1929, he renounced that claim was a lawyer, politician, activist and and inhumanities the group and all organized religions and writer from India. He led the Indian perpetrated, it also destroyed Shi’a ideologies, but he continued national movement against British and Christian places of worship to lecture and pursue spiritual

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freedom. He published around Dubai THINGS 40 books. An emirate that forms part of the on the Aramaic Saddam southeast coast of the . A Semitic language originally Saddam Hussein (1937–2006), It is south of Iran, east of Qatar and spoken by the Aramaeans in the from 1979 Saudi Arabia and north of . ancient Middle East as early as to 2003, leader of the Ba’ath Dubai is also the name of the city the 11th century B.C.E. By the sixth Party and a ruthless tyrant. that is the emirate’s main port and century B.C.E., it was the common Because Hussein mostly ruled commercial center. language for trade (lingua franca) as a nonsectarian leader, women in the Middle East. Among the made strides in career and other ancient Jews, Aramaic was the opportunities for a while. When it A city in Erbil province east of language of commoners while served his interests, especially after Mosul in northern Iraq and one Hebrew was the language of the Gulf War, he cracked down on of the world’s oldest continually religion, government and the upper such freedoms. settled towns. As the capital of the class. Jesus and his disciples are Kurdistan Regional Government, thought to have spoken Aramaic. it is the center of Kurdish political By the seventh century C.E., Arabic PLACES and cultural activities. When supplanted Aramaic. Dialects of ISIS made concerted attacks on Aramaic are still spoken in villages Babylon Christians in the Plains in Syria and among some Christians The ancient capital city of in August 2014, thousands of in the Middle East. Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia Christians fled north. Kurdish during the second to first millennia authorities moved many of these ARE B.C.E. and then of the Chaldean displaced Christians into a half-built The Architect Registration Empire in the seventh and sixth mall in Erbil before refugee camps Examination is a step toward centuries B.C.E. The ruins of were established. getting an architecture license in Babylon are approximately 55 miles the U.S. It measures knowledge and south of Baghdad, Iraq. Chaldea Mosul skills in practices that can affect bordered the Persian Gulf, Arabian The capital city of Nineveh province the integrity, soundness and health Desert and Euphrates River. in northwestern Iraq, located on impacts of buildings. The exam the Tigris River approximately 250 involves several parts and at least Baghdad miles north of Baghdad. Mosul is 20 hours of testing. The largest city and capital of Iraq, the third-largest city in Iraq (after located in Baghdad province in the Baghdad and Basra); its eastern center of the country and on the side is situated on the ruins of the banks of the Tigris River. The city ancient city of Nineveh, which was was founded in the eighth century the capital of the Assyrian Empire. by an Abbasid caliph and quickly became an important commercial St. George’s Convent city and home for scholars, artists The Monastery of St. George and poets. As the capital of modern (Mar Gurguis), which is one of the Iraq, the city has been at the center oldest churches in Mosul. It was of political events, making it a desecrated by ISIS in August 2014. biryani frequent military target and subject Biryani is a rice dish that originated to bombings and destruction. Stanford in Arab countries, migrated to India An elite research university located and then migrated back again. The Bronx in the Bay Area of California that It can include chicken, lamb, fish A borough of New York City north opened in 1891 as a co-educational, or vegetables plus nuts, raisins, of Manhattan. nondenominational private school. potatoes, eggs, onion and other Stanford University currently ingredients. enrolls 16,000 students and offers 65 majors and 90 graduate fields of study.

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Borderlands fast A series of video games in which Abstaining from or restricting up to four players can play the amount of food consumed cooperatively. The game covers in order to tame the body for many genres, but generally it’s a spiritual purposes. The Chaldean role-playing, first-person shooter observes fasts for game. The first Borderlands was Lent, such as the Fast of Nineveh, introduced in 2009. a three-day fast celebrated three weeks before Lent, on the day Minecraft before major feasts like the Feast A video game released in 2011 that of Assumption and Feast of offers several different modes of Christmas. creating and interacting with a 3D world. Creepers, the well-known frankincense icons of Minecraft, are stealthy A resin from a tree found in parts green mobs that approach of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, players and explode, killing claecha India and Pakistan. The oil is used unsuspecting players. A traditional holiday cookie made in perfumes and incense and was from flour, butter, oil, salt, yeast, considered medicinal in ancient Mouslawi marble cardamom, fennel and nigella seeds times. It is one of three gifts given An alabaster gypsum stone found with a walnut or date filling. to baby Jesus by the Magi (along around Mosul, often called Mosul with gold and myrrh). marble. Its use in many buildings DOD gives the city its distinctive The Department of Defense, a Halliburton appearance. Mosul marble is very cabinet-level department that An American company that good for relief carving. oversees national security and provides engineering, construction the armed forces, advises the U.S. and oil-field services, founded pacha president and spends about $716 in 1919 and headquartered in Boiled sheep’s head, a traditional billion a year. It is America’s largest Houston and Dubai. When the U.S. dish found in Iraq and parts of employer, with 2.15 million service invaded oil-rich Iraq, a subsidiary of Egypt, often served with bread members and 730,000 civilian Halliburton received big contracts and pickled vegetables. It’s cooked employees. from the Department of Defense in a broth that uses the sheep’s for reconstruction in Iraq and stomach and feet. Afghanistan.

kibbi A dish made of (cereal), minced onions, ground meat and spices. Kibbi may be rolled into balls, flattened into discs or cooked A stuffed vegetable dish in which a like a meatloaf in a pan. mixture of meat, rice, lemon juice, samoon garlic, onion and tomato sauce kubba An Iraqi yeast bread that is rolled is placed in eggplant, zucchini or A Levant dumpling made from into balls, flattened in the middle, grape leaves before being boiled in grain (bulgur/potato dough or brushed with egg or yogurt and a tomato sauce-water mixture. long grain white rice) and stuffed sprinkled with sesame seeds. with ground meat, spices and Eid onion. They are shaped into balls Telegram Arabic for “feast.” The two festive or flattened patties and then A cloud-based messenger and days in the Muslim calendar are boiled, fried, baked or served raw. voice IP service/software that Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Variations of the dish are often allows messages and data to be Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha, which named for their city of origin or heavily encrypted and self-destruct marks the end of the hajj. serving style. via a timer.

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Iraq: Ripped From the Headlines

IRAQ’S CHRISTIANS IRAQ: ISIS ABDUCTING, IRAQI FLOCK TO LEBANON KILLING, EXPELLING MALE GYNAECOLOGISTS CHRISTIANS ATTACKED BY EXTREMISTS MINORITIES Its procession of frond-waving believers, FLEE MOSUL IN (Baghdad) — Male gynaecologists are being targeted by Islamic extremists in Iraq as they the singing and chanting, and the proud (Duhok) — The Islamic State of Iraq and THE WAKE OF are accused of invading the privacy of women. parents snapping photos of their princess- Sham (ISIS) is killing, kidnapping, and Women’s NGOs have raised concerns as there garbed daughters made the Palm Sunday threatening religious and ethnic minorities ATTACKS are few women gynaecologists in the country celebration in the Beirut suburb of al- in and around the northern Iraqi city of and their male counterparts are scared to Fanar look like any of the hundreds Mosul. Since capturing Mosul on June 10, (Baghdad) — A church in the northern city continue working. occurring all over Lebanon. But after 2014, the armed Sunni extremist group of Mosul was bombed Tuesday as Christians the service, the conversations among The New Humanitarian, November 13, 2007 has seized at least 200 Turkmen, Shabaks, continued to leave the city to escape recent parishioners revealed the special nature and , killing at least 11 of them, and violence that has been directed at them. of this community. Many of them spoke ordered all Christians to convert to Islam, Arabic with heavy Iraqi accents — al- Sam Dagher, The New York Times, October 15, 2008 Fanar has become a magnet for Christian pay “tribute” money, or leave Mosul by refugees from Iraq. July 19.

Human Rights Watch, July 19, 2014 Andrew Lee Butters, TIME, April 2, 2007 Andrew Lee Butters, Time, April 2, 2007 SUNNI MILITANTS DRIVE IRAQI ARMY IRAQ: ISIS DESTROY FROM BIG CITY CONVENT IN MOSUL THE SECRET EYE INSIDE MOSUL (Baghdad) — Sunni militants spilling over the Yesterday, jihadi militants of the Islamic State, who border from Syria on Tuesday seized control of the Shortly after the Islamic State swept into Iraq, in June, blackouts, the rising prices, the chaos in local markets, control the city of Mosul, used explosives to severely northern city of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest, in the 2014, a clandestine blog called Mosul Eye appeared the panic of food shortages, and the occupiers’ utter damage the convent of the Chaldean Sisters of the most stunning success yet in the rapidly widening on the Internet. It provided details about life under the brutality. Over the next year, Mosul Eye expanded into Sacred Heart — one of 45 Christian institutions insurgency that threatens to drag the region into war. caliphate — initially offering hourly reports regarding a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The posts were they have captured since June. Previously they were roads around Mosul that were safe to travel, and then, determinedly stoic — melancholic and inspiring at once. living in the building. Suadad Al-Salhy and Tim Arango, The New York Times, in the following weeks, reporting on the dawning June 11, 2014 Independent Catholic News, November 25, 2014 anxiety about the heavily armed ISIS fighters, the power Robin Wright, , October 27, 2016 Robin Wright, The New Yorker, October 27, 2016

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IRAQI MALE GYNAECOLOGISTS CHRISTIANS ATTACKED BY EXTREMISTS FLEE MOSUL IN (Baghdad)(Baghdad) — —Male Male gynaecologists gynaecologists are being are targeted being bytargeted Islamic by extremists Islamic inextremists Iraq as they in areIraq accused as they of THE WAKE OF invadingare accused the privacy of invading of women. the Women’sprivacy ofNGOs women. have Women’s NGOs have raised concerns as there raised concerns as there are few women gynaecologists ATTACKS are few women gynaecologists in the country in the country and their male counterparts are scared to and their male counterparts are scared to (Baghdad) — A church in the northern city continuecontinue working. working. of Mosul was bombed Tuesday as Christians TheThe NewNew HumanitarianHumanitarian, , NovemberNovember 13,13, 20072007 continued to leave the city to escape recent violence that has been directed at them.

Sam Dagher, The New York Times, October 15, 2008

SUNNI MILITANTS DRIVE IRAQI ARMY IRAQ: ISIS DESTROY FROM BIG CITY CONVENT IN MOSUL (Baghdad) — Sunni militants spilling over the border (Baghdad) — Sunni militants spilling over the Yesterday, jihadi militants of the Islamic State, who fromborder Syria from on Syria Tuesday on Tuesday seized control seized controlof the northern of the control the city of Mosul, used explosives to severely citynorthern of Mosul, city of Iraq’sMosul, second Iraq’s secondlargest, largest, in the in mostthe damage the convent of the Chaldean Sisters of the most stunning success yet in the rapidly widening stunning success yet in the rapidly widening insurgency Sacred Heart — one of 45 Christian institutions insurgency that threatens to drag the region into war. they have captured since June. Previously they were that threatens to drag the region into war. living in the building. Suadad Al-Salhy and Tim Arango, The New York Times, SuadadJune 11, Al-Salhy 2014 and Tim Arango, The New York Times, Independent Catholic News, November 25, 2014 June 11, 2014

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Chaldean Christians

Noura and Tareq are Chaldean Catholics and members Chaldeans in Michigan (approx. 80,000) of an Eastern Rite church in with • came to Detroit. the Roman Catholic Church. The Chaldean Catholic • initially from Windsor, Ontario and from Mexico, Church traces its origin to the , an where immigration laws were less strict; later they ancient Christian church founded in Mesopotamia by came directly from the Old Country followers of the disciple Thomas. The first converts • for automobile industry employment were people who spoke a dialect of Aramaic, and the • to join their families in businesses church continues rites in Aramaic today. In 1839, the • many stayed in the City of Detroit to serve Pope established the Patriarchate of Babylon of the neighborhoods in the grocery/produce business Chaldeans, essentially bringing the Chaldean church permanently in communion with Rome. Chaldeans in Sterling Heights: Approximately 450–500 Chaldean families reside in Sterling Heights. The largest population of Chaldean Catholics outside of the Middle East is in Michigan. Below are excerpts LANGUAGE AND CULTURE from a 2002 flyer created by Michigan’s City of Sterling Heights Community Relations Department Chaldean language is the major dialect of Aramaic. about its Chaldean American population. • the same language used in ancient Babylon • Chaldeans born in Iraq also know the Arabic language; some might use, along with their mother DESCENDANTS OF THE ANCIENT tongue (Chaldean), the Arabic language in BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS their dealings • 95 percent speak Chaldean language in their The Chaldeans have come to America for job homes, 58 percent speak Arabic language and opportunities and a better life. 9 percent speak English. • as a religious and cultural minority in Iraq • most followed family members to U.S., joining Cultural characteristics: them in established businesses, later forming • individual to sacrifice for the group their own • very generous, most hospitable • cheerful, expressive Immigration began in the early 1900s due to harsh • extended families; care for all members; close treatment by the Ottoman Turkish rulers. family ties • first known immigrant: Zia Attallah (1889) came • extremely hardworking to Philadelphia, worked in hotel. Later, returned to • kindness to strangers, readily forming close Iraq, where he opened his own hotel. friendships • the first Chaldeans came from villages in Iraq • marriages are lifelong commitments; divorces rare • most Chaldeans immigrated to Detroit; by 1923 • dating restricted for girls until marriageable age there were about 10 Chaldean adults in Detroit • religious; high moral values • 1960–70s produced largest wave of Chaldean • respect for elders, traditions, customs immigrants as U.S. immigration laws became less strict FAMOUS CHALDEANS • these later immigrants came mostly from Baghdad and Basra. Many were highly educated, establishing Chaldeans who contributed to civilization: professional businesses in this country. • Hammurabi: 18th century B.C. king; wrote advanced code of social and business laws, Chaldeans in America number over 75,000. “The Code of Hammurabi” • 60,000 in Detroit area • Nebuchadnezzar: King of the “Brilliant Dynasty” • 15,000 in San Diego and other California cities • according to ancient tradition, the magi who visited • 2,000 in the child Jesus after his birth were from among the Chaldeans

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Shaymaa Hasan (center) with the cast and creative team of Noura

PHOTO: OLIVIA LOUISE TREE PLATH Meet Cultural Consultant By Daisuke Kawachi Shaymaa Hasan Community Engagement Assistant

DAISUKE KAWACHI: Tell me about DK: My father is from Japan, and is different. For example, if I want being the cultural consultant for he performs certain rituals when to talk about food, because a big Noura. What is your role in the he feels homesick. Are there things part of the play is food, we have so rehearsal room? you do or foods you eat when many specific foods. We’re famous you’re feeling homesick? for dolma [stuffed vegetables], SHAYMAA HASAN: They ask me kubba mosul [meat pies] and about everything related to my SH: You see I’m drinking this Iraqi samak masgouf [slow-cooked fish]. Iraqi culture, so things like how we tea that I brought from home, and Samak takes a while, but it’s so cook and serve food or what we that helps. Let me show you some delicious. Also, this play is about put in tea to change the flavor. As pictures on my phone. If you look events that happened in Iraq, an immigrant myself, I get asked at the cushions, they are Iraqi. Here so everybody needs to share how it feels to live in a different is a corner in my house where all our culture. country with a different culture. the things are Iraqi and it feels like home. No matter where you are, in DK: A major part of the play is DK: What does it mean for you to your heart there is always a corner about what each character brought be an immigrant here, living in a that is for your country. with them and left behind. What different culture? did you and your family bring and DK: Not everyone who sees Noura leave behind? SH: I told the cast about when I will be familiar with Iraqi and was homesick; one day I stopped Iraqi American culture. Why is it SH: I brought some of my books, breathing for no reason. I felt important to make this production things that are close to my heart sadness. I missed my family. I left a as culturally specific as possible? and the necessities. What I left lot of things in my country, but the behind? I left my family. Friends. most important thing I left is my SH: Because Iraqi culture is Neighbors, my neighborhood. And family. I went for a walk outside a unique culture. Yes, we are all the good memories. and cried. considered Arab, but Iraqi culture

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DK: How has being part of them think. And they choose for involved with IARP. He had talked the Noura creative team themselves. You have to give with [Executive Director] Jessy impacted you? them advice. [Belt Saem Eldahr] about me, so I met with her and started SH: The first day, when I saw the DK: Can you tell me more volunteering. It’s very interesting set, I cried. And when they talked about the Iraqi and American work. For me, it’s important to about my culture, I cried. It’s so Reconciliation Project and your participate in their community very hard because when I came to involvement with them? events. It’s important to build these the U.S. in 2013, I had never left my bridges between cultures. country, and now I cannot leave SH: IARP was founded in 2007. the U.S. I miss my family so much. They’re a nonprofit that creates DK: Is there anything else you want I have nephews. And they have bridges of communication, audiences to know? grown up and they have children understanding and support now! I miss everything over there. between Iraqis and Americans. We SH: I love this play. And I want It’s so hard to talk about your do this through different programs people to know that there is a part memories and your country. But I like People to People, Humanitarian where Noura talks about how ISIS like this play. I’m very excited to see Projects for Peace, providing relief is Islam. I want people to know it. I’m telling every Iraqi I know that and support for rebuilding projects that they are not Islam. They are they have to come see it. in Iraq, potlucks and more. I’ve like animals; no, you can’t even been involved as a participant in say that. They aren’t even human. DK: I rarely see stories about me, the People to People program My country, my people, we love my family or my culture. Do you and a volunteer for events like the Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sunnis, have similar experiences? Ramadan Iftar Dinner. And now I’m Shiites — we love everybody. But in here working at the Guthrie! the media, you see a different story. SH: This story is very real. I know We love Christian people; they are this story! I’ve seen an Arabian DK: How did you first connect with like our family. Islam is not a religion show like this but never here in the IARP? of crime. We love people. U.S. This is the first time I’m seeing this story. Especially with the SH: Last year, I was in a wedding teenagers! and a medical interpreter acquaintance asked me to get DK: One of the things that excites me most about this play is how people from different generations and their worldviews are put in conversation with each other. What have those conversations been like for you and your multigenerational family since coming here?

SH: My mother tells me all the time, “Shaymaa, don’t wear too much makeup. Shaymaa, don’t do that.” And I say, “Mama, the times have changed!” To this day, she tells me, “In our culture, this is unacceptable,” and I say, “Yeah, OK, Mom.” Because I don’t want to make her mad. I talk to my nieces and nephews, but never like my mother. You can’t say “Don’t do that” these days. I’ll tell them a story, indirectly, and they’ll say I The Iraqi meal Shaymaa prepared for the Noura company am old-minded, but I am making PHOTO: KATIE HAWKINSON

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For Further Reading and Understanding

THE PLAY My Country, My Country WEB RESOURCES Documentary about Iraqis living Noura by Heather Raffo, acting under U.S. occupation, focusing on TIME: “The Next War for Iraq: A edition published by Samuel Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, revealing look inside the country’s French, 2019. father and Sunni political candidate fight with ISIS — and itself” who is a critic of the occupation www.time.com/isis-mosul but a passionate supporter of BOOKS ABOUT IRAQI HISTORY democracy in Iraq. Ivor Prickett’s “The Battle for 90 minutes, Zeitgeist Films, 2006. Mosul”: 10 photos of Mosul during Hala Fattah with Frank Caso, A and post-ISIS occupation Brief History of Iraq, New York: On Her Shoulders www.worldpressphoto. Checkmark Books, 2009. About Nobel Peace Prize laureate org/collection/ Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights photo/2018/28841/1/2018-ivor- James R. Polk, Understanding Iraq: activist, who was captured by ISIS prickett-gns-aj-(1) The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History, and held captive in Mosul. She from Genghis Khan’s Mongols gave testimony before the U.N. The New York Times: “Fractured to the Ottoman Turks to the Security Council and currently lives Lands: How the Arab World Came British Mandate to the American in . Apart,” Scott Anderson, Occupation, New York: Harper 94 minutes, Oscilloscope August 14, 2016 Perennial, 2005. Laboratories, 2019. www.nytimes.com/ interactive/2016/08/11/magazine/ James Verini, They Will Have to The Prophecies of Iraq isis-middle-east-arab-spring- Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the As ancient prophets foretold, fractured-lands.html?module=inline Caliphate, New York: W.W. Norton & Babylon fell in 539 B.C. They may Co., 2019. also have predicted the modern Heather Raffo’s website Gulf Wars and the downfall of www.heatherraffo.com Saddam Hussein. FILMS 40 minutes, History Channel, 2007.

Fight for Mosul Voices of Iraq Filmed across the entire nine- Filmed and directed by Iraqis from month campaign to defeat ISIS in all walks of life, all over the country. Mosul, this documentary features Producers condensed more than combat footage of an Iraqi Special 400 hours of footage into a look at Forces unit that bore the brunt of life in a war zone. the fighting. 80 minutes, Magnolia Home 60 minutes, PBS, 2017. Entertainment, 2006.

Iraq Uncovered “Frontline” examines the forces vying for control in the places where ISIS has been pushed out. 60 minutes, PBS, 2017.

The Iraqi meal Shaymaa prepared for the Noura company

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