Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online Volume 1, Issue 1 | Page 44

2/2/2016

Middle East Media and Book Reviews Online

justified.
The Staudts, notwithstanding, considered themselves lucky to have made it before the demise of the romantic narrative, living in an Iraq off the
beaten track with modest amenities, but, as inveterate and nostalgic travelers much desire, with abundant opportunities for recklessness,
exploration, and heroic aspiration. The author’s fascination with Baghdad remains consistent throughout the book, succumbing to nothing but her
unconditional loyalty to the “never-changing and ever changeless Baghdad” (p. xxiii), its mythical splendor and glamour. Her story is that of love at
first sight, invoking constructive images of The Arabian Nights and particularly the history of Mesopotamia that Ida familiarized herself with before
undertaking the journey: “Upon my arrival, I was at once fascinated with Baghdad. Those early days made an indelible impression upon me…. I
always felt I was living, not in the present Baghdad but in the Baghdad of the golden age of the caliphs” (p. xxiii). The legendary city is
sentimentally associated with the glorious Abbasid dynasty under Harun Al-Rashid, a period, the author makes sure she does not overlook in a book
otherwise devoted to modern Iraq, which made significant contributions to human civilization at a time when, oddly enough, ideas and cultures
crossed the globe much faster than human beings. In many parts of the book, the author finds in the past a leitmotif and a panacea for the woos of
the present times, insinuating that this very city which has given much to human civilization across the centuries does not deserve the unabated
assaults and pains, the “avalanche” of unfortunate circumstances inflicted upon it by human greed and callousness. For the record, Ida traces similar
incidents in the past noting with chagrin the irreparable destruction that Baghdad incurred under Hulagu in 1258 AD. One wonders what Ida would
have said about the senseless and large-scale destruction Iraq has witnessed of late. John Joseph, being a graduate of Ida’s school and subsequently
a teacher there, laments these incidents and particularly the deliberate looting and ransacking of the Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad following
the disastrous American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Staudts unreservedly embraced the cultural other, and at a time when there was still space for “going native,” they reaped the benefits of
cultural immersion and interaction. Like the “fearless” Gertrude Bell, a