The name alone of Baghdad conveys the exotic splendor of the Thousand and One Nights and the glorious rule of the Abbasids (762-1258) under the reign of Caliph Al-Mansur and Harun Al-Rashid known as Aaron the Upright. The arrival of the Mongols signaled the end of the Abbasid rule, and for the next 700 years, Baghdad fell into decay. When Lady Anne Blunt visited the city in 1878, she thought Baghdad was “uninteresting…a colorless Eastern town and nothing more.”
However, 43 years later, the arrival of the British signaled a considerable change with the creation of unique brickwork. From the 1920s to the 1950s, residential architecture in Baghdad became a model of “excellence, inventiveness, and know-how.” The traditional art of brick-building was combined with modern art movements from Europe such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco. This fusion of styles produced an exceptional modern architectural heritage.
“Baghdad, Arts Deco” (AUC Press) by Caecilia Pieri shows us the Iraqi capital in a new light far from the images of terror, ugliness and death peddled by the media. Pieri takes us on a journey to discover and explore Baghdad. Her enthusiasm is utterly contagious and after the first page, I was wandering across Karradat, Adhamiya, Alwiya and walking through Sa’dun Street admiring Iraqi brickwork — an art perfected by the Sumerians and Assyrians and kept alive by the “ustas,” Iraqi artisans and master builders.
Very little has been written on the important role played by these master masons who built monuments, mosques and palaces all over the Islamic world. “Usta,” by the way, is a title given to anyone who reached a high level of craftsmanship. The “usta” is also very often both designer and builder for small, traditional buildings.
According to Hassan Fethi, most vernacular architecture in Iraq and in other Muslim countries was designed and built by “ustas” and not architects. It is also interesting to note that the traditional brickwork architecture in Baghdad was carried out with six tools only: string (khayt), a trowel (malaj), an ax (shamsba), apiece of lead (shaqul), a large vessel (tasa), and a wooden 90-degree triangle and a set square (qunya).
However, the fate of the “ustas” changed forever in the 1940s and 1950s with the arrival of Iraqi architects who were trained abroad and with the increasing use of cement and reinforced concrete. Their numbers are dwindling and the few surviving ‘ustas” specialize in building mosques and restoration work. Their legacy lives on through the awesome brickwork architecture, which gives Baghdad a unique atmosphere wonderfully captured in 1941 by Myria Harry, writer of orientalist novels and renowned journalist:
“Its brickwork houses melt into pale flesh colors, its minarets rise golden against an orange sky, while all around, a forest of palm trees sways, bends, and dances magically casting its spell for ever over the city, a city eternally woven into the bewitching world of story and legend.”
Contrary to some common preconceived ideas, the British had genuinely envisioned an architectural and educational plan for Iraq. Wilson, the architect appointed by the British government, acknowledges the profound influence that architecture has on public life and especially on education:
“Iraq has been the home of a certain style of architecture which has influenced the rest of the civilized. But present circumstances need a new style of building which it is hoped, will integrate the best of the traditional decorative features. It is also intended to use natural buildings materials available in the country so that what is built may truly evolve an Arab Renaissance in the Arts.”
The natural building material mentioned by Wilson is, of course, the brick, which creates a temporal and spatial unity from the Assyrian civilization to our modern era. This brickwork, a vernacular architecture par excellence, could never have been built without the essential help of the “ustas” of Baghdad who were at the same time entrepreneurs, masons and sculptors.
“Baghdad Arts Deco” is a celebration of early 20th century architecture that can still be seen in Baghdad. The author documents, discusses and defends this architectural brickwork through the exquisite photographs she took, which showcase the rare and striking beauty of this unique form of architecture.
Some Iraqis criticize this hybrid architecture, which they do not consider as their own and perceive it as a loss of identity. Pieri seeks to help re-legitimize this architectural brickwork, which is Baghdad’s answer to “arts deco.” During the 1920s and 1950s, the Iraqi capital’s development was influenced both by tradition and by the dynamic interaction with the West, and the architecture reflects this creative fusion of styles.
In this following description, the author conveys her contagious love for Baghdad’s “arts deco:”
“Baghdad has invented its own arts deco…The fabric, textures, and hues of the brickwork, the viewpoints offered by such and such a perspective, the elegant silhouette of a terraced roof, a stylized front outlined against a sky, the curves of the palm trees, the subtle balance between the eclectic forms and the unity of the chromatic scale, the quality of the play of light on the Tigris river, that impassive, sumptuously ample, and slow-moving river, the visual scope one has when walking along the spatial volume of the streets…all this is like a syntax composed of natural and built realities, both tangible and abstract which contributes to create around this architectural interweaving, already quite specific in itself, an authentic urban alchemy, one that is intransmutable to any other place.”
Pieri truly regales her readers with a vision of Baghdad overflowing with beauty, serenity and harmony — a wonderful and much needed antidote to the violent images seen in the media.