Baghdad, a City Primeval

¶ … Baghdad must have been a beautiful sight. Yakut describes it as a "veritable city of palaces" and each of the palace grounds were "laid out with gardens, and adorned with exquisite taste with plants, flowers, trees, reservoirs and fountains surrounded by sculpted statues" (Yakut). One can only imagine how majestic the city must have been.

According to Yakut, both sides of the river were fronted by the palaces, kiosks, gardens and parks of the grandees and nobles, marble steps led down to the water's edge, and the scene on the river was animated by thousands of gondolas, decked with little flags, dancing like sunbeams on the water. Compare Yakut's description to the today's more "modern" description of the same area, and one would wonder if the description was of the same society.

Of course, it's a given that the rule of the Abassids coincided with what many experts agree is the "Islamic Golden Age" and that Baghdad was at the epicenter of that Golden Age. At the time, Baghdad housed "numerous colleges of learning, hospitals, infirmaries for both sexes, and lunatic asylums" (Yakut).

Additionally, there were according to Yakut, mosques of the city that were "vast in size and remarkably beautiful." To go from vast in size and remarkably beautiful to a city, an area, a region that is now almost completely different takes not only a war (or ten or twenty) but a religion that demands of its people certain activities and behaviors that are not necessarily conducive to numerous colleges of learning or a Golden Age of any kind.

One can scarcely imagine an epicenter so beautiful, so filled with learning, so magnificent that scholars and men and women of learning traveled from around the world, gathering in Baghdad to discuss, to argue, to contend one with another in intellectual forays that produced magnificent works of art and education.

Compare that scene to today's Baghdad where a militant army of fanatics stands on the brink of entering and decimating the city in an attempt to bring it residents to bow down to a religion that too many seems arbitrary and capricious in its nature. The rules, laws and regulations under which the city's residents now labor seem to be mostly religious in nature, and according to some experts acceptance of that religion is mandatory; the rule for not accepting it is death.

It seems to be a very extreme set of beliefs that guide the government, the rulers and the leaders of this once great city. Many of the laws governing the residents herein are couched in religious terms and beliefs and a majority of the leaders follow the Quran and institute laws that are based on the prophet Mohammed's teachings.

For example; "the prophet hath cursed ten persons on the account of wine: 1) the first extractor of the juice of the grape for others, 2) for himself, 3) the drinker of it, 4) the bearer of it, 5) the person it is brought to, 6) the waiter, 7) the seller, 8) the eater of its price, 9) the buyer of it, and 10) the person who has purchased it for another.

This is all according to the Sunnah, and it is possible that individuals who meet any of the ten descriptions above are (if discovered) publicly declared guilty and then put to death. That is the extremity of this particular religion which has established a stranglehold on the once beautiful city of Baghdad. It has been decades (centuries) since woman and men together sought enlightenment and understanding in Baghdad.

Long gone are the times when thousands of gondolas would traverse the river Tigris in splendor with men and woman adorned in bright and appealing apparel. Now women are forced to supplicate themselves to men; after all the prophet states "I have not left any calamity more hurtful to man than woman." Women are relegated to a second-class status that belittles their contributions to society, and ensures their forced subjugation to man and man's whims. According to the prophet, women are worth no more than chattel.

When the prophet states that "the best of women are those that are content with little" then it is not just the law that keeps females "in their place" it is also affects the male psyche and attitude towards the women that does so. The question that often arises in the search for how something so beautiful and complete as the city of Baghdad could fall on such hard times, is a question that is answered by a look at the rules and regulations.