Yesterday, my family and I were approached by a couple of girls who are art students, in a cafe. They apologised for intruding, but asked us to say the first thing that came into our heads when they mentioned Iraq. I said, Mesopotamia. They were nonplussed. They had never heard of it. I said the standard phrases: cradle of civilisation, first cities ever built, etc. That is not really my perspective, but sensed that there was only so far that I could go. They were going to make an art exhibit about the war in Iraq, and one could see that they meant very well.So this set a train of thought going in me. The society that believes that Mesopotamia was the very cradle of civilisation has reduced it to a ruin and its people to destitution and despair, those who have survived. This must somehow be in the nature of a sign. When once before Baghdad was razed to the ground, those who did it were implacably opposed to the very concept of the city. I mean the Mongols. But this time around, destruction has been visited upon it by people who believe that Mesopotamia was the very beginning of everything that we are today. So for these people this is the end of an entire meta-cycle of history.As for us, this is the land which Ibrahim, peace be upon him, spurned and emigrated from. It is for us a beginning too, but in a very different way. Its destruction fits in our world-view in a very different way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, my family and I were approached by a couple of girls who are art students, in a cafe. They apologised for intruding, but asked us to say the first thing that came into our heads when they mentioned Iraq. I said, Mesopotamia. They were nonplussed. They had never heard of it. I said the … <\/p>\n