The Museum 

 

Today 

In April 2021, 18 years since the looting of the museum, and nearly two years since beginning rehearsals for A Museum in Baghdad, actor Rasoul Saghir returned to his home city of Baghdad. Rasoul played Abu Zaman, the spiritual caretaker of the museum in the play, so of course he paid a visit to the real-life museum and recorded what he found on his phone. 

 

It’s Origins 

The museum began life in 1922 to house artefacts excavated at Assyrian,  Babylonian and Sumerian sites. Initially, it was just one room, and as more objects were unearthed, more room was required and so a new building was built on the other side of the river Tigris. This was named The Iraq Museum and was officially opened in 1926 with Gertrude Bell as its director. Here is what  she wrote to her father shortly after its opening, just 5 days before she died: 

 

It had been very hot in the morning in the Museum but we have now changed into a north room and had a fan put into it which makes it comparatively luxurious. We can work there quite comfortably without a fan on weekdays when we leave at 8.30, but on Sundays, when we stay till 1, it is essential to have a cool room. I have got a few standard cases and hope to have the seal case this week. But there is so much to learn; one constantly finds that things don't exactly serve one's purpose and they have to be modified.  However, both we and the carpenters are learning gradually. S/L Harnett is very helpful. This morning he made some beautiful little stands of twisted wire for heavy pointed stone vases. 

 

From the beginning and beyond, the museum exhibited collections celebrating over 5,000 years of Mesopotamian history. From Gertrude Bell onwards,  women have played a central role in the life of the museum. One of the most significant is Dr Lamia al-Gailani, the late Iraqi archaeologist, who was one of the inspirations for Hannah’s play. She worked in the original museum in the 1960s before it moved to a more central, urban location in 1966. She  remembers: ‘it was lovely because it was in the middle of the desert, and so the  type of visitors we used to get was completely different to the new museum…it was one of the nicest things to see ordinary people wanting to come and look around (from the BBC Radio 4 Documentary Series, Museum of Lost Objects). At the time of the invasion, in March 2003, 47 of the museum’s 53 employees were women.

 

In the war 

During the US-led invasion in March 2003, no bombs hit the museum, but it suffered enormously from looting shortly after. The US-led coalition had no plans to protect archaeological and cultural sites in Iraq, and so, perhaps inevitably, approximately 15,000 objects were stolen by looters between the 7- 12^{th of} April. US forces arrived on April 16^th to protect what was left; their tanks parked on the lawn out front – one of the play’s enduring images – but by then the damage had been done. As the extensive book, The Looting of the Iraq  Museum, Baghdad, states: 

‘There is a direct relationship between security and looting – looting happens in the absence of authority 

 

Reopening 

Many staff worked tirelessly to protect and then retrieve the stolen artefacts.  As a result of these efforts, and with the help of other international cultural bodies, around 4,000 stolen objects were returned to the Iraq Museum by Iraqi Citizens, the Iraqi police and Coalition Military Police units. These efforts have been ongoing, and despite the scale of the impact of the looting and the turbulence of the occupation, civil unrest and violence that followed, the museum reopened in 2015. The Iraqi government at the time was determined to send a positive message to its people about the value of art and shared history at a time when ISIS was destroying antiquities in other parts of Iraq, and Syria.  

Watch the news clip below to find out more about the reopening: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-31672857   

 

The Collection 

In 2019, playwright and translator for A Museum in Baghdad, Hassan  Abdulrazzak, paid his first visit to the reopened museum. Below are some of his photos of the incredible objects on display.

A Sumerian mask, and engraved pot, were found in Warka, both dating from c.3000 B.C. Both items were stolen in the 2003 looting, but subsequently returned to the museum 

Cylindrical Seals, like the ones that feature in the play, found at sites including Ur. 

 

Context of the Time Periods of the Play: 

 

THEN (1926): When WW1 breaks out in 1914, the British army invades  Mesopotamia (now Iraq) as it is part of the Ottoman Empire, which are allied with Germany. After being defeated in battles with the Turkish army in key regions, the British refocus their efforts on Baghdad and take control of the city in 1917. Gertrude Bell was posted to the British administration in  Mesopotamia shortly after, and remained there for the rest of her life. In 1918,  an Armistice was signed, signalling the end of the war, and the defeated  Ottoman Empire was divided up between the Allied countries so Mesopotamia became part of the British Empire. 

 

By 1920, revolt against British rule was significant and the security situation perilous. Gertrude was consulted by parliament about the period of British occupation, and under her recommendation, the then Colonial Secretary  Winston Churchill approved the appointment of a new figurehead in the hope of creating stability. Faisal bin Hussein became the monarch of the new state of Iraq in 1921 and Gertrude organised his coronation and became his advisor.  She had considerable influence on the development of the newly formed country and acquired the title of Honorary Director of Antiquities. Her Law of  Antiquities, which you will find mentioned more than once in the play, was passed in 1924 and protected both Iraqi heritage but also the interests of  foreign archaeologists - such as the character Woolley – and institutions such as the British Museum. From her point of view, she believed in the importance not just of safeguarding ancient objects, but in the possibility of creating unity and a sense of identity for the new Iraqi nation-state through the founding of a  national museum. This is the mission she is committed to completing as the play begins in 1926. Her Antiquities law and prominent role in shaping Iraq had a long-lasting impact, and just as it was contested at the time, so its legacy is still being questioned 80 years later in the play’s other principal period. 

Here are two extracts of letters written by Gertrude Bell in 1926 about her  perspective on the country at this time: 

 

‘This is a country of extremes. It's either dying of thirst or it's dying of being drowned. Mr Bury says that Baghdad can never be made safe, it lies in the such low ground; but I expect that after this experience,  following on that of 1923, they will do a great deal to make it safer’ 

 

‘I've telegraphed to Father saying I hope he'll come. I would love to show him my world here and I know if he saw it he would understand why I  can't come back to England this year. If they will keep me, I must stay. I  can do something, even if it is very little to preach wisdom and restraint  among the young Baghdadis whose chief fault is that they are ready to  take on the creation of the world tomorrow without winking and don't  realize for a moment that even the creator himself made a poor job of it.’ 

 

Here is a link to a timeline charting some key events in Iraq over the last 100  years: 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14546763  

 

NOW (2006): Despite the lack of international agreement or a Resolution from the United Nations, the US led an invasion of Iraq in March 2003. With significant support from the UK, the pretext for the invasion was that Iraq,  under Saddam Hussein’s regime, had weapons of mass destruction, which threatened the US, the UK, and the entire region of the Middle East. Saddam went into hiding but was captured by the end of the year. The fall of Baghdad was even quicker, taking a matter of weeks, and President George W Bush declared it was ‘mission accomplished’. In reality, the war was only just beginning. 

 

In the immediate aftermath of the invasion, the Coalition Provisional Authority,  run by an American named Lieutenant Paul Bremer, assumed control of  Baghdad. Under his watch, most civic structures, including the army and police,  were disbanded. It was in this context of social disorder that the looting of the museum happened in April 2003. By July however, the Museum of Iraq was  opened for one day for a visit from Bremer, an intended signal that the  Coalition forces wanted to protect Iraq, its treasures and its people. 

 

The daily reality was a different matter for most Iraqis though. Different groups,  divided into religious and ethnic lines, began competing for power and there was increasing resistance to the Occupation from several armed militias.  Suicide bombings became a feature of life in Baghdad and elsewhere in the country, and religious intolerance grew. An Amnesty International report about conditions in 2004 stated: 

 

‘Women and girls continued to be harassed, injured and killed by armed  groups and individuals, relatives, and members of the US-led forces.’ In 2004, evidence also emerged of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, and by UK troops in the southern city of Basra. 

 

The attempts to build a reconstructed Iraqi State amidst the sectarian violence led to the US handing sovereignty to an interim government in June 2004,  followed by elections in January 2005 for a transitional government. A new constitution was approved in October 2005, but many people did not feel represented or included by it. Different regions of the country sought greater autonomy, and opposition to the occupation was growing. A poll by the American media organisation ABC in late 2005 found that two-thirds of Iraqis opposed the continuing presence of Coalition troops in their country. The Coalition hoped that elections for a permanent government and a newly formed parliament at the end of 2005 would bring in a new era of peace and stability. 

 

The opposite was true. Violence and death increased considerably in the months after the election, in the early part of 2006, when the action of the play begins. To best get a sense of what it was like living in Baghdad this year, hear it direct from two remarkable Iraqi bloggers. Firstly watch this video  blog by Salam Pax below, and then read the extracts of a blog by Riverbend, a  young woman who conceals her identity so that she may speak as freely  as possible about her experiences of living in Baghdad at the time.

 

Salam Pax: 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6vyv1mIvg3s  

 

Riverbend:

 

January 15, 2005: The Phantom Weapons 

 

[written shortly after the announcement that the US was abandoning  its search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq] 

 

Now we're being 'officially' told that the weapons never existed. After  Iraq has been devastated, we're told it's a mistake. You look around  Baghdad and it is heartbreaking. The streets are ravaged, and the sky is a  bizarre greyish-bluish colour- a combination of smoke from fires and weapons and smog from cars and generators. There is an endless wall that seems to suddenly emerge in certain areas to protect the Green  Zoners... There is a common look to the people on the streets- under the masks of fear, anger and suspicion, there's also a haunting look of uncertainty and indecision. Where is the country going? How long will it take for things to even have some vague semblance of normality?  When will we ever feel safe? 

 

Terror isn't just worrying about a plane hitting a skyscraper…terrorism is being caught in traffic and hearing the crack of an AK-47 a few meters away because the National Guard want to let an American humvee or Iraqi official through. Terror is watching your house being raided and knowing that the silliest thing might get you dragged away to Abu Ghraib where soldiers can torture, beat and kill. Terror is that first moment after a series of machine-gun shots when you lift your head frantically to make sure your loved ones are still in one piece.  Terror is trying to pick the shards of glass resulting from a nearby explosion out of the living room couch and trying not to imagine what  would have happened if a person had been sitting there. 

 

The weapons never existed. It's like having a loved one sentenced to death for a crime they didn't commit- having your country burned and bombed beyond recognition, almost. Then, after two years of grieving for the lost people, and mourning the lost sovereignty, we're told we were innocent of harbouring those weapons. We were never a threat to  America... 

Congratulations Bush- we are a threat now. 

 

Wednesday January 4, 2006:

 

I guess the Iraqis who thought the US was going to turn Iraq into another America weren’t far from the mark- we too now enjoy inane leaders, shady elections, a shaky economy, large-scale unemployment and soaring gas prices. 

 

Goodbye, 2005 - the year of SCIRI, fraudulent elections, secret torture chambers, car bombs, white phosphorous, assassinations, sectarianism and fundamentalism… you will not be missed. 

 

Let us see what 2006 has in store for us. 

 

Monday February 27, 2006 

 

I’m reading, and hearing, about the possibility of civil war. The possibility. Yet I’m sitting here wondering if this is actually what civil war is like. Has it become a reality? Will we look back at this in one year, two years… ten… and say, “It began in February 2006…”? It is like a nightmare in that you don’t realise it’s a nightmare while having it only later, after waking up with your heart throbbing, and your eyes searching the dark for a pinpoint of light, do you realise it was a  nightmare… 

 

 

There is a third period in the play: LATER, which could be any point from now in the future. A Museum in Baghdad moves between and intertwines these three time periods to continually probe how the past is in the present,  and the present is making the future.