On the last Jews in Iraq and Iraqi national identity: a look at two recent Iraqi novels

ABSTRACT

After 2003, Iraqi literature, particularly the novel, rediscovered the now extinct Jewish community in Iraq. The Jews were the first major community in Iraq to be completely erased. Writing about the Jews served to underline the pluralism of Iraqi society in the past and to admonish against a similar fate awaiting other small communities in Iraq today. This article will focus on two recent Iraqi novels, written by two of Iraq’s prominent novelists, in which Jews are at the centre of the narratives: ‘Ali Badr’s “Haris al-Tabagh” (The Guardian of the Tobacco Shop), 2008 and Khdair al-Zaydi’s “Atlas ‘Azran al-Baghdadi” (‘Azran al-Baghdadi’s Atlas), 2015a. These are not only ordinary Jews, they are the last Jews of Iraq and Baghdad. As such, I will argue, they are doomed by the writers to serve as symbols for something exceeding their lives (and deaths) as individuals or Jews. The novels thus are more about Iraqi national identity after 2003 than about the last Jews. By choosing “the last of the Jews” as a protagonist the authors signal a pessimistic end to the illusion of sustaining a version of a pluralistic and accommodating Iraqi national identity.

KEYWORDS:

• Iraq
• Jews
• Baghdad
• literature
• novel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Note on contributor

Ronen Zeidel is a historian specializing in the modern history of Iraq. He is an Iraq analyst at the Moshe Dayan Center Tel Aviv University. His main fields of study are Iraqi society, sectarian relations, identity and literature, Dr Zeidel has written extensively on Iraq. His articles in Arabic are published in daily newspapers and academic journals in Iraq.

Notes

1 For examples of novels in which Jews are the main characters, see Jassim al-Mutair (2003). Also published in Baghdad as Hikayat Hubb Yahudiya (a Jewish Love Story) by Mesopotamia publishers in 2008. Khalid al-Qishtayni (2008).

For examples of novels in which Jews are not the main protagonists but figure conspicuously in the narrative, see Nidal al-Qadi (2009), Ahmad Ghanim ‘Abd al-Jalil (2015) ‘Abd al-Karim al-‘Ubaidi (2011). Ahmad al-Sa’dawi (2013). Najm Wali (2009). Sa’di al-Malih (2006), Amal Porter (2005).

2 Incidentally, two Israeli writers of Iraqi origins have also published two novels on the last Jews of Iraq in Hebrew. Shim’on Balas (2005) and Sami Mikhael (2008). In comparison to the Iraqi novels, the Israeli novels are more about the possibility of living as a Jew in Iraq. Shim’on Balas's novel also concentrates on the possibility of being an “Arab Jew.” The Israeli novels are more interested in the life of their Jewish protagonists. Unlike the Iraqi novels in which the Jews share the role of the main protagonists with others, the Jews are the sole and main figures in the Israeli novels and they die a natural death. The Israeli novels are not so much about Iraqi national identity and do not use their heroes as symbols. Balas's novel is written in a first person narrative.

3 Thus, ‘Ali Badr, one of the main voices in this trend, was trying to propose Edward Said as the necessary hero of pan-Arabism in his novel, Masabeeh Urushalim (2006). The Arab Spring was also very influential in this regard.

4 A Mesopotamian identity is an identity tracing the roots of modern Iraqis to pre-Islamic Mesopotamian civilizations, beginning with the Sumerian civilization. This identity proudly sees Iraq as the cradle of human civilization and in a modern context often clashes with the Arab and Pan-Arab identity of the Iraqis.

5 The interest is not solely limited to religious communities but also to racial communities (the Iraqi African community) and the Iraqi Gypsies (Kaoliyya). See Salloum (2013). This pluralism is not concerned with subjects such as sexual orientation.

6 In all of my communications with members of this generation the group was always defined as “the generation of loss.” I never encountered any other definition, which captures as well their self-definition and the experience of the 1990s.

7 On the novels of al-Sa’dawi, see Haytham Bahoora (2015, 184–209).

8 This was the case of ‘Ali Badr, now in Belgium, Diyaa al-Khalidi, Nassif Filk.

9 This novel won the Arabic Booker Prize in 2014. No other Iraqi novel ever won that prize. In 2017, the novel was translated into Hebrew with the consent of the writer (Ahmad al-Sa’dawi 2 017).

10 In his novel, al-Zaydi brings a photo of a list, apparently prepared by the Ba’ath before 2003, in which dozens of names are mentioned (Al-Zaydi 2015, 79).

11 For one significant research work on the literary world of Iraqi Jews, see a Ph.D dissertation published as a book in Baghdad by Dr Khalida Hatim (2014).

12 Most recently, the Jews were compared to the Christians in Frankenshtayn and to the Sabeaens in “Mala’ika al-Janub” by Najm Wali. Most interestingly, two recent novels compare the Jews to the Marsh Arabs (Ma’adan) of the southern marshes, who are Arab and Shiite (Nasir 2015, 2nd edition; Falih 2016).

13 See his unequivocal anti-Zionism in his novel, Masabeeh.

14 “Iraqi Time” is a term coined by al-Zaydi in a previous novel, Funduq Questian (Hotel Questian) (Khdair Flaih al-Zaydi 2015b, 9).

15 For examples see Shawi (2012); Antun (2010); al-Sa'dawi (2013); Garmiyani (2011), among others.

16 Although one of the hero's best friends is a communist Iraqi Kurd, the “split personality” in this novel is entirely Arab-Iraqi and Kurds are left out of it. Significantly, Kaka Hama, the Kurdish friend, was the only one who knew that the hero had three personalities. He is a marginal figure in the novel. Symbolically, being the secret-keeper means that the Kurds watch from the side how Arab Iraq is trying to reconcile its controversies. Badr (2008), 57.

17 The name ‘Azran is similar to ‘Azra’il, the Muslim angel of death. The reader will notice the connotation.

18 The “Shadow State” is a term used to describe the intricate web of secret services and their agents who allegedly preserved the power behind the scenes in Iraq after 2003.

19 This bridge has another significance: it connects the mostly Shiite Rusafa with the mostly Sunni Karkh.