Mutanabbi Street

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Al Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, 2009
2013
2013

The Mutanabbi Street ( Arabic الطريق المتنبّي, DMG aṭ-Ṭarīq al-Mutanabbī , also Al-Mutanabi Street) is located near the old town of the Iraqi capital Baghdad .

Location and importance

Mutanabbi Street branches off from ar-Raschid-Strasse and has been the center for the book trade in the metropolis for a long time. The large number of bookstores and street vendors for books as well as cafes make the street the center of culture and thus also of the literary and intellectual scene in Iraq.

history

In the 9th century, the Iranian paper merchant Ibn Abi Tahir Tayfur documented the book market in his book on the history of Baghdad; in the 10th century, Ibn an-Nadīm's extensive explanations followed .

Mutanabbi Street is named after the classic Arab poet al-Mutanabbi of the 10th century Christian calendar.

The first book market was established here as early as the Abbasid period (750 to 1258). He achieved great fame. The buildings on the street were specially built for this purpose.

On March 5, 2007, a car bomb exploded on Mutanabbi Street . 26 people were killed and almost all bookstores destroyed. Due to the uncertainty that followed, customers shunned the center of Baghdad's book trade. Only after the completion of the reconstruction work and the reopening of the street by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on December 18, 2008 did the situation in this cultural center return to normal.

In 2012, the poet and second-hand bookseller Beau Beausoleil initiated an anthology on Mutanabbi Street in San Francisco with contributions from 100 writers, which he edited together with the Kuwaiti author Deema Shahabi . Anthony Shadid and Nazik al-Mala'ika took part, among others . Second, an art book was created.

There is a film about the Shabandar Café on Mutanabbi Street, which opened in 1917, called A Candle for the Shahbandar Café (2011).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Owles: Then and Now: A New Chapter for Baghdad Book Market , nytimes.com , December 18, 2008
  2. ↑ or Ahmad ibn Abi Tahir (819-893), cf. House of Wisdom (Baghdad)
  3. ↑ Muhsin al-Musawi: Preface. Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad: When Books Take You Captive, in: Al-Mutanabbi Street starts here. Poets and writers respond to the March 5, 2007, bombing of Baghdad's "street of booksellers" , edited and introduced by Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shahabi, Oakland, California, PM-Press 2012, ISBN 978-1-604-86590-5 , S. ix-xiv. [docDetail.action? docID = 10583507 beginning]
  4. ↑ a b Birgit Svensson: Foreword , in: With the eyes of Inana. Poetry and short prose by contemporary women authors from Iraq , from the Arabic by Leila Chammaa and Jessica Siepelmeyer, edited by Birgit Svensson. Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin / Tübingen 2015, ISBN 978-3-89930-434-3 , pp. 7-10, p. 7.
  5. ^ Picture in the FAZ of April 5, 2013, page 33
  6. ^ AC: Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here. A literary bridge to Baghdad , economist.com , December 28, 2012
  7. ↑ Al-Mutanabbi Street starts here. Poets and writers respond to the March 5, 2007, bombing of Baghdad's "street of booksellers" , edited and introduced by Beau Beausoleil and Deema Shahabi, table of contents  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Oakland, California, PM-Press 2012, ISBN 978-1-604-86590-5@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / dibi2.rz.uni-frankfurt.de  
  8. ↑ IWM Film Festival: A Candle for the Shabandar Café , youtube.com (Trailer, 4'38 '')