Old Baghdad
WHAT A place Baghdad was when Violette was an infant. Those were the days when butter, jams, conserves and even Passover bread had to be home-made; when there were no candles, but wicks; when electricity and running water were unheard of. Cows were milked on your doorstep and the only view you had of the outside world came from a man walking past your home with a magic lantern.
The picture on the left shows the conditions prevailing at the time in Kutchet el Nasaara, one of the better neighbourhoods where Jews and Christians lived peaceably alongside each other.
Meanwhile in the city the menfolk of all religions congregated at street cafés where all of the day’s business — commercial, domestic and private — was conducted. Moshi’s coffee house (Qahwat Moshi ) was by far the most popular, where men played backgammon, made business deals, traded gossip and met the matchmaker.
The lifeblood of the city coursed through the main carriageway, Rashid Street, named after caliph Haron al-Rashid of the Arabian Nights stories. It was known to everyone simply as the Jaadda and was the bustling artery to which all Baghdadis gravitated for its shops, food sellers, pharmacies… and, later, cinemas. On the jostling pavements pedestrians scurried past street sellers carrying their wares in baskets on their heads or on the backs of donkeys, or vendors with old-fashioned iron scales, weighing their produce with rocks. You can get an idea of it all from our YouTube slideshow.