Omaha daily bee., 1917-03-14
Bagdad of the Caliphs
H. Merriam Allen, in New York Post.

The visitor to this CITY of Peace" recalls that
it was the capital OF domain reaching from Spain
into Africa and from Africa to India, and he
knows that Haroun AL Raschid was once its ruler.
These facts have been ndelibly inscribed upon the
tablets of memory through the medium OF
"Amini," "Al Baba," "Sindbad the Sailor and
others of these delightful Arabian Nights tales,
in which lamps and jars and carpets play mys-
ticay potent parts But the Bagdad of today,
though still spoken OF in Turkish documents as
''the glorious city," has naught but crumbling
mosques, dilapdated palaces and neglected tombs
to bear testimony to the splendor of the past.
1t was Amansor, the second caliph of the
Abbasdes dynasty, who removed the capital of
Islam here from Damascus, laying the new city's
foundations in the middle of the eighth century.
When he first saw the spot he was enchanted with
it, although there was then but single habitaton
upon it, the cell of the venerable hermit Dad. The
latter, ignorant of who his dignihed visitor was,
not only entered into conversation with him, but
predicted that one Mosos was destined to found
a city where they were standing Il am that
man" exclaimed the caliph, going on to inform
the hermit how, in his boyhood, he once stole
bracelet, and his nurse had ever after called
him "Moslos,' the name of thief then well
known. A considerable impression must have
been made upon the mind of Almansor by the old
recluse for the town was eventually named for
him, bag" signfyng in the Persian tongue
Dad"
This caliph by the by, was quite the Rookie
Teller Of his time, for he possessed the tidy sum
OF $l50,000000. The willy fnancier did not how
ever unduly invest his wealth in Bagdad real
estate, for he and his sons left it small town,
confined to the western bank of the Tigrs. More
over, they economical in building materials, using
fragments plundered from the ancient Persian
capital, Ctesphon, its near neighbor, Silencia,
and from Babylon.
Bagdad's streets, on sunt day, furnished
striking sight. The buildings, constructed of
bricks and tiles of gold-red tint, offered rich
background for the gorgeous puppies, greens and
browns in the raiment of the two million and
more who lived and moved and had their Oriental
being there. Of such truly magnificent riot of
color and wealth the essentially Arab city of
today, reduced mainly to the east bank, gives a
sadly faded impression There are only 10000
cheaply, even slovenly, CARRIED souls there now
If there be left one tattered remnant of the old
and the picturesque it lies in the pilgrims of var
ous nationalities-Turks, Jews, Persians, Arme-
mans, Hindus, Syrians Kurds and Arabs-who
from time to time wend their way with reverentia
mien to the old tombs and mosques of the Sum-
mites and Shiahs.
The demoralized aspect Of both the eastern
and western parts of the town, connected by two
pontoon bridges, is emphasized by, the decayed
condition of the ancient brick walls. These were
originally surmounted by large round towers at
the principal angles, smaller towers intervening
at shorter distances, and were pierced by seven
gates, one of which in the eastern wall called
Gate Of the Talisman" from an Arabic inscrip-
ton, bearing date of 1920, has remained closed
since Murad w, in 1888, conquered the city and
brought it under the permanent control Of the
Turk.
In this barred portal one who chooses may
see mute witness against nation which is like
he har ptrxt, .
tiers, taking all and giving nothing back. Tall,
gaunt, and alone, the gate towers amid desola-
ton, for, as far as the eye can reach on either
side, the walls have either fallen through decay,
been torn away to make room for parks and
esplanades, which have not yet been built and in
all probability never will be.
1t is no easy matter to come and go in modern
Bagdad; really to know the place is an achieve.
ment which only long and intimate frst-hand ex.
perience can compass. The form of the town,
both in its eastern and western sections, is that
OF an almost shapeess oblong (if the Irishism be
permitted), for it has been built without the
slightest regard to regularity. The unpaved
streets are even more intricate and winding than
those in Oldest Boston, and are so narrow that
two horsemen can scarce pass each other. The
houses resemble mausoleums in an American
cemetery, for there are no windows facing the
street and the small doors appear a very part of
the wall; one hardly knows them as doors, in.
deed, until they are opened.
The roofs are fiat, with parapets Of consider.
able height, and here, in summer the people Sleep
as well they might, for thermometer in june July
and August registers 1l9 degrees at noon, 122
degrees at o'clock declining at sunset to ia
degrees The native, who hates the governing
Pasha and his Turkish associates as he does sin
(and rather more), would like to curse them for
the heat as he does for so many other things, but
he thinks better of it and goes to work for the
relatively cooler part of each hot day, in the
picturesque garden in almost every case attached
to the house. Here he raises pomegranates and
hgs, oranges, lemons and date palms, products
which are in part consumed by the family in part
are sold to the we-stocked bazars
The depth of Bagdad's fall is best marked by
the political, legal and commercial corruption
everywhere obvious. Here is the straw which
shows how the winds of history are blowing. In
this traditional site of the Garden OF Eden, nation
after nation has, through the centuries, been put
beyond the gates for eating of the fruit of corrupt
rule. Babylonian, Mede and Assyran have thus
disappeared-and today sees the fate of the Turk
the same For him there can never be reawak-
enng of the pageantry of olden days. If there
are vast possibilities of development here, of
value not only to the inhabitants but to the
world at large they can be realized only as the
plains of Mesopotamia shall open pathway to
the European, whereby they shall enter and re-
claim this garden spot of so many dead civiliza-
tons that now are one with Nineveh and
Tyre"