If you want to see a story that will break your heart and yet at the same time remind you of the nobility of both men and books, look at the Washington Post’s piece on a bookselling family in Baghdad.
Despite the loss of both his brother and his son, Nabil al-Hayawi has reopened the Renaissance Bookshop on Mutanabi Street in Baghdad. His family has been running the shop since 1957, catering to eager Iraqi readers, in line with an Arab tradition that insists that, “Cairo writes. Beirut publishes. Baghdad reads.”
Nabil al-Hayawi has lived through more sorrow than most of us can begin to imagine. He is a middle-class Iraqi with the means to flee his country should he choose to do so. And yet, the Post piece tells us, “In the soft morning light, the Muslim call to prayer rises from a mosque as old as Mutanabi Street itself. It floats across the warren of crumbling Ottoman-era buildings and dark alleys, past the green shutters of the Renaissance Bookshop. ” The bookstore, almost destroyed by the bombs that killed Nabil’s son, is back in business.
“The rebuilt bookshop remains, an engine for fresh ideas and intellectual growth,” the Post piece tells us. “Every day on Mutanabi Street, a Hayawi sells books, educating a new contingent of lawyers, doctors and computer programmers.”
The story is accompanied by slide show and photos. It’s one of those stories that leaves you troubled and hopeful in almost equal measures.
1. Lynn Meng | 07.14.08
Thank you for this heads-up on the Washington Post article. It’s wonderful that you alert Monitor readers to great articles in other publications.