OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

Iraqi Minister of HigherEducation’s visit to London

* On 23 January 2017, Ihsan Muhsinand Nadeem Al-Abdalla from theAnglo-Iraqi Studies Centre (AISC)team attended an event held at theIraqi cultural consulate in London.

The main speaker at this event wasthe Iraqi Minister of HigherEducation, Dr Abdul Razzaq Al-Issa,who was visiting from Iraq. Thisevent was attended by the IraqiCultural Advisor, Dr Hassan Al-Allaq,the Iraqi embassy advisor Nazar Al-Bayati, and Iraqi embassy staff.

The discussion focused on threeareas: firstly, the challenges facing90 universities and higher educationinstitutes in Iraq, secondly,thousands of Iraqi students in highereducation abroad in Europe andAmerica, sponsored by the Iraqigovernment and their future in theface of Iraq’s difficult financialsituation, and thirdly, ways in whichUK-based Iraqi academics couldcontribute to higher education inIraq, whether by visiting the countryor providing educational supportwhilst continuing to live and work inthe UK.

A L - H A K I M F O U N D AT I O N

ANGLO- IRAQI STUDIES CENTRE (AISC)

JANUARY 2017 NEWSLETTER

January 2017

What’s Inside:

Outreach activities From our library Anglo-Iraqi images Further information

AISC January 2017 Newsletter Page 2

Iraqi Dentist in London:Award of Excellence

* On 14 January 2017, Ihsan Muhsinand Nadeem Al-Abdalla from theAnglo-Iraqi Studies Centre (AISC)team attended an event held inLondon.

This event was organised by theMuslim Youth Association (MYA) torecognise the achievement of an Iraqidentist, Dr Bashar Al-Nahar, who hasa clinic in London. He developed anew dental treatment process, toreduce the pain that some patientsendure in their dental treatments.

The event was attended by the IraqiAmbassador to the UK, Dr Saleh Al-Timimi, the Iraqi Cultural Attache,Health Attache, and other staff fromthe Iraqi embassy in London. Alsoattending the event were academics,doctors and Iraqi communityactivists.

It was great to recognise theachievements of Iraqi academicsin the prime of their careers, andsuch recognition should encourageother academics to strive forexcellence in their fields. Thediscussion was also about how topass this experience andknowledge to medical practionersin Iraq and the world.

Dr Al-Nahar is pictured on the right,with his award which was presentedto him by a high profile dentalinstitution based in London. Theother photographs show London’sIraqi community, and Iraqi academicsand medical experts, celebrating andrecognising his achievements.

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Basra Museum: An Anglo-Iraqi Effort

* On 16 January 2017, Ihsan Muhsinand Nadeem Al-Abdalla from theAnglo-Iraqi Studies Centre (AISC)team attended an event held at theresidence of the Iraqi ambassador tothe UK in London, Dr Saleh Al-Timimi.

This event featured a presentation bythe British Institute for the Study ofIraq (BISI), which was given by theirPresident, Dr John Curtis, and theirChair, Dr Paul Collins. Theirpresentation focused on the efforts ofIraqis to re-open the Basra Museumin southern Iraq, in a new buildingwhich was previously part of Basra’spresidential building complex(palaces) and the efforts of BISI tohelp re-open the museum inSeptember 2016, with artefactstransferred from the Iraqi nationalmuseum in Baghdad. Theseartefacts occupy one of themuseum’s five halls, and their plan isto open the other halls in time.

The event was attended by manyIraqi and British academics and therepresentatives of many Iraqicommunity and culturalorganisations.

The Basra Museum is a greatexample of positive Anglo-Iraqirelations in action, and as such AISCwas happy to be part of this event.

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Iraqi Solidarity event, London

* On 28 January 2017, IhsanMuhsin, Nadeem Al-Abdalla and AliAl-Mousawi from the Anglo-IraqiStudies Centre (AISC) team attendedan event for the UK’s Iraqicommunity to show solidarity withthe people of Iraq in their struggleagainst Daesh terrorism, and to showsupport for the Iraqi military andsecurity forces in their fight toliberate Mosul from Daesh.

This event was held at the Al-KhoaeeFoundation’s hall in London, and wasattended by the Iraqi Ambassador tothe UK, Dr Saleh Al-Timimi, andmany Iraqi political, cultural andsocial activists in the UK. Speecheswere given by the Ambassador,religious and political figures.

Iraqi Kurdish community event* On 29 January 2017, Ihsan Muhsinand Nadeem Al-Abdalla from theAnglo-Iraqi Studies Centre (AISC)team attended a Kurdish communityevent in London.

The event was held to remember thelife of the Kurdish freedom fighter,Mama Risha, who passed away in1985. It focused on a slice of Iraqimodern history and particularly theKurdish struggles and their issues inmodern Iraq.

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FROM OUR LIBRARY THIS MONTH

Shanidar: The First Flower People

(by Ralph Solecki, published 1971)

This book was published by theAmerican anthropologist ProfessorRalph Solecki (1917-1988) ofColumbia University, who excavatedthe caves of northern Iraq (IraqiKurdistan) between 1951 and 1960.During this time, he found andexcavated the Shanidar cave innorthern Iraq, which is famed for thefossilled remains of early humans(neanderthals) found there.

Solecki found many fossilled remainsof neanderthals, who were buriedwith their flowers, and this is why henamed his book “The First FlowerPeople”. These neanderthals hadlived in the area around 40,000 yearsago, and later researches suggestedeven earlier than this, long beforethe birth of civilisation inMesopotamia and the world.

In 1957, Solecki and his team ofanthropologists recovered thefossilised remains of 10 individualsfrom tens of thousands of years ago.This was considered a grand find inthe history of human evolution;Solecki’s findings indicated that theseearly humans may have practisedearly medicine and ritual burial.

Solecki is pictured here in northernIraq, with a Kurdish assistant, duringhis excavations of the area. Alsopictured is Shanidar Cave, the placeof Solecki’s findings.

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Lady Ethel Stefana Drower’sBooks about Iraq

Lady Ethel Stefana Drower (neeStevens) (1879-1972) was a Britishcultural anthropologist, well knownfor her travels in the Middle East andher many books about this part ofthe world. She spent 25 years livingin Iraq, from 1921 to 1946.

Lady Drower’s lifelong interest in Iraqand the Middle East began when sheaccompanied her husband, Sir EdwinDrower, to Iraq in 1921, where hewas advisor to the Justice Ministerfrom 1921 to 1946.

During her 25 years living in Iraq,Lady Drower produced many books.Titles she published during this timeincluded By Tigris & Euphrates(1923), Sophy: A Tale of Baghdad(1924), Ishtar (1927), Folktales ofIraq (1931), The Mandaeans of Iraqand Iran (1937) and Peacock Angel(1941), about the Yazidi people ofIraq.

Lady Drower was well known for herstudies of the religions and beliefs inIraq and the Middle East. She wasconsidered a specialist on theMandaeans, an ancient religiousminority living in Iraq and Iran. Her1937 publication, The Mandaeans ofIraq & Iran, gives an insight intotheir religion, culture and ways oflife. She translated their holy book,the Q’Olada, and collected manyMandaean manuscripts during herlifetime.

In addition, she collected andgathered folk tales of Iraq, which shepublished in 1931 in a book titledFolktales of Iraq.

Lady E S Drower (pictured in her later years) wrote many books about Iraq in her lifetime

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ANGLO-IRAQI IMAGES

Tag Kisra, Ctesiphon: Photos before and after the

collapse of one side of the arch

Ctesiphon was an ancient city whichlies near southern Baghdad, and wasthe capital of Persia during theParthian and Sasanian empiresbetween the 1st century BC to the 7th

century AD. Also, Ctesiphon wasknown by the name of “Al-Mada’in”.The only remaining part of Ctesiphonis the partial remains of theemperor’s palace, Tag Kisra, whichmeans “the arch of the palace of thePersian emperor (Kisra)”.

Many adventurers and travellers inMesopotamia in the 18th and 19th

centuries produced paintings, whichshowed that both sides of the archwere intact. Even some photographstaken in the 1860s confirm that thetwo sides of the palace were intact,as shown in these photographs.However, in 1909 the right side of thearch had fallen. Many photos takenby the British Army after theyentered Baghdad in 1917 show theTag Kisra with only one side intact.The structure, however, remains theonly single-span vault of reinforcedbrickwork in the world.

1875 painting of Tag Kisra,before the fall of the right side in the above photo

Tag Kisra – photograph taken in 1864, published in The Geographical Journal in 1919. This is an

important photo, showing materialistic proof thatthere were two sides surrounding the arch

A relatively modern photo, published in 1932 in a“Flying Carpet Ruins”, taken years after the right

side collapsed in the early 1900s

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FURTHER INFORMATION

To find out more about the AISCproject, our activities and services,please visit our website at:

www.angloiraqi.org

Or contact us at:

Email: info@angloiraqi.org Tel: +44 20 8452 3270

Correspondence Address: AISC, PO Box 240, 22 Notting HillGate, London W11 3JE

Centre Address: AISC, Unit C1, 289 CricklewoodBroadway, London NW2 6NX

AISC Manager:Mr Nadeem Al-AbdallaEmail: nadeem@angloiraqi.org

Director of Al-Hakim Foundation:Mr Ihsan MuhsinEmail: alhakimuk@talktalk.net

Anglo-Iraqi Studies Centre/Al-Hakim FoundationCharity No: 1154526

Company No: 8323352