Open Discussions /Gulf Cultural Club
*Professor John Darlington – Executive Director of World Monuments Fund Britain
**Taghlib AbdulHadi AlWaily – Architect planner and founder and director of “Turath”
***Diddi Malek – Architectural heritage connoisseur
****Karen Dabrowska – Journalist, author
Islamic architecture is one of the world’s most celebrated building traditions. Known for its radiant colours, rich patterns, and symmetrical silhouettes, this distinctive approach has been popular in the Muslim world since the 7th century. But the recent conflicts and upheavals in the MENA region are threatening and destroying the cultural heritage of the region. What is happening to traditional architecture and what is being done to preserve it as
it faces threats from war and the onslaught of modernism which has severed links with the rich cultural heritage of the past? (Copies of the biography Mohamed Makiya: A Modern Architect Renewing Islamic tradition will be available at the meeting).
Tuesday 16 th November 2021
Professor John Darlington. My name is John Darlington and I work for the World
Monuments Fund. Some of you may not know what the World Monuments Fund is but you
will certainly have heard of the sites we support and look after because they range from Petra
in Jordan all the way through to Machu Pichu to gardens in parts of England.
I work for the Monument Funds office in Britain and we in the United Kingdom support
medieval monasteries and Edwardian bath houses. But the thing that I enjoy the most is that I
also run projects from the UK that take place in the Middle East region and that is what I am
going to be talking to you about tonight.
There are three projects which come under the Cultural Protection Fund. They are all about
how you preserve architectural heritage and cultural heritage in the MENA region. All these
are places where heritage has been negatively impacted by war. What we do is we see how
we can help this situation and work with local communities who want to restore their
heritage.
Heritage in times of conflict can be impacted in two different ways. First there can be a direct
attack on people’s culture as in the attacks on Palmera and the blowing up of the Buddhas in
Banyam. Or it just simply gets caught up in the cross fire of war in the places where battles
happen. The three projects I will describe are in the latter category where heritage gets caught
up in the conflict of war.
The second thing to say before I show you the slides is that we are a global organization but
we own nothing. Our mission is to conserve architectural heritage and heritage of all sorts
throughout the world. We have been very successful in that since 1955. We own nothing.
Everything that we do and this is key to our discussion tonight is based on the local
communities. So it is more about how local communities preserve their heritage.
So the three projects I am going to describe are in Yemen, Iraqi Kurdistan and Jordan and
Lebanon. So I will start immediately with Yemen where I will transport you to Taiz the
former capital of Yemen. Taiz is a place which has a very long and rich history. It has an
architectural heritage. There are forts on some of the hills and it also has a huge range of
other buildings such as mosques and shrines, hammams – all the things you expect in historic
settlements. Of course this is a place which is still a place of conflict. In 2016 Taiz was under
a direct attach from the Houthis and the conflict was taking place on the doorstep.
The project I want to speak about is a project which took place in a building which is the
national museum in Taiz. It was damaged in 2016 by rebel shell fire. It was really not in a
good situation. The windows were shattered and the scenes inside the building give a better
indication of what we were dealing with. When you see the sky through the roof you know
you are in trouble.
So we have a building which is in need. The General Organisation for Antiquities and
Museums came to us for help and we essentially ran a project where we were training them in
methodologies to actually repair this building. And they were given the skills not to help just
with this building but with other buildings throughout Taiz and throughout Yemen. It came
with some funding to restore the building and expertise and all the other things we can
contribute.
There were five in the team who were all professionals: architects, archaeologists and
engineers. The first thing we did was to take them for training to Egypt and all the way to
Kuwait. In Kuwait we had experts who could train them in the methodologies to restore that
particular building.
International experts were brought in and they conducted a series of workshops. From that
they created the actual documentation needed and that would lead to the actual conservation
of the Imam Palace. Both the exterior and the interior. It is a beautiful building. You have a
classic case of training people on a budget of £150,000 for the complete restoration of a
building and its interior. They were trained to conserve their own heritage using the model
we developed.
My second example comes from Amadi in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is an incredible place mainly a
medieval settlement. The issue here that the local population were facing was again the
aftermath of war. All the systems and processes had broken down in Amadi and
development was happening in the citadel which was completely inappropriate to the historic
character and was threatening to destroy the character of this place. There were some historic
gateways, mosques, extraordinary views of the country side beyond and the collection of old
houses built in the traditional way.
These were the assets which we wanted to preserve. This is not just about tangible heritage. It
is not just about bricks and mortar. This project also acknowledges that many people value
intangible heritage. In the case of Amedi it is things like music. In my hotel room one night
people just gathered to play music. There are pomegranates which dot every single garden
and settlement. That is really historic. Those pomegranates provide shade under which people
would have conversations. If you lose them you lose that social space so that is a project
which takes in intangible as well as tangible heritage.
The methodology was very simple. We would map all the heritage assets, talk to the local
community – the baker, the man who sells vegetables, the women who make the food in one
of the restaurants to see what they like and then we layer that with the more traditional assets
of what Amadi has and that leads to polity and practices which allow development to take
place. But development which actually supports the heritage character. So it is trying to weed
out development which is totally inappropriate to Amedi and which would destroy the
opportunities for the future. This is an extraordinary place.
The final project that I want to touch on is one which started in Jordan and then moved into
Lebanon. This directly relates to cultural heritage and to damage during war. In essence we
were looking at three things. We were looking at a cultural building. In Jordan and Lebanon
buildings are still made of stone.
That was issue number one. Issue number two is that we know that during times of war skills
disappear and we know that conservation skills disappear. So we don’t have people who can
restore buildings that have been damaged.
The third issue is that there are huge numbers of refugees from Syria. So we put together a
project to take Syrian refugees and local Lebanese and Jordanians and to train them to
become conservation stone masons so they have the ability to fix their own heritage. That can
later give them employment and it is a model that works really well.
In northern Jordan there were men and women on this course. They were Jordanians and
Syrian refugees. Their education ranged from degree level to some who did not read and
write. So it was a real mixed bag of people and we took them through the basics of how to
carve stone. The end results are incredible.
The second project was in Tripoli, north Lebanon where we were working in the Lion Tower
of Tripoli port. Again we trained local Lebanese as well as Syrian refugees. In the theoretical
training we do geometry. All stone masonry is done on a completely flat surface. And the
things they created are quite extraordinary given that they did a six month training course.
They are creating masonry which is degree level in terms of its quality. If you have never
used a chisel and you try to carve stone it is really difficult. I have the greatest admiration for
these people. We recently made a film of the training and that is going to a film festival in
California and to another one in Beirut.
[Film shown]
They were 40 students. They are now applying for jobs in Beirut. They need people to work
in stone because of the explosion. We would very much like to run that programme again in
Tripoli so that we can train more people.
The main thing I wanted to share with you is that the World Monuments Foundation is a
global organisation working across the world. We could do absolutely nothing were it not for
the people on the ground but the model of being global but taking action locally is a very
useful one and a very beautiful one. You build capacity rather than just parachuting in. This
is a very much more stable longterm approach. Thank you.
Taghlib Abdul Hadi AlWaily: (via zoom) Thank you for inviting me to participate. My
presentation is a bit gloomyas our heritage in Iraq is facing problems. I am very happy to say
there has been progress in Amadea and in the south.
[Screen shared]
There are many problems facing heritage in Iraq today. We have many cities that have
heritage. Most of the heritage sites are suffering from neglect and decay. I will go through
some of the problems facing Iraq. The subject is very vast. The heritage has been neglected
for a long time and is suffering a lot.
I will start with Baghdad. There has been no serious excavation in this city which was the
centre of the Abbasid Caliphate. The city did not last for more than 150 years. It was on the
left side of the river and then moved to the east and than moved again to the south .This city
lasted from the 12 th to the 20 th century.
[Slides of Baghdad]
The city wall has been totally demolished. Only one of the gates on the northern side
remained. All the others have been demolished. The wall was demolished in 1886. After that
there was the construction of Rashid Street. The urban structure and the pattern of the city
has been changed.
The construction of the city road network between 1910 and 1980 destroyed most of the
urban structure.
[Slide: the white lines are the new roads and the red lines are the old alleyways of the city.]
Urbanisation projects from 1920 – 1980.
We have lost a lot of the monuments in the city.
[Slide: the yellow spots are the areas chosen for demolition for new projects].
The current preservation policies.
The old town of Baghdad – slide of the alleyways and heritage houses which have fallen
apart. About 40 – 50 percent of the heritage houses have been demolished totally in four
decades.
We have 210 historical buildings according to statistics of 2011 (the latest survey). Forty
seven of them are distinguished and the others are of heritage value.
One of the major issues are the Al Qawf and the religious monuments modification.
According the antiquities law no55 the Al Qawf have the right to maintain and renew the
religious buildings. These are the religious buildings and mosques [slides].
In the 1940s there was a mosque called Marjan mosque built in 1643. It was demolished in
- It was replaced by a mosque in 1936. They only kept the minaret and the gate. Again in
the 80s they demolished the three domes and made another dome. This is a 600year old
mosque just demolished and replaced with something else and then demolished again and
replaced with something else. This is a disaster.
There are other examples of such practices from the Al Qawf which I will show in the next
slides. [Slides of mosques which have been demolished and rebuilt. The demolished mosques
were more than 300 or 400 years old].
Religious shrines have also been affected.
[Slides of Kerbala Imam Hussein shrine – 2003 and last year. It has been totally modified and
so has the shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf]
Not only Islamic buildings have been affected. An 1843 church in the centre of Baghdad was
demolished last year and replaced by a shopping mall.
Again a 19 th century synagogue in the centre of Baghdad was demolished in 2012. There are
many other examples.
But there is some good news from the 30s – 50s.
Slide of Kahn Marjan, Abbasid palace, Mustansariya University, Wastani Gate before and
after restoration.
This situation is due the following reasons: political decisions, lack of public awareness,
terrorism and wars, poor management, corruption and insufficient laws. Our heritage is in
danger.
The international community should become aware of major heritage loss in Baghdad. One
of the heritage sites that was once the centre of the world. Immediate action is required to
save major heritage sites. Baghdad has not been given much attention and it is losing a lot
and we have to highlight this issue. Thank you very much.
Dibbi Malek: The focus of my talk tonight will be the art market, where I have particular
expertise, looking at the repatriation of cultural artefacts with specific reference to Islamic
architecture. I will also be looking at cultural diplomacy and the direct and indirect impact of
sanctions and war on cultural heritage preservation and finally, Mohammad Makiya’s
architectural legacy today.
With the onset of the 2003 Iraq war, Iraq’s National Museum was heavily looted. However,
the American District Attorney, Matthew Bogdanos (Thieves of Baghdad book), pioneered a
massive recovery of the stolen artefacts and led a team to protect dozens of buildings and 11
acres of land in a still-active battle zone. The impact of museums like Qatar actively looking
for ancient art from the Middle East has fueled the trade in stolen Islamic and pre-Islamic
artefacts, and today in New York, where Bogdanos is based, there have been numerous court
cases to repatriate stolen antiquities to their country of origin.
With the advent of ISIS, countries like Iraq and Syria have been easy trading grounds for
smuggled antiquities and recently, an 18-foot mosaic of Hercules, looted from the border
between Syria and Turkey, was seized in 2006 from a naturalized Syrian living in California.
The FBI has been investigating the provenance of this mosaic since 2015 and do not believe
the purchase papers provided by the current owner. It is likely to have been excavated from a
site near Idlib in Syria, near the Turkish border (it is worth noting there is a very interesting
book called Chasing Aphrodite which describes how 50 items of antiquity from the Getty
Museum were repatriated to Italy).
In Afghanistan amid the Taliban insurgency there are fears from the cultural sector of looting,
where the political environment of Kabul is unstable. The British Council has suspended all
its heritage projects in Afghanistan and closed its Kabul office. There are questions about the
status of Afghanistan’s priceless heritage museums and artefacts, and it remains to be seen
what the future holds there. We should not forget that in 2001, the Taliban dynamited the 6 th
century Buddhas in Bamyan.
In Uzbekistan, an important 13 th century glazed Islamic calligraphic tile, stolen from the
Chashma-Ayub mausoleum in Bukhara in 2014, was illegally exported and entered the art
market where it was offered for sale by a London dealer. Professor James Allen of the
Ashmolean Museum spotted it, alerted the dealer and the British Museum arranged its
repatriation to Uzbekistan. We should note that museums play an important role in issues
around cultural heritage and help in identification and restoration of trafficked antiquities.
Turkey is a country which sets the benchmark for repatriation of stolen antiquities and they
have a team which monitors every auction across the world detecting any artefacts which
have been smuggled. They have a fantastic technological system to track down these
artefacts. For example, in June 2020 they detected two Iznik tiles dating back to the 16 th
century in a Dutch auction which had been stolen from the Ulu mosque in Adana 20 years
ago. These were later repatriated to Turkey.
In Iran, there are some amazing scholars of antiquities who also search upcoming auctions,
and recently the Imam Reza library in Mashhad blocked the sale of some Qur’an pages which
appeared in a London auction and got the items removed as they form part of a collection
which they had in their own museum.
Provenance for both Islamic and pre-Islamic art is becoming much more important and there
have been cases where it is no longer enough to account for provenance from 1970, certain
countries are demanding earlier provenances for items to be able to be sold but this is an
ongoing dialogue the result of which we are unsure. You could find it almost becomes
impossible to sell any antiquities at auction in the future. However, the big auction houses
like Sotheby’s, Christies and Bonhams do take considerable diligence in checking out
provenance of any item they offer for sale and they work closely with museum experts to
establish this provenance.
With regard to repatriation, it does become a form of cultural diplomacy. For example,
President Obama returned a looted 7 th century rhyton (silver chalice) to President Rouhani
which had been illegally exported. US customs seized this in 2003 and for 10 years Iran had
sought the return of this chalice. This led to the first high-level contact between the US and
Iran for many years. On the other hand, President Trump threatened 52 of Iran’s cultural
heritage sites on his twitter if Iran were to retaliate against the US’s assassination of Qasem
Soleimani. Iran has supported patrimony laws such as the National Heritage Protection Act of
1930 and the 1980 Legal Bill preventing clandestine diggings and excavations, and has also
joined the 1954 Hague Convention and the 1970 UNESCO convention.
However, sanctions in Iran have directly hindered cultural heritage preservation as a recent
zoom webinar with academics from the University of Chicago highlighted the problems due
to travel restrictions. They have been unable to travel freely to continue archeological work in
Iran and likewise, doner institutions are unable to easily transfer money to Iran due to
sanctions. So, one could say that the preservation of Islamic architecture has become harder
in the climate of sanctions and war, and of course the cultural tourism sector, which gives
important funding to cultural heritage management, has been heavily impacted in the unstable
countries of the MENA region.
With regard to the legacy of Mohamad Makiya, work is being undertaken to preserve the 12 th
century minaret of the Khulafa mosque which Makiya originally preserved. The state mosque
of Kuwait and the Sultan Qaboos Mosque in Oman are heritage sites and tourist attractions,
and showcase the breadth of special finishes within Islamic architecture and art. It is
interesting to note that the recent UNESCO proposals to rebuild the Nuri mosque which was
destroyed by ISIS has met with strong opposition from a team of Iraqi architects who oppose
the UNESCO approved proposals and have lobbied the local government in Mosul to block
any building work until a wider consultation is carried out with the heritage experts in Iraq.
They feel the current proposal does not continue the ethos and standards set by Makiya. The
World Monument Fund is also working to preserve the Mosul museum, designed by Makiya
and destroyed by ISIS.
To conclude, museums and other art institutions must continue to identify stolen goods from
the MENA region and then arrange their repatriation. It is clear that the art market under the
work of people like Bogdanos is cracking down on selling looted goods in the West. Cultural
heritage and its preservation should be exempt from sanctions. Cultural diplomacy or
“archaeo-diplomacy” as it has been named, is important in boosting relations between
countries in the MENA region and the West.
Karen Dabrowska: I am very happy the biography of Mohamed Makiya is being launched
at the first in person Open Discussions meeting since March 2020. We have come out of a
bleak period. Mohamed also had many bleak periods in his life but, in the words of his son
Kanan: “My father had an extraordinary ability to see what he wants to imagine what might
be. If he was walking through a city he is constantly looking at it in terms of can be and just
obliterating from his memory the nastiness of what he actually does see, which to him is
ephemeral.”
First and foremost I would like to thank Kanan Makiya and the Makiya Kufa Foundation for
making the publication of this biography possible. My thanks also to Dr Shehabi of Open
Discussion for providing this wonderful venue for today’s meeting and to Massoud from Saqi
Books for kindly bringing copies of the biography to our meeting. If you would like a copy
please see Massoud now as we don’t want to keep him here too long.
I only have 15 minutes to introduce the biography. I would need at least an hour to thank all
the people who helped me to write this book so please don’t be offended if I don’t mention
you by name.
The topic of our meeting is Traditional architecture in the Muslim world: Attempts to
preserve a threatened rich cultural heritage so lets start with some quotes from Mohamed
about this topic.
Traditional continuity should not mean living in the past. It should be a question of the past
living in the present for a better future.
Simplicity with dignity are the basic characteristics of Arab architecture and Islamic
urbanism when they are their very best. The continuity of tradition as a ‘living dimension’ is
essential.
Mohamed Makiya shines in four constellations of gifted men. First and foremost he was an
architect, a master of incorporating traditional styles into modern architecture. His most
important work was an extension to the Khulafa Mosque in Baghdad completed in 1963 in
which the old and new mosques were integrated in a harmonious design featuring a minaret
from the ninth century. There was a continuation of tradition in all his work even though it
was executed with modern materials.
Second he as a great teacher who inspired hundreds of students. In 1959 he set up the first
Department of Architecture in Baghdad University.
Third he was a collector and promoter of Iraqi art.
and fourth he set up the Kufa Gallery in London an oasis of Middle Eastern culture for 20
years (1986 – 2006).
Mohammed lived for 101 years. We think it was 101. His mother said he was born the year
the British entered Baghdad but they actually entered twice, the first time in 1914 and the
second in 1917; it is generally assumed he was born on 5 November 1914.
Mohamed was the first Iraqi to get a PhD from a British university. But things didn’t go to
well for him early in life. His father died when he was two years and he went to live with
Uncle Aboud a grocer. The uncle appeared at school one day grabbed Mohamed by the hand
and said enough of this rubbish. The next day the headmaster of the school gave as good as
he got. He arrived at Aboud’s shop where Mohamed was working grabbed him and said
enough of this rubbish and took him back to school. The headmaster won, Mohamed was an
excellent student and at the age of 21 he arrived in Liverpool in 1935.
In the words of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain we have finished the era of Bleak House
and are now in the chapter of Great Expectations. Great expectations summarised
Mohamed’s feelings. He remembered rationing during WW2 and the Ramadan feast when a
Yemeni student managed to get a whole sheep to celebrate Eid – rationing not withstanding.
He graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture in 1941 and then went on to study in
Cambridge University where he got his PhD in 1946. “In Cambridge the only thing I did was
to go to the library. There was no professor who could tell me anything about Islamic
architecture so they left me free.” When he was in England he met his future wife Margaret
Crawford who broke completely with her family as they did not want her to marry an Arab.
Mohamed’s family where the exact opposite and welcomed and loved Margaret.
He returned in Iraq in 1946. “My mother was waiting in the reception area in the airport,” he
recalled. She could not speak because she was crying. She saw me as still a child in need of
her care and attention. I was not at all surprised that she took a ripe pear out of her pocket and
put it into my hand. This reminded me of the way she would give me food out of sight of my
half brothers and their wives.”
Mohamed’s first job was with the Directorate of Municipalities where he wanted to do
something about the lack of maps of the country’s regions But the Ministry of Defence
decreed that maps were top secret. Mohamed got them from the British Royal Airforce in
Cairo. That job didn’t last long and he set up Makiya Associates. Clients frequently paid in
goods often carpets but one southern sheikh gave him a cow – “Nasty beast,” his wife
recalled. “Used to kick like hell!” The right hand man was a Kurd known as Mr Fixit. He
gave the family a brown bear cub which kept growing. The Kurd used to wrestle with it but it
was decided to present it to the young king as an addition to his menagerie when the Kurd
left for the north to take part in the resistance.
Mohamed’s commissions included houses for the Iraqi royal family. He entertained famous
architects who visited Baghdad including Walter Gropius, Frank Lloyd Wright and Gio
Ponti. Through thick and thin Margaret his wife was his backbone.
In 1955 Mohamed became the first president of the Iraqi Artists Society. King Faisal II was a
member. All the artists scholarships were sponsored by the royal family. When the
monarchy was overthrown Mohamed wrote a letter to Abdul Karim Qasim the new leader
stating that maybe the artists were associated with the royal family but they are actually all
revolutionaries, and all the topics depicted in their art works deal with the poor and the
hungry masses that your revolution is trying to represent. It was a masterpiece of diplomacy.
In 1959 Mohammed set up the Department of Architecture in Baghdad University. Attared
Sarraf told me it was the greatest time of our lives when we were students. “We were all
Iraqis – it did not matter if you were an Arab, a Kurd, a Sunni or a Shi’i. There was a great
belief that we would be working for the whole country. My friends who are living in Iraq
today say we were very lucky to be students at that time.” When a Jewish student was not
made welcome Mohamed said every Iraqi is part of our family and if someone doesn’t like
that they know where the door is.
Akram Ogaily recalled his first meeting with Mohamed. He asked me why I wanted to study
architecture and I told him I want to serve my country. He replied go and join the army if you
want to serve your country. Architects have to be devoted to their profession.
The Khulafa mosque I mentioned in my introduction was constructed between 1960 – 65.
Things were going brilliantly for Mohamed, his wife Margaret and Makiya Associates was
growing from strength to strength. Then along came Saddam. The Iraqi Intelligence service
proved to be not very intelligent in the case of Mohamed. His name was on a guest list for
a party thrown by a British colonel who served as an adviser to the monarchy. A meticulous
man he kept records that showed he was a freemason. He fled when the monarchy was
overthrown. Twelve years later the Baathists found the records and prepared to arrest
everyone who was on the guest list. It was 1971 Mohamed was in Bahrain at the time and did
not return to Iraq. His family followed him into exile and Makiya Associates set up offices in
Bahrain and in London.
Mohamed became one of the most sought after architects in the Gulf. He designed the
Kuwait State Mosque, the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque, the Isa Town Gateway in Bahrain,
Rashid University in Arbil, markets, palatial residences and offices. He was also awarded a
contract for the conservation of the old town in Muscat.
In 1980 Saddam wanted to reshape Baghdad for the Non-aligned nations Conference. All was
forgiven and Mohamed was asked to help. He defended his decision to take part in the design
of various building including the Baghdad State Mosque by saying: “This is for history. It’s
not for the people there now – the Baathists. It’s got nothing to do with them, they will be
gone. This is for the future.”
He did in fact meet Saddam and treated him with the respect reserved for a fused hand
grenade. The decision to participate in Baghdad’s rejuvenation alienated him from his son
Kanan who was writing Republic of Fear which told the unvarnished truth about Saddam’s
brutal regime.
Father and son eventually reconciled. “I was so embarrassed when Kanan left the firm so
hurt. I thought he was wasting his life but I wrong. Because anything that can help bring
democracy to Iraq is worth a thousand of these. His gesture took in all the plans on his desk.
Then jabbing a finger in the direction of a copy of Republic of Fear lying on a side table he
said “That’s the most important thing our family ever did for Iraq.”
After the Iran-Iraq war the lucrative contracts in the Gulf dried up, Makiya Associates closed
and for the next 20 years (1986 – 2006) Mohamed ran the Kufa Gallery London’s premier
(and at the time) only venue for exhibitions of Middle Eastern and Islamic art. “We had the
pulse of the Arab world. If you wanted to know about the Arab world you came to the Kufa
Gallery,” Rose Issa the gallery’s first curator said.
Mohammed fully supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq and spoke about his plans for the
future. “First I would plant 25 million palm trees to recover Baghdad and re-create its parks.
The shelves of the Kufa Gallery were piled with sketches of his plans for Baghdad and Basra
but no one from the British or American government consulted him about reconstruction. “I
am a conductor without an orchestra,” he said ruefully.
In 2006 when he was 92 Mohamed visited his beloved Baghdad and was given a hero’s
welcome by the students in the School of Architecture. He never stopped making plans and
creating designs for Baghdad and other cities in Iraq. But in 2006 disaster struck. At the end
of a lecture he gave in Kufa Gallery he fell and broke his hip and never returned to the gallery
which closed.
He spent the last years of his life in his flat in central London surrounded by his friends,
colleagues and former students and a massive collection of books, art works and antiquities.
In 2014 he sent a recorded message to a conference The Centenary of the Iraqi architect
Mohamed Makiya held in conjunction with the Baghdad Capital of Culture festivities:
“Cities have souls and these are tangible souls that can be sensed in every place. Baghdad is
dear and priceless. When we were forced to leave it many years ago we knew that some of
our soul stayed there on the banks of the Tigris in the city’s alleyways, coffee shops balconies
and squares.”
On July 19, 2015 Mohamed closed his eyes and joined the architect of the universe. He was
buried in St Pancreas and Islington Cemetery in East Finchley – a corner of a foreign field
that is forever Iraq.
There are a few champions of Baghdad who love the city like their dearest friend and care for
it like a wayward child. When Mohamed passed on it was a dark day for the place that its
founder, the Abbasid caliph Abu Jafar Al Mansur named the City of Peace. Only time will
tell if it will become the tranquil glorious city that Mohamed saw in his dreams. He never lost
hope and that hope continues to inspire thousands of Iraqis.
*Professor John Darlington is Executive Director of World Monuments Fund Britain (WMFB),
where he leads a charity that conserves historic buildings and ancient monuments in the UK and
across the globe. He is currently working on projects as diverse as the restoration of Bennerley
Viaduct on the Derbyshire-Nottinghamshire border and Strata Florida Abbey in mid-Wales, through
to setting up a stone-masonry school for Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, training
archaeologists in Southern Iraq and restoring the National Museum in Ta’izz, Yemen. Prior to joining
WMFB, John was Director of the NW for the National Trust, and has over 35-years of experience in
heritage conservation and management. An archaeologist by training and profession, he is a Fellow
of the Society of Antiquaries and was made a Professor of Practice by the University of Wales in
2017. John has written extensively on a range of subjects from medieval castles to historic
landscapes. He is a regular contributor to The Art Newspaper, The Evening Standard and other
media. Fake Heritage, his most recent book, was published by Yale University Press in October
2020.
**Taghlib AbdulHadi Al Waily is Architect planner and founder and director of “Turath” a not-for-
profit organization dedicated to support heritage conservation efforts in the Middle East in general
and in Iraq in particular. Noting the continuous feeding of urban heritage within the historical cities in
Iraq, Al Waily conducted an extensive study in Baghdad supported by an ambitious initiative calling
for the revival of Baghdad historical city. As part of these efforts, Al Waily is the author of the book
titled “Baghdad 21st century: The historical city”, a 580 page book in Arabic launched in May 2017
reviewing Baghdad’s historical city past, present and future. “Baghdad 21st: Revival of a historical
city” is another 108 pages book in English that was launched in June 2018. He has been a member of
the High Advisory Committee for Reconstruction Affairs to the Iraqi PM since September 2020.
***Diddi Malek studied Arabic and Persian at Oxford University. She went on to work as
architectural heritage researcher and assistant to Dr Makiya. Aside from academic research on
background heritage to the projects at Makiya Associates, Diddi and Dr Makiya would attend every
London Islamic art auction and any cultural event connected with the heritage of the Middle East. She
then became a director of Bonhams Auctioneers where she set up the Islamic and Indian Department.
For the past twenty years Diddi has been running her own art advisory business in London.
****Karen Dabrowska is the author of Mohamed Makiya: A modern architect renewing Islamic
Tradition. She is a journalist, writer and currently Director of Communications for Friends of South
Yemen. She was previously the Development Officer for the Sudanese National Councill and has also
worked as a journalist for the Evening Post daily newspaper and then editor of New Horizon magazine
and London correspondent for JANA News Agency. Her publications include Iraq: The Ancient Sites
and Iraqi Kurdistan, Into the Abyss: Human Rights Violations in Bahrain, Iraq: Then and
Now and Melancholy Memories; Foreign Dreams.
