A Capsule History of Baghdad

By Denis Mueller

It could be called the cradle of civilization. The Mongols
destroyed it; the Ottoman's controlled it for four hundred
years, the British shaped its boundary and tried to control
the city and the country's oil. It was perhaps the cultural
center of the world in the 8th and 9th century and now the
attention of the world is on it again.

The city of Baghdad was at the center of the world in the 8th
century and was called, among other things, the city of peace.
When the Islamic empire began to crumble it was soon overrun
by Mongol hordes. In 1258, Genghis Khan's grandson Hulagu
wrecked the walls of the city and a mountain was purportedly
built of the skulls of the scholars and city leaders. The city
was fought over by the Mongols, Persians and Turks until the
Ottoman Empire conquered it in 1638. The Turks then ruled it
until World War I.

During World War I, it was invaded by the British but the
initial assault ended up with disaster when General Charles
Townsend's army marched from Basra to Baghdad only to be
defeated by the Turkish army at the battle of Ctesiphon. The
British were forced to retreat and endured a 147-day siege
until they finally surrendered.

In the march back nearly half the British force died from the
brutality of the Turks. But the British soon returned and
captured Baghdad in 1917. It became the administrative center
for the British Empire in the Middle East. It was the British
who then created the country of Iraq. King Feisel had been
driven out of what is now Syria and Saudi Arabia when the
British made him the King of the newly formed country of Iraq.

The British filled Baghdad with businessmen, bureaucrats,
teachers and all of those who would be needed to administer
the country. It was in many ways little more than a British
colony until the Iraqi military overthrew the British. This
would lead eventually to the rule of Saddam Hussein.

Hussein, at first, was welcomed by the Americans who saw him
as a buffer against Iran. In a quite brutal war with the
Iranians, which saw the use of chemical weapons, a stalemate
resulted. Hussein, who in many ways, had done the dirty work
for the corrupt rulers of the Arab world, then invaded Kuwait.
Kuwait had long been seen as a province of Iraq but was
established as a separate country by the British.

Iraq was defeated by UN forces and forced to surrender which
brings us up to date. We will see and hear much more about
Baghdad in the next couple of years but it has never been a
friendly place for conquerors. We should be very careful. This
war may last a long time.

Sources: Bill Glauber, Chicago Tribune