items of interest

with contributions from Ken Dilanian, Andrew Napier, Christie Storm

"AN IRAQI PROVERB has it that in Cairo they write books, in Beirut they print them, and in Baghdad they read them. Since the turn of the century, Mutanabi Street was the place to buy them—a center of knowledge in a secular Arab country where the vibrancy of intelectual life was legendry. Under Saddam Hussein, the stout of heart could find forbidden materials there.

"Mutanabi Street is still thriving, but with an important difference in character from the properous 1970's

"The vast majority of the books sold—upwards of 80 percent, according to some vendors—are religious literature. Beaten down by years of war, repression, and deprivation, many once-cosmopolitan Baghdadis have

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