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Memories of Eden: A Journey Through Jewish Baghdad
 
 

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Memories of Eden: A Journey Through Jewish Baghdad (Hardcover)

by Violette Shamash (Author), Tony Rocca (Editor), Mira Rocca (Editor) "THE LAST century was not even in its teens when I arrived in this fascinating world one winter's night in the centre of Baghdad ..." (more)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 326 pages
  • Publisher: Forum Books Ltd; illustrated edition edition (14 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0955709504
  • ISBN-13: 978-0955709500
  • Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 14.2 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 193,513 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #74 in  Books > Biography > Political > Britain > Prime Ministers
    #75 in  Books > Biography > Political > Countries & Regions > Middle East
    #89 in  Books > Biography > Historical > Countries & Regions > Middle East

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Review

This is an extraordinary, unique and invaluable book. Violette Shamash, who died in 2006, tells the story of the Jewish community in Baghdad in the first half of the 20th century. She writes beautifully and her book is superbly readable. She describes in exquisite detail the histories, lives and customs of Iraq's Jews through the evocative stories of her own family. This astonishing record has been put together by Violette's daughter Mira and her husband Tony Rocca from letters, notes and essays written by Violette over a period of 20 years. These tell the story of a cultivated and well integrated Jewish community in the heart of Muslim Arabia during the end of the Ottoman Empire and the British Mandate. Memories of Eden is a superb account of a long forgotten time - indeed a time which is barely imaginable now, given the hatreds that currently exist in the Middle East. Until the Second World War, Jews and Muslims lived side by side, she writes. "We were treated as equals and accepted on our own merit until the poison of Nazism and Arab nationalism entered the bloodstream. The evil spread like a bad, contagious disease." It still does so - William ShawcrossHer book provides a unique insight into the culture, customs, and everyday life of the Jews of Iraq. It paints a sensitive portrait of an ancient civilization which was swept away by the violent current of modern nationalism. The contrast between the harmony and peaceful coexistence depicted here and the mayhem and destructiveness of present-day Iraq could hardly be starker - Professor Avi Shlaim, St Antony's College, OxfordIt is full of detail: the heat, the holy days, the rituals, food, smells and sounds of the souq; the river Tigris, its water and fish; the costumes and clothes people wore; schooldays and rides on donkey-back before motorised transport became available...A treasure house of information - Professor Shmuel Moreh, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem (from the Foreword)


Professor Avi Shlaim, St Antony's College, Oxford

Her book provides a unique insight into the culture, customs, and everyday life of the Jews of Iraq.
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THE LAST century was not even in its teens when I arrived in this fascinating world one winter's night in the centre of Baghdad. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Memories of Eden: A Journey Through Jewish Baghdad
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Biblical Eden meets the Arabian Nights, 21 April 2008
According to legend, the Garden of Eden was located here, in the Land of the Two Rivers. However, at first glance there seems nothing Eden-like about the hot and dusty Baghdad portrayed in Violette Shamash's memoir.

Pieced together from 20 years' worth of letters and notes sent to Violette's daughter Mira and son-in-law Tony Rocca, Memories of Eden is a detailed record, written with a light touch and illustrated with diligently-researched, rare old photos. It gives an unusual woman's perspective of a bygone age, lived to the rhythms of the Jewish community which was so prominent in old Iraq.

The book has an Arabian Nights quality - peppered with tales from the days of the Ottomans. Violette's parents were among the first to move out of Baghdad's cramped historic Jewish quarter, building a palace or 'qasr' in Karrada, then on the outskirts of Baghdad, that King Faisal himself would covet. There, Violette played among the fruit trees. Life was pastoral and idyllic on the banks of the Tigris and the minutiae of domestic living was alleviated by a staff of servants.

In the knowledge that Judeo-Arabic will soon be a dying language, a lexicon is thoughtfully provided. Anyone who grew up hearing words like 'daghboona', (corridor), insults like 'booma' (owl) and 'wabba' (plague)and the typically Jewish expression of wonder or shock 'weh hoo weh', will finally understand what they mean and be propelled on a Proustian journey back to childhood. But even if you had not the faintest idea about Jewish life in Baghdad, you would find it an entertaining and engrossing read.

Tantalising is the description of the run-up to the 1941 Farhud pogrom which sounded the death-knell for 2,600 years of Jewish presence in Iraq. Violette, who was about to give birth to Mira, sheltered with family while Jews were increasingly the object of attack during the `black month' that the pro-Nazi Rashid Ali held power. Violette's family was among the first to see the writing on the wall, six months later moving to India, then Palestine, Cyprus and finally London. The Jews of Iraq were `scattered like feathers from a pillow' to the four corners of the globe. Today the community is virtually extinct.

Towards the end of the book there is a change of tone as Tony Rocca, a career Fleet St journalist and editor, takes up the neglected story, based on original research, of the one man who could have halted the Farhud slaughter of the Jews. Dubbed `Cornwallis of Arabia', the British ambassador Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, as tall at six- foot-four as his role in the politics of Iraq has been inexplicably underrated, dominated Iraq for 40 years. While the mob went on a two-day murder and looting rampage, Corwallis refused to order British troops, camped out on the outskirts, into Baghdad, lest the British be seen by the Arabs as an army of occupation.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Baghdad: The dream before the nightmare, 7 Mar 2008
By J. Cousins (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is a beautiful story, and a desperately sad one too. Violette Shamash started her life in pretty idyllic circumstances, as a member of the Jewish community in Baghdad. You'll have to forgive me here, but I thought Iraq would have been pretty much top of the list for places you wouldn't expect to find a Jewish person. Turns out, though, that between the wars Violette and her family were among 200,000 Jewish people living in Baghdad.

It was a simple but delightful time.

And, guess what? The Jewish community and their Muslim neighbours got along together just fine. Mutual respect... Violette tells charming stories of an uncomplicated life where everything was great.

Until it wasn't.

Things changed, in a horrible way. Enough to make it vital that she, her husband and their children fled: first to India, then to Palestine, and finally to London.

I defy you to read this book without being profoundly moved. Iraq is a fragile and complex place today. How desperately sad, therefore, to learn from this book of its former harmony. How come it all went so wrong?

Today you can count the number of Iraqi Jewish people on the fingers of two hands. Please read this book, whose story must be more widely known.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Hard to underestimate the importance of this book...., 21 Jun 2008
It's hard to underestimate the importance of this beautifully written and enlightening book.

I was so impressed that I've since ordered three more copies, to give to family and friends.

In addition to being a pleasure to read, and an enlightening window to another world another time, 'Memories of Eden' gives a disarming human perspective to a forgotten chapter in an ongoing saga, the twists and turns of which continue to decide the fate of the world today.

As with all good books though, it just tells great stories well, which, through their good humour and humanity, challenge our preconceptions of other people and the way the world works.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Jewish Book Council Awards FINALIST
Memories of Eden has been selected FINALIST in the 2008 National Jewish Book Awards organized by the Jewish Book Council (USA). Read more
Published 10 months ago by Scribbler

5.0 out of 5 stars Memories of Eden
An absorbing and moving firsthand account of life in the Jewish community of Baghdad during the first half of the twentieth century. Read more
Published 19 months ago by D. G. Hill

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