ITCHY FEET TRAVELS

Baghdad, Iraq

May 28, 2023

The Shahbandar Café at a corner of Mutanaby street has been the Baghdad’s intellectual hub for a century and it remains a much loved and frequented café. Traditional cushioned benches have tiny tables in front for the tulip-shaped glasses of tea. The walls are lined with photographs, each more intriguing than the last. Old sepia tinted ones from a hundred years ago show famous personages and places. I recognize some of the famous faces as I crane my head and walk around looking at them. Some are sketches and portraits and some are paintings. Some are of places as they were long ago.

Mostly men but also couples sit as the waiter expertly balances a tray of glasses filled from an enormous pot in the corner of the room. An occasional sheesha gurgles at a few tables. A couple of other cafes in trendier parts of town also evoke the air of old Baghdad of the twenties and thirties with a traditional building of the old days and a laid-back atmosphere. Beautifully decorated inside and out these are as popular hangouts today as their predecessors were in the days of yore.