The neighbourhood of Al-Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad: A personal narrative and recollections of a childhood in Baghdad in the 1940s

These notes are a continuation of the recollections of the author’s personal experiences growing up in 1940s Baghdad while actively engaged in the family business of book selling in the old Suq Al-Saray which was located in the centre of what is now identified as ‘old’ Baghdad City. Reflecting the experience of being born and raised within a block of the now world famous Al-Mutanaby Street, aspects of these recollections were recently published in the form of two articles published in the International Journal of Contemporary Iraqi Studies (9:3, pp. 165‐90) and Journal of Contemporary Iraq & the Arab World (13:2, pp. 217‐25). The present contribution represents a continuation of these personal recollections together with some associated historical commentary that terminates in October 1951 on the author’s departure from Baghdad to study engineering in England.