Opinion
Frank Lloyd Wright’s mission to Baghdad
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Also by Fayyad Sbaihat:
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One of America’s most prominent cultural icons undertook a friendly mission of ambassadorship that embraced the heritage and culture of other nations. In 1957, Wisconsin native Frank Lloyd Wright visited Baghdad upon the request of Iraq’s King Faisal II. His invitation came with the purpose of designing an opera house for the city.
Wright exceeded his mandate, not only by requesting an empty island in the middle of river Tigris at Baghdad’s southwestern edge as an alternative location for the opera house, but before receiving a permission to do so, the aged architect went on to design a series of buildings, centers and other facilities to dot the city’s landscape. His proposed designs included a magnificent, crescent-shaped, water-encircled opera house, a Harun al-Rashid monument at the far tip of the island, an art gallery, botanical gardens, a “grand bazaar” and a university campus.
In a demonstration of his understanding and appreciation of the legacy left by the successive civilizations that inhabited Iraq, Wright said when he was asked what he was doing at the moment, “Now, at present, I happen to be doing a cultural center for the place where civilization was invented — that is Iraq. Before Iraq was destroyed it was a beautiful circular city built by Harun al-Rashid, but the Mongols came from the north and practically destroyed it.”
Dedicated to his organic style in architecture, and inspired by the “great feelings of admiration for Islamic culture and the three cultures that had existed in ancient Iraq,” as reported by one of his apprentices, Wright’s designs were an inspirational exhibition of Islamic art and architecture and were at perfect harmony with their Baghdad surroundings.
The cultural center that would host the opera house appeared as if it was built during the Abbasid state. The monument of Harun al-Rashid conspicuously resembled the ruins of a 2,500-year-old tower in Samarra in Iraq, the grand bazaar displayed a series of Islamic-style domes, and the botanical gardens were to represent the mythical Garden of Eden, presumed to be near the current location of Baghdad. Unfortunately, like many of Wright’s designs, his Baghdad projects never saw the light. The young king was assassinated in 1958, and Wright himself died a year later.
Recognizing the significance of his work to exceed mere architecture to emphasizing the concurrence of unlike cultures, Wright said of his mission to design Baghdad monuments, “We’ve got a great opportunity there … to demonstrate that we are not destructive, but constructive, where the original forces that built the civilization of the world are concerned.”
Little did “His Majesty, the American Citizen,” as he introduced himself to the king of Iraq, know; his country failed him. Twelve years of cruel sanctions, followed by a long campaign of “shock and awe” of massive explosive ordinance dropped on the city, left a grim picture, one that would have brought to Wright that 13th-century image of Baghdad. The Mongols came from the west and practically destroyed Baghdad, again.
The U.S. intervention in Iraq has left much of the country in ruins; more than 100,000 Iraqis were killed during the last year and half of war and did not live to witness the false promise of liberation by occupation and forced democracy.
Of the $230 billion allocated for the “war and rebuilding of Iraq,” only a few million dollars went to actual building, through mostly fortification of the occupation forces headquarters. Much of the money was used for war; destruction, that is.
While the occupation authority was reluctant to allow open elections in Iraq at this stage and initially objected to the one-man one-vote principle, in an attempt to allow for elections only in the areas where hostility towards the occupation is a minimum, Iraqis insisted on holding elections that give them equal and free representation, demonstrating their capability to run their own affairs.
Elections, however, came at a bad time. The resistance to the occupation in the center of the country is too intense to allow for substantive participation in the elections. Those living in the central third of Iraq will be severely underrepresented in the political spheres. Nonetheless, they are likely to participate in the political process, particularly that of drafting a new constitution.
Not only is the occupation unable to prevent the violence that often targets Iraqis, but it is also instigating it, and instead of continuing the war, the United States needs to step out of Iraq immediately, and if needed, cede the stage for the United Nations to preserve security. However, the United States’ role does not end then. It must be prepared to pay for what it destroyed and allocate fair compensation to those who lost relatives or property. And to start, as a token of apology, it should bring to light Frank Lloyd Wright’s plans for greater Baghdad.
Fayyad Sbaihat (frsbaihat@wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in chemical engineering.
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great!!!!!
sex machine is at again, check him out this time, he's trying to be romantic, sensationally describing Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture.
When is Fayyad Sbaihat going to graduate? Is Sbaihat ever going to graduate? I used to think we could stop reading him eventually, but he's been writing this column since the Hammurabi administration and it's getting old.
I'm not sure how long Sbaihat's been at UW, but he's been a "senior majoring in chemical engineering" for at least three years.
Like the movie Signs, i knew this article was building up to something. Too bad that in both cases the payoff was less than satisfactory. I think Sbaihat mailed this article in before the election, seeing as how he uses the phrases "will be," and "are likely to," when describing the voting populace. Way to stay current... As far as paying for what we destroyed, did Iraq ever reimburse Kuwait for the oil they destroyed by setting the wells on fire? Just wondering.
"Twelve years of cruel sanctions"
Would that be the period when Saddam spent all the "oil for food" money on new palaces and bribes instead of food?
Was that before or after he used poison gas on the Kurds?
Yeah, send it the UN - they're doing such a dandy job in Sudan. Maybe the French can help out, if they're done in Ivory Coast?
"Those living in the central third of Iraq will be severely underrepresented in the political spheres"
If you don't vote you can't complain - just like everywhere else. There will be another election, better luck next time.
Better yet, Iraq should be split up along the tribal lines that seem so important in that part of the world. The country was kind of just mashed together by the "Great Powers", based more on their ideas than anything the natives wanted.
Yeah, he's been here for ever, I guess he does not care about a digree. All he wants is to have access to university facilities to do his work. Like bringing the PSM conference here in October, they justr had a meeting in madison to plan it, from what I heard, they are working to secure reservations at UW Madison before announcing it.
Fayyad, your reporting would be much more convincing if you had first-hand knowledge of any of the things you claim (without evidence) are going on in Iraq. Why don't you take a little trip over there and find out what's really happening?
Fayyad, you go to Iraq as a human shield.
Put your body between innocent Iraqis and either (a) US Marines or (b) "insurgents".
I'm sure many would interested in your choice on this.
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am a student from kumasi sec-tch school,
i was seaching for a free digree from us
and i write you if you could help me,
thank for listing me,hope to here you.
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fayyad enta 3aneef
not new for u