This is the first map of red double-decker bus routes, provided by the British in 1955. I used to take the number one bus. It started from the College of Sharia Studies near the Abu Hanifa mosque where the four old A’dhamiya (old Sunni section of Baghdad) districts met, that is, Al Sheyookh, Al Nassa, Al Harra and Al Safina. The bus cut through the cemetery, which was established in the 8th century and didn’t finally fill up until the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). Then it went over the wooden pontoon bridge which crossed the Tigris linking Al A’dhamiya with Al Kadhimiya ( a Shia section of Baghdad). Then the bus would pass near the Royal Cemetery and continue down to Queen Aliya Street on which there was the Primary Teachers’ College and Training School, the secondary schools for girls and boys, the athletic club and Nu’man Park. The bus would then pass Ras Al Hawash Square in front of the cinema. Then to Imam Al A’dham street where there was the College of Sciences and the Olympic Club. Then the bus would go down the road to the College of Humanities. Finally it arrived at Bab Al Mu’adhem (one of the old gates of Abbasid Baghdad). At that point I changed buses and took the 1/2 bus, which continued from there to Rashid Street (the main street of Baghdad in the 1950s) and Bab Al Sharqi (the old eastern gate of the city). Then I took the 1/2/3 bus which took you to Al Karradeh, Across the city from north south and all for 30 fils.

I remember the details of Al A’dhamiya’s alleyways – all around the mosque and the old market. Much of this has disappeared as a result of stupid planning decisions and the enormous compensations families were paid by the government to vacate their houses. This has erased part of our history. Luckily, though, my family still owns my great-grandfather’s house, in which most of us were born. It is situated 100 steps from the gate of the mosque of Abu Hanifa and faces the tekiya my great-grandfather founded. (A tekiya is a small building where religious teaching happens and poor people are given food and shelter).

By writing down these details, I feel I am conjuring up the alleyways and their inhabitants, shops, cafés, tailors, barbers, sellers of buffalo cream, kubba, butchers, coal merchants, sellers of olives, ice, tiles, the man who made aluminum pots and pans, the public baths in the market, the Al Khansa’ primary school and...and…

MUNDHER AL- ADHAMI, Mathematician, left Iraq in 1967