Living in Romantic Baghdad Contemporary Issues in the Middle East ot h er t itl e s from con tem por a ry is su e s i n t h e m i ddl e e ast American Writers in Istanbul: Melville, Twain, Hemingway, Dos Passos, Bowles, Algren, Baldwin, and Settle k i m fort u n y Cultural Criticism in Egyptian Women’s Writing ca roli n e seymou r-jor n T e Druze and T eir Faith in Tawhid a n is obei d Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn a m ir a el-z ei n Islam Without Illusions: Its Past, Its Present, and Its Challenge for the Future ed hota li ng T e Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development wa di e j wa i deh One Family’s Response to Terrorism: A Daughter’s Memoir susa n k er r va n de v en Painting the Middle East a n n z w ick er k er r Turkish Islam and the Secular State: T e Gülen Movement m. h a k a n yav uz and joh n l . e sposito, eds. Writing Off the Beaten Track: Refl ections on the Meaning of Travel and Culture in the Middle East j u dit h ca e sa r Living in Romantic Baghdad An American Memoir of Teaching and Travel in Iraq, 1924–1947 Foreword by John Joseph IDA DONGES STAUDT Edited by John Joseph Syracuse University Press Copyright ©  by Syracuse University Press Syracuse, New York - All Rights Reserved First Edition              “Living in Romantic Baghdad” by Ida Donges Staudt is published with permission from the Evangelical and Reformed Historical Society, Lancaster, PA. ∞ T e paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z.-. For a listing of books published and distributed by Syracuse University Press, visit our Web site at SyracuseUniversityPress.syr.edu. ISBN: ---- Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Staudt, Ida Donges, –. Living in romantic Baghdad : an American memoir of teaching and travel in Iraq, – / Ida Donges Staudt ; foreword by John Joseph ; edited by John Joseph. — st ed. p. cm. — (Contemporary issues in the Middle East) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN ---- (cloth : alk. paper) . Staudt, Ida Donges, –— Travel—Iraq. . Iraq—Description and travel. . Iraq—History—Hashemite Kingdom, –. . Americans—Iraq—Biography. . Teachers—Iraq—Biography. . American School for Boys (Baghdad, Iraq)—History. I. Joseph, John. II. Title. DS..S  .'—dc [B]  Manufactured in the United States of America [King Faisal I] shook hands with us, and asked us to sit down with him. He said he was delighted to know that we had come all the way from America to open a school and assist in the educational work in his realm. —Ida Donges Staudt Ida Donges Staudt was born and raised in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Her father, a prominent businessman, owned the town’s hardware store and served as a member of the Board of Trustees of its Palatinate College, from which young Ida graduated. Interested in elegant expression, she took courses in elocution at Philadelphia’s Neff College of Oratory. Af er marrying Calvin K. Staudt, whom she had fi rst met at Palatinate, she received her Bachelor’s degree from the Uni- versity of Chicago while her husband worked on his PhD dissertation. In  the Staudts launched their Middle Eastern educational adventure in Beirut, Lebanon. In  they founded the American School for Boys in Bagh- dad, a unique educational institution that fl ourished in the newly created Iraq. T e eminent American broadcaster Lowell T omas, a member of the school’s Board of Trustees, referred to the author as the “dynamo” that runs the school. Mrs. Staudt died in , a year af er the death of her husband. John Joseph graduated from the American School for Boys in Baghdad in  and taught there for the next four years. He graduated from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in  and taught there for twenty- seven years (–). Princeton University, where he received his PhD in , published his dissertation in  (T e Nestorians and T eir Muslim Neighbors). His Muslim-Christian Relations and Inter-Christian Rivalries () was among the American Library Association’s Choice magazine’s Outstanding Academic Books for –. In  a revised and expanded version of his Nestorians was published under the title T e Modern Assyrians as volume  of the series Studies in Christian Mission. Joseph retired in  and lives in Lancaster with his wife of fi f y-fi ve years. T ey have three children and four grandchildren. Af er his retirement one of his former students, a retired CEO of Reynolds American, fi nanced the building of an international center in Lancaster and wanted it named af er him; it is now the Joseph International Center. Contents List of Illustrations • ix Editor’s Foreword • xi Editor’s Acknowledgments • xxi Preface • xxiii . Arriving in Baghdad,  •  . An Educational Adventure •  . School of Life •  . Signifi cant Occasions •  . Yesterday and Today in Baghdad •  . Gardens, Houses, and Feasts •  . Weddings •  . Little Journeys about the City •  . Baghdad from the Tigris •  . To Basrah on the Tigris •  . Visiting the Shiah Holy Cities •  . In the Land of the Kurds •  . Exploring Scenic Iraq •  . T e Bedouin Tribes •  . T e Uprooted Assyrians •  viii • Contents . Iraq’s Great Statesman •  . And So T ey Passed •  . T e Magic Horse and the Magic Carpet •  . T e Story of Oil •  . A Nazi-Inspired Revolt,  •  . Changing and Changeless Baghdad •  Glossary •  Works Cited •  Index • 