Iraq's lost golden age

This morning on my walk to work I noticed that the demolition of an office building had exposed a church to public view--and not just any church, but Manhattan's first Roman Catholic parish. Drawn by the sight I decided to do a walk-through. The ornamentation, the altars, the markers commemorating the history of building and craft--the place was a vivid reminder of a visual style in some ways alien to life today, but at the same time its direct antecedent.

The blend of sensory richness and spirituality reminded me of this recent article on the goldsmiths of Iraq. Gold as an expression of transformative identity has a long history there, a tradition evident not just in the Bible but in the diffusion of its iconic values throughout the globe. Which is just one more why the plight of Iraq's goldsmiths is so tragic--it's not just that the invasion led to the pillaging of ancient art; Iraq is losing the very artists whose work help gives life meaning.

Even more disturbing--the role of religious conflict in this spiritual implosion. For more on that check out the whole article; for now, a poignant reminder of one family's lost golden age:

For Walid, goldsmithing is more than a business, it is a family tradition too important to abandon.

His grandfather worked on the golden-domed Kadhimiya shrine, where Imam Musa al Kadhim and his grandson, Muhammad Taqi, revered by Shiite Muslims, are said to be buried.

His father made jewelry for the Iraqi royal family.

A faded photograph hanging above Walid's counter shows his father with the portable wooden box he used to display his wares before he opened a store in 1934 in Baghdad's most famous gold bazaar, which fills the winding alleys leading to the shrine. . . .

The jewelry sold in the Kadhimiya district is especially prized by Iraq's majority Shiites, who consider it to be a blessing from the imams buried there.

Before U.S.-led forces invaded the country in 2003, the shopkeepers say, as many as 3,000 Iranians also visited the shrine every day. After offering a prayer to the imams, the pilgrims would join the bustling throngs to shop for gold.