Souk I

The heart of the vivid street life in downtown Baghdad is the souks. Here in the narrow alleyways trade is conducted today just the same as during the times of Alibaba. The sound of hammers beating copper against an anvil, a cloud of water vapor lifting off a hardened piece of metal as a pearl of sweat rolls down the face of a coppersmith.  A few alleys further down, a young man strings an oud he just built whilst a watchmaker gleans through his loupe at the intestines of a broken clock. In the shadow of the 13th century Mustanseriyah school - once the pinnacle of education in the Islamic world - numerous stores are nestled selling carpets, jewelry and antiques. Some of which the shrinking middle class had been forced to sell to procure daily necessities during times of hyper inflation.  Along the Tigris, clouds of dust whirl into the stifling air as a middle aged man beats a folded carpet with a two meter pole. Close by, young men lie on their knees scrubbing an oriental carpet many generations older that they are.  In Baghdad, old habits die hard.