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The Basra Museum opened its first gallery in September 2016 after over twenty years of inactivity. The opening of the new gallery, with 440 artefacts and objects from Basra’s excavated sites, represents the first major milestone in an eight-year project to reinstate the museum, by the British Army, the UK-based charity the Friends of Basra Museum, the Iraqi Ministry of Culture and State board of Antiquities.
The new museum celebrates the rich cultural heritage of Basra and Southern Iraq. “We forget how important the city of Basra has been for Iraq. It is the gate into Iraq, and the country’s main port. Sinbad, the hero from the One Thousand and One Nights, was a sailor, wasn’t he?” says archaeologist Dr. Lamia Al-Gailani, who co-curated the collection with Dr. John Curtis, formerly Keeper of the Middle East Department at the British Museum and Mr Qahtan Alabeed, Director of the Museum. Dr. Al-Gailani and Dr. Curtis were involved as Trustees of the Friends of the Basra Museum, which was set up in 2010 to provide financial, curatorial and project management support to the museum.
The Basra Museum’s first gallery includes over 440 objects excavated from sites in Basra. (c) UNAMI PIO.
The collection includes a display of minted coins, dating from the Parthian to the Islamic periods, covering the period from 300BC to the eighteenth century. “What is interesting about these coins is that they were all minted in Basra. It reveals how important Basra was during the medieval period in particular, for the Abbasids, and rulers such as Harun al-Rashid,” says Dr. Al-Gailani, “The first thing that you see when you see as you enter the museum is this case of coins. It is like the key to Iraq’s history”.
Artefacts discovered during excavations in the 1970s and 80s in the Old Basra, what is today known as the town Az Zubair, also form part of the collection. “Basra has been through a lot of wars, many people have fought for the city. In Iraq we have the expression “Min ba’d al kharab al Basra”, which we use when something has gone wrong. As a result, we don’t find as much in terms of excavations,” says Dr. Al-Gailani.
Housed in the Lakeside Palace—originally built by Saddam Hussein as a luxury residence—the Museum will include five galleries. A wing will be dedicated to artefacts from Basra, while the three others will be dedicated to Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian civilisations. The fifth gallery will house temporary exhibitions.
“Basra is the gate into Iraq, and the country’s main port. Sinbad, the hero from the One Thousand and One Nights, was a sailor, wasn’t he?”
“It is the first time that an Iraqi museum has at least one hall that is devoted to a single city,” Dr. Al-Gailani explains. “We are focusing on what is local to Basra. This also has international dimensions, as the city itself was important at an international level. For example, the use of a blue cobalt pigment in pottery is often attributed to Chinese porcelain work, but in fact the technique originates from Basra, and was borrowed by the Chinese,” says Dr. Al-Gailani.
Over three hundred people attended the opening, highlighting the excitement and demand for such a cultural institution in Basra and the region. “It was gratifying to see such a positive response. There were local officials, MPs, ministers, the media, as well as local teenagers,” says Clare Bebbington, a Trustee of the Friends of the Basra Museum, “we also recorded over 200 visitors to the museum the next day”. The opening was followed by a two-day conference on Basra’s history, culture and heritage organised by Eleanor Robson of the British Institute for the Study of Iraq.
The original Basra Museum was looted in 1991, during the First Gulf War. What remained of the museum’s artefacts was subsequently moved to Baghdad for safekeeping. Many of them are still in the country’s capital.
Plans for the re-opening of the museum began in 2008, after the British Army approached the British Museum and Dr. John Curtis, identifying Saddam’s old Lakeside Palace in Basra as a building that could house the collection of ancient artefacts, and act as a major cultural venue in the city. The original building of the museum, a traditional house in the old part of Basra was deemed not fit for purpose, due to its small size and poor condition.
(c) UNAMI PIO.
The director of the Basra Museum, Qahtan Alabeed, has talked about the importance of converting Saddam’s old palace into a museum: “It turns a place that is full of bad memories for the Iraqi people into a space for culture and civilization,” he told the broadcasting network NPR. The building, which was in a state of neglect, was refurbished to meet international museum standards.
“From the point of view of the Trustees it is an opportunity to conserve and celebrate a region with a rich cultural heritage,” says Ms. Bebbington, “We worked together with the aim of meeting international museum standards. Dr John Curtis and Dr Lamia Al-Gailani were involved in the curatorial process, and they have phenomenal professional respect and expertise. These specialists worked together on the collection to make sure that the standards of the museum displays and conservation methods were high”.
The museum also opens with a public engagement programme, which includes pottery or calligraphy workshops as well as internships run by the British Museum. “The response from local teenagers and students who attended the opening was the most encouraging,” says Ms. Bebbington, “a group of them told me how excited they were about the new museum and what a special day this was for them”.