Nada Shabout

Farewell Mohammad Ghani Hikmat

"Baghdad, no matter what happens to you, you will always flower again," is the poem by Mustafa Jamal al-Din that Mohammed Ghani Hikmat found carved on the poet’s tomb in Damascus, and intended to cast in bronze on a fountain he designed for old Baghdad. It was to be his new work for the city he loved dearly but had to leave after the US led invasion of 2003 for fear for his and his son’s life. After seven years away, he could not resist her beckoning and his desire ...