Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: شارع المتنبي) is located in
Baghdad
Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon. I ...
,
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, near the old quarter of Baghdad; at Al Rasheed Street. It is the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, a street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. It was named after the 10th-century classical
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
i poet AlMutanabbi.
This street is well established for bookselling and has often been referred to as the heart and soul of the Baghdad literacy and intellectual community.
A car bomb or suicide bomb exploded and killed 26 people on Mutanabbi Street on March 5, 2007, leaving the area littered and unsafe for shoppers, and destroying many businesses. In response to the bombing, Deema Shehabi and Beau Beausoleil edited an anthology in 2012 called ''Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here'' of people's responses to the bombing. The 100 contributors included Yassin Alsalman and Pulitzer prize-winning journalist
Anthony Shadid
Anthony Shadid (September 26, 1968 – February 16, 2012) was a foreign correspondent for ''The New York Times'' based in Baghdad and Beirut who won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting twice, in 2004 and 2010.
On December 18, 2008,
Iraqi Prime Minister
The prime minister of Iraq is the head of government of Iraq. On 27 October 2022, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani became the incumbent prime minister.
History
The prime minister was originally an appointed office, subsidiary to the head of state, a ...
Nouri al-Maliki
Nouri Kamil Muhammad-Hasan al-Maliki ( ar, نوري المالكي; born 20 June 1950), also known as Jawad al-Maliki (), is secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party and was the prime minister of Iraq from 2006 to 2014 and the vice president ...
officially reopened the street after a long period of cleanup and repair.
Gallery
File:Al-Mutanabbi Statue in Baghdad(Cropped).jpg, Al-Mutanabbi Statue at the end of Mutanabbi Street beside the Tigris.