A gardener at midnight: Travels in the Holy Land

Overview

A gardener at midnight: Travels in the Holy Land portrays the devastating impact of war and looting on Baghdad’s cultural heritage, focusing on the 2003 conflict where the National Museum, libraries, and archives were systematically pillaged and burned. Looters, sometimes with inside knowledge and involving soldiers and officials, destroyed invaluable artifacts, manuscripts, and records, erasing centuries of history and cultural memory bit by bit. The narrative underscores how this destruction was both physical—through fires and theft—and symbolic, with the loss of books and relics representing the disappearance of identity and heritage amidst chaotic power struggles and military occupation.

Amid this devastation, the narrative explores themes of memory, resilience, and personal redemption. The protagonist’s journey, urged by a friend to engage with the conflict, becomes a quest to salvage and preserve fragments of history, reflecting on the emotional and spiritual significance of these cultural remnants. By contrasting the meticulous travels of historical documenters with the intuitive, visionary journey of Al-Kitab, the story emphasises the fragile yet enduring nature of cultural identity. Despite the ongoing exploitation and looting, the effort to recover, document, and connect these fragments symbolises a form of resistance and hope for reclaiming a fractured past.

The book was published for, and distributed during the In Transition Russia 2008 exhibition.