Remembering Childhood in the Middle East: Memoirs from a Century of Change

Nazik Ali Jawdat (Syria/Iraq)

syria Nazik Ali Jawdat was born near Aleppo in 1903, her father a Circassian and her mother from the Sbhai family. iraq She married Ali Jawdat al Ayoubi, military governor of Aleppo, in 1919 and went on with him to other postings in Syria and eventually to Iraq, which he served at various times as ambassador, cabinet minister, and prime minister. She died in Abu Dhabi in 1997, survived by three children, nine grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. Nazik Jawdat ^ Mumbuj is a Circassian village in the Province of Aleppo. My memories of it are disconnected and vague; horses, fields, and a house with a garden. One of the images: a man sitting up in bed holding me on his knee. From a cup he puts a spoonful into my mouth and then another into the mouth of the child sitting on his other knee. Again and again. He is ill; I feel his rough chin—hot and unshaven—against my face. That was my father and I never saw him again. Another picture; outside the house, hubbub and confusion, weeping and strange noises. On a bed with its mosquito net down, my younger sister, Amina, and I bounce up and down. This was the day of my father’s death, I now know. After my father died, my mother took me, Amina, and myfive-month-oldsister,Madiha,toliveatherfather’s house in the city of Aleppo itself. I was five years old. The next two years were the happiest of my childhood and the memory of them remains bright and clear. As was the custom in Aleppo, my grandfather’s house was really two houses, one within the other, a salamlik and a harem. Life in this big house with all my aunts, uncles, and nannies was likeafairytale. Beingthefirstchildofthefavorite daughter , having lost my father, and being naughty and lively, I became everyone’s cherished plaything. The house contained two spacious courtyards with liwans, numerous staircases, terraces, and roofs. In the center of the larger courtyard was an oval pool with a fountain and gold- fish swimming in it. Next to it was an orchard—with oranges , lemons, and pomegranates and a large grapevine arbor in whose shade straw mats would be laid down. On these pictures from the past Nazik Ali Jawdat ^ the ladies and servants of the family would sit to make kibbe and prepare the winter’s provisions. On the other side of the pool was a rainwater cistern topped by a very large stone cylinder with a wooden cover; we children were forbidden to play there, but whenever the opportunity arose, I would remove the wooden cover, look at my reflection, and listen to the echo of my voice. In the salamlik was a suite where my grandfather received his guests, and above that was his bedroom, which opened onto a big terrace and his library . The courtyard of this house, though small, still had a little garden of its own. For us children to grow up among so many people and in such a vast place in which to run around and play hide-and-seek, was a blessing not to be forgotten. Across from the fountain, were three rooms; the middle was the drawing room, only opened up for visitors, with Persian carpets and a crystal chandelier. The divans were upholstered in lilac-colored Aleppo silk, which was embroidered in geometric shapes with gold thread. On the right was my great-aunt’s “domed room”; the dome was inset with round thick pieces of colored glass, and two little windows opened onto the courtyard for ventilation. This large, dim room was my favorite. My grandfather, Sipahizade Haji Said Effendi, being his father’s only son, was sent at the age of nineteen on a pilgrimage to Mecca and on his return was married. My grandmother, one of Aleppo’s loveliest girls, gave birth five times in less than twenty years, and died in deliberately attempting to lose the sixth child. Thus on the shoulders of my sixteen-year-old Aunt Fattoum fell the responsibility for the younger children: my mother, Bahia, and my uncles, Jamil and Kamil. After losing his beloved wife, my grandfather fell into a deep sadness. Relatives soon decided that he should marry again and began looking for a wife. On the wedding night he removed the bridal veil of the first girl chosen for him and...