LETTER FROM ERBIL: NOVEMBER 2011

摘要

Descending the narrow stone steps to the basement of Ahmed Khalis' Erbil antiques shop is like entering Aladdin's cave. Here are spiked helmets and round metal shields that might have been worn by Yusuf Salah ah-Din, the Kurdish potentate also known as Saladin, the scourge of the Crusaders. Against the wall rests a large stack of late Ottoman-era rifles; a painted dresser by the narrow stone staircase bears bright images of Ishtar, the powerful Mesapotamian goddess of love and war, bearing witness to the city's pre-lslamic roots. This is the old Arbelo, the Assyrian city of four gods, whose 7,000 year-old citadel, a stone's throw from Khalis' store front, is believed to stand atop the region's most important, as yet unexcavated, temple to Ishtar.