Baghdad was not always synonymous with dictatorship and a thirst for war. On the contrary, for a long time, the heir to ancient Babylon preserved within its borders traces of a cultural diversity unlike any other, where communities lived side by side—sometimes for the worse, but also for the better. Naïm Kattan, one of the most brilliant intellectuals in the French-speaking world, is a privileged witness to this past, which is unknown to many. His adolescence as an “Arab Jew” unfolded amid the many contradictions of a Baghdad then grappling with the aftermath of World War II. As devoted to Iraqi patriotism as his Muslim peers, he had to carve out a path as a man in a rich yet complex world, caught between tradition and modernism, between his ancient Jewish community and Arab culture, between the rejection of British colonialism and a fascination with a West whose allure was irresistible. Then the creation of the State of Israel made the already precarious situation of Iraqi Jews even more dire, and departure became almost inevitable... Farewell, Babylon!

These memoirs, full of life and intelligence, first published thirty years ago, have taken on a wholly unique depth today.