Late for Tea at the Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family
A lyrical, haunting, multi-generational memoir of one family’s tempestuous century in Iraq from 1900 to the present.The Chalabis are one of the oldest and most prominent families in Iraq. For centuries they have occupied positions of honour and responsibility, loyally serving first the Ottoman Empire and, later, the national government.In ‘Late for Tea at the Deer Palace’, Tamara Chalabi explores the dramatic story of her extraordinary family’s history in this beautiful, passionate and troubled land. From the grand opulence of her great-grandfather’s house and the birth of the modern state, through to the elegant Iraq of her grandmother Bibi, who lived the life of a queen in Baghdad, and finally to her own story, that of the ex-pat daughter of a family in exile, Chalabi takes us on an unforgettable and eye-opening journey.This is the story of a lost homeland, whose turbulent transformations over the twentieth century left gaping wounds at the hearts not only of the family it exiled, but also of the elegant, sophisticated world it once represented. When Tamara visited her once-beautiful ancestral land for the first time in 2003, she found a country she didn’t recognize – and a nation on the brink of a terrifying and uncertain new beginning.Lyrical and unique, this exquisite multi-generational memoir brings together east and west, the poetic and the political as it brings to life a land of beauty and grace that has been all but lost behind recent headlines.
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TAMARA CHALABI
Late for Tea at the Deer Palace
The Lost Dreams of
my Iraqi Family
To my dearest ammooooo, Hassan Chalabi
Contents
Maps
Family tree
Chronology
Prologue
Book One: Fallen Pomegranates
1 Duty Calls: A Busy Day for Abdul Hussein (1913)
2 Stacking Rifles: Hadi and the War (1914–1916)
3 All That is Good Will Happen: A Marriage Prospect (1916)
4 Sugared Almonds and Jasmine: Bibi and Hadi’s Wedding (1916)
5 A Giant Broken: The End of the Ottomans (1917–1918)
Book Two: Replanting Eden
6 Café Chantant: The British in Baghdad (1918) 77
7 Rebellion: Fighting for Freedom (1919–1920) 86
8 A New King for a New Country: From Mesopotamia to Iraq (1920–1921)
9 Fesanjoon, a Royal Luncheon: Faisal Visits Kazimiya (1921)
10 Banished: Out of Kazimiya (1922–1924)
11 Accidents of Nature: The Baghdad Boil (1925–1926)
12 In Between: A Home Between Two Cities (1926–1929)
13 Stolen Hopes: A Young Life Lost (1928–1929)
14 Bursting Energy: Hadi’s Growing Empire (1931–1933)
15 Prison: Uninvited Guests at a Feast (1935–1936)
16 Carefree: Growing Up in the Golden Age (1936–1938)
17 A Dark Cloud: The End of a Generation (1938–1939)
18 A New Home: The Shadow of Death (1937–1939)
Book Three: A Dangerous Garden
19 Mountains and Floods: Domestic Changes (1939–1941)
20 Blood and Salons: Mounting Tensions (1941)
21 An Education Overseas: Mixed Fortunes (1941–1945)
22 Love in Strange Quarters: Of Marriage and Other Unions (1946–1947)
23 The Girl on the Bridge: Anger on the Streets (1947–1949)
24 Precious Things: Towards a New World (1950–1951)
25 Storm Clouds Gathering: Family Feuds and Revolution (1952–1956)
26 Defiance: A Crisis and a Key (1956)
27 Revolution: Slaughter of a Family (1958)
Book Four: Fields of Wilderness
28 Lost Lands: Seeking Shelter (1958)
29 Migration: Precious Cargo (1958)
30 Hunger Pangs: Yearning for Home (1958)
31 Arrivals and Departures: The Importance of Contacts (1958–1959)
32 Escape to Nowhere: The Threat of the Clown Court (1959)
33 A Temporary Home: Visits to the Park (1959)
34 Return to the Shrine: A Life by the Sea (1959–1963)
35 Of Carpets and New Blood: The Emergence of New Patterns (1967)
36 The Ruins of Kufa: A Coup and a Birth (1968–1972)
37 Civil War: A Shattered Sanctuary (1975–1982)
38 Creased Maps: A Move to a Different Land (1980s)
39 Lessons in Humility: The Loss of Everything Precious (1980s)
40 The Mortality of Gods: Burials of the Banished (1988)
41 The Lost Talisman: When Everything is Taken (1989–1992)
42 A Question of Identity: In Search of a Way to Be (1990–2009)
Epilogue
Glossary of Iraqi Terms
Acknowledgments
Searchable Terms
About the Author
Copyright
About the Publisher
Maps
CHALABI FAMILY TREE
Chronology
| 1833 | Ali Chalabi is born. |
| 1869–72 | Midhat Pasha, Ottoman governor in Baghdad, launches a series of much needed reforms aimed at modernization. |
| 1879 | Abdul Hussein is born. |
| 1898 | Hadi is born. |
| 1900 | Bibi is born. |
| 1908 | The Young Turks or CUP (Committee of Union and Progress) Revolt occurs. |
| 1909 | Persian Constitutional Revolution takes place in Iran. |
| 1911 | Bibi’s father, Sayyid Hassan al-Bassam, dies. |
| 1912 | The Turkish Petroleum Company is formed for oil exploration. Its main partners are British and Dutch. |
| 1914 | World War I begins. |
| 1916 | T. E. Lawrence is sent by the British to Sharif Hussein of Mecca to foment an Arab revolt against the Ottomans, aimed at weakening the Ottoman position near the Persian |
| Gulf to Britain’s advantage. | |
| Faisal, the son of Sharif Hussein, leads the revolt alongside Lawrence. | |
| Signature of the Sykes–Picot Agreement, a contract between Britain and France carving up the Ottoman Empire, including the Arab provinces, into spheres of control. | |
| Gertrude Bell, traveller and archaeologist, arrives in Basra to serve as the only female British political officer with knowledge of the terrain and the Arab tribes of Iraq. Bibi and Hadi are married. | |
| 1917 | Baghdad is captured by British troops marching from the south. |
| 1918 | Word War I ends and Rushdi is born. |
| The British occupy the provinces that make up Iraq. | |
| The French occupy Syria and Lebanon. | |
| 1919 | The Paris Peace Settlement is signed. Faisal heads an Arab delegation to the conference, accompanied by T. E. Lawrence, to lobby unsuccessfully for Arab independence. |
| 1920 | The Treaty of San Remo is decided at a meeting to determine fate of former Arab Ottoman territories, based on the previous Sykes–Picot agreement and overlooking British promises to Sharif Hussein for an Arab Kingdom. |
