From Publishing Perpectives:
1,000 Year Old Baghdad Book Market Survives Bombing
By Edward Nawotka

There's an old saying in Iraq concerning literature: "In Cairo they write. In Beirut they print. In Baghdad we read."The intellectual heart of Baghdad has, for much of the past millennium, been Mutanabi Street, where many of the city's bookstores and most popular cafes are located. The street is named after the first century poet Abul Tayyeb al-Mutanabi, perhaps the most revered of all Arabic language poets. Fridays are traditionally the market day and especially busy for the city's book merchants who use the street for a kind of open-air book bazaar. (read on...)