Establishment and cultural role

The current owner of the café, Muhammad al-Khashali, said that the coffeehhouse was established in 1917, but the building used to be a printing press called "Al-Shabandar Press" owned by Musa al-Shabandar, as this building was previously a printing house for printing books. A controversy then caused Musa to be exiled from Iraq for a few years and when he returned, he began to restore what was left of the building. Musa reinvented it as a coffeehouse, offered it for rent. The coffeehouse started to receive customers in 1917, and started to hold concerts for Iraqi maqam, the proceeds of which were returned to charity in Baghdad.^[1][5] The coffeehouse was also a gathering ground and a cultural station for various writers, poets, writers, intellectuals and personalities including political ones such as Nuri al-Said and Abd al-Karim Qasim, due to its proximity to government institutions in the country. The coffeehouse also became a gathering ground where political demonstrations were launched such as a demonstration against the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty in 1948.^[3][6]

Modern history and restoration

In March 2007, in the wake of sectarian violence in the country following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Shabandar Café was a victim to a bombing from a booby-trapped car situated on al-Mutanabbi Street which killed more than a hundred people. As a result of the horrific explosion, the coffeehouse was completely destroyed along with its library. In this incident, four of al-Khashali's sons and a grandson of his were killed and found among the rubble and under the rubble. This accident also caused their mother to lose her sight due to the shock, then she died several months later. At the time, al-Khashali was thought to have also been killed but was on a break, and upon hearing the news, al-Khashali was heartbroken and had to control his anger. Al-Khashali made it his goal to keep the café as a center of cultural attraction and to preserve its cultural features and its old identity. As a result, the café was rebuilt, with funding from the state, merchants, and its customers.^[7][6][3] The Café has also gained a new name after this, "The Martyrs Café."^[8]

Response to the bombing was wide. Two days after the incident, Iraqi poet Ahmed Hussain recited a poem on the ruins of the coffeehouse with journalists and people, including both the elderly and younger generation, gathering around him to listen.^[9]

During the incident, Iraqi artist Emad Ali Abbas, who studied Cinema Department in the Academy of Fine Arts in Baghdad in 2006,^[10] made a twenty-five minute long documentary titled "A Candle for Shabandar Café" chronicling the history of the coffeehouse and its significance, as well as distinct sections. The documentary includes shots of the coffeehouse's exterior and interior, as well as shots of people conversing, drinking tea, and reading. Describing it as a historic location and an intellectual refuge since games, shouting, and televisions aren't prominent in the café.^[11] The goal of the documentary was to document the Shabandar Cafe as well as showcase another part of Baghdad that wasn't the sectarianist violence that was taking place at the time. As such, owners and customers are interviewed on the café and al-Mutanabbi Street.^[9] However, during the filming process, the suicide bombing attack took place which destroyed his filmic subject.^[11] Eventually filming continued months later but as he was leaving al-Mutanabbi Street, he was attacked by a group of thugs that stole his camera and shot in the legs. Emad took an entire year to recover. This led to the inclusion of Emad's personal experience in the documentary as an epilogue.^[12] The documentary won the third prize in the Student Documentary section of the 2008 Gulf Film Festival in Dubai.^[10]

The Shabandar Café remains active and still maintains its external appearance, after restoration and renovation. Its walls are also covered with pictures, testimonies, and newspaper clippings which include various aspects of Iraqi society and history. Among the pictures are the pictures of the four sons and grandson that the owner of the coffeehouse had lost to the bombing as a memorabilia. It remains a social club for merchants, sheikhs, employees, writers and foreign tourists. It is also a place where personal interviews are done by Iraqi media.^[6][13][14]