Inaugurated in 1932 by King Faisal I, Al-Moutanabi Street was named after the famous poet Aboul Taïeb al-Moutanabi (915-965), born under the Abbasid empire in what was to become Iraq.

It is traditionally very busy on Fridays by students and groups of young people, but also not by artists and intellectuals of the older generation.

On Saturday, to celebrate the end of the work launched in August and financed in particular by private sector banks, the Baghdad city hall organized a carnival under high security, participants entering in a trickle.

"Since the sixties, every week I have been there, to look at the books on the stalls on the ground, to meet friends", confides to AFP Zoheir al-Jazairi, writer and former journalist who is full of praise for the subject. of the renovation.

Fairy lights adorned the brick facades and the cleaned wrought-iron balconies, an AFP journalist noted.

Visitors walked phone in hand through the freshly cobbled street where almost all the shops were closed.

Fireworks for the reopening of al-Mutanabi Street, famous for these booksellers in Baghdad, Iraq on December 25, 2021 Sabah ARAR AFP

"It is an island of beauty in the heart of Baghdad. We realize the difference with the rest of the city," laments Mr. Jazairi in a capital where heritage is often neglected.

Less than a kilometer long, the street leads on one side to the Tigris River, over which a high statue of the poet watches over, and ends on the other with an arch adorned with one of Moutanabi's quotes.

The visitor can usually find the latest American bestsellers in Arabic alongside academic textbooks.

There are books in French, English, German and while searching, you can come across some nuggets.

But this Iraq of books has not always been immune to the tragic reality.

As on March 5, 2007, when a suicide bomber detonated a truck bomb in the street, killing 30 people and injuring 60.

Iraqis at the entrance to the mythical rue des bouquinistes in Baghdad on December 25, 2021 Sabah ARAR AFP

Mohamed Adnan, 28, took over the bookstore from his father, who died in the attack.

"He was killed, our neighbors too and several of those who are dear to us", confides this graduate in history, happy however with the restoration.

“I wish those who left were alive to see how the street has changed,” he adds as a singer along the riverbanks hums traditional walks under the fireworks.

© 2021 AFP