Tariq Ali – Bush in Babylon

An evening with writer Tariq Ali at the British Museum

23 September 2003, BP Lecture Theatre

To coincide with the launch of his book ‘Bush in Babylon’

Tariq Ali’s passionate and provocative book Bush in Babylon – The

Recolonisatinion of Iraq is above all a history of Iraqi resistance against empires old and new. Like his previous bestseller, The Clash of Fundamentalisms, this book presents a magnificent cultural history, a heart-felt homage to the great poets of Iraq and the Arab world whose influence remained strong throughout their long periods of exile.

This fresh examination of Iraq’s cultural history finds a unique context at the British Museum with its major collection of Sumerian, Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities, Mesopotamia, ancient Iraq, is often referred to as ‘the cradle of civilisation’ and the British Museum has been playing a leading role in helping to preserve the antiquities in the aftermath of the conflict.

Tariq Ali has written over a dozen books on world history and politics, five novels, and scripts for both stage and screen. His critically acclaimed novels like Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree and the Book of Saladin have been translated into several languages.