By Lennox Samuels It is mid-afternoon on a Friday and the noise level is rising in Al-Wiyah Club, as urbane Baghdadis walk in and stake out their places at coveted dinner tables. Men seated at the legendary teak bar smoke, drink and call out affable greetings to new arrivals. A few people walk through to the tennis court and pool area out back, but most head for the restaurant, where waiters in white shirts and black trousers weave in and out of the aisles. “Come! Your place is here,” a beaming Dr. Tahseen Sheikhly commands a group of six, waving them over to his large corner table. “Sit down; what will you have?” The crowds have been returning to Al-Wiyah, a venerable social club that for years was a metaphor for the good life in Baghdad. Founded by the British in 1924, it became a popular retreat for the city’s gentry. The colonial grandeur is mostly gone now, the décor more workaday than elegant; the carpet a bit worn; tablecloths faded. The building’s exterior is still pocked from insurgents’ gunfire, most of it aimed at neighboring high-value targets like the Palestine hotel, once a base for U.S. Marines. The violence that engulfed the capital city forced the club to close for more than a year, in 2003-’04. As recently as the mid-1970s, men had to wear a coat and tie in the club and during Saddam Hussein’s regime, membership was limited mostly to business leaders, senior Baath Party officials and ranking military officers. ...
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