Gold in Iraq
Muhammad Kamel, 28, weighs pieces of jewelry in his father’s shop to calculate the price for customers, while window shoppers gazes at the showcase of jewelery outside. (Saad Khalaf / Los Angeles Times)
Most of the glittering jewelry in Adnan Walid’s shop window, and at most Baghdad jewelers, is imported from the United Arab Emirates, where it is made in large factories. The art of goldsmithing is as old as civilization itself in Iraq, but is now under threat as goldsmiths compete with a flood of imports but are hampered by daily power outages, gas shortages and antiquated equipment. (Caesar Ahmed / Los Angeles Times)
Using techniques passed down through generations, and using molds made by his father, Adnan Walid shapes sheets of gold into delicate leaves and flowers to make a necklace. (Caesar Ahmed / Los Angeles Times)
Photographs of Adnan Walid’s famed goldsmith father adorn his shop in Baghdad’s Kadhimiya district, home to a key Shiite shrine. The jewelry sold in the Kadhimiya district is especially prized by Iraqi and Iranian Shiites, who consider it a blessing from the imams buried there. Before U.S.-led forces invaded in 2003, the shopkeepers say, as many as 3,000 Iranians visited every day, but now most pilgrims head to shrines in the relatively peaceful south. (Caesar Ahmed / Los Angeles Times)
