Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab Jew

Avi Shlaim’s first and only memoir has been anxiously awaited due to his long history studying, teaching, and writing about the Arab-Israeli conflict(s), and the reputation he has received for being an outspoken and uncompromising historian working against nationalism.

This memoir is a beautifully written text that gracefully intertwines vignettes from his life with the scholarly attested history of Jews in Iraq and Iraqis in Israel. As it stands, I see this text as the new definitive start for anyone wishing to explore Jewish Iraqi history. 

With that being said, Shlaim was born into a life of comfort and this memoir presents one of many Iraqi Jewish experiences, which Shlaim is adamant to remind the reader of. His training as a historian means that he fills 300 pages not just with his subjective experience of Iraq, but uses objects, journal entries, interviews, and childhood memories as the frame on which he builds incredible chapters filled with a rich history of both a boy and an entire community. 

Being a fan of P.G. Wodehouse, I adore Shlaim's quintessentially cheeky British way of telling stories. While he handles antisemitism, Palestinian dispossession, migration, the suppression of women, and his own psychological trauma, he brings incredible heart and humour at the right moments to draw us back into a sense of wonder and ease. 

One moment that had me chuckling out loud:

"My father's wholesale store fell under the new regime. He could sell iron only to the British forces and at a price they fixed — the old price. His dream of becoming the emperor of galvanised iron was shattered. The man who imposed all the restrictions was the arrogant proconsul, Sir Kinahan Cornwallis, whom my father, like my mother, used to curse. As his name was difficult to pronounce, they chose an Arabic designation for him: kalb ibn al-kalb." (Shlaim 2023:72-3)