In the graphic memoir my character explores the house in which she finds herself.
The classic Baghdadi house had a room on the second floor called the kabishkan which had glass-fronted walls that looked out onto the inner courtyard. It was used as a living room and sometimes as a storage space for dried food. My aunt Flora remembered doing her homework there.
And here’s the rough drawing of the flat roof where everyone slept during the summer months. Next step, colour!
The Wolf Of Baghdad 
Re rooftop sleeping, did they sleep on beds as shown or mattresses/palliasses? I only ask because I stayed with various families in North Africa in the 70s and early 80s and don’t remember ‘beds’ as such. Palliasses were spread on the floors of various rooms at night, hung out of the window to air in the morning then piled up in a side room till nightfall. This was Algeria and Tunisia but would Iraq have been any different?
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Hi Keith. Yes, they had proper beds as well according to my family, probably a mixture of both. If you ever slept under the stars in the Middle East you’d know what an amazing experience it is! You feel like you could almost reach out and touch them.
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I experienced that myself and would like to add something endearing. Mattresses used to be stacked on a table in what was called in the south and middle of Iraq “Baytone”, I have a feeling it was called the same in Baghdad. Baytone was like a room where the stairs end and had access door to the rooftop. Children would rush to the rooftop at sunset to get their mattresses on the metal beds so they cooled, by evening breeze, when they go to sleep later. Of course the parents bed was normally prepared by the older children. Some times children feel a bit lazy to get their bed ready and cool, so they beg each other’s to do it for them. Of course when you do it for your brother or sister then you owe them a time to get their bed ready. We used to keep good track on whose bed was done and by whom?
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