Al-Rashid Street (Arabic: شارع الرشيد, romanized: Shari' al-Rashīd) is one of the main avenues in downtown Baghdad, Iraq.

Named after Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid, it is one of the most significant landmarks of the city due to its political, spiritual, urban, and cultural history.

[7][8] The name "Al-Rashid" (Arabic: الرشيد) was an honorific title given to the Abbasid Caliph which meant "followers of the right path.

Because the narrow road networks that were common in Iraq at the time didn't suit carriages or transportation, the street was wider with sidewalks that included arcades that acted as shading for pedestrians.

They would then surge the mosque using an armored car, at least one person was reported to have been killed during this event which was a deaf-mute who got run over after getting his foot stuck.

Iraqi businessmen met with sellers in coffeehouses on al-Samu'al Street to complete sales and discuss purchasing bargains.

Al-Istiqlal newspaper published an article about the visit entitled “The Magic of Babylon and Pharaohs at the al-Hilal Nightclub" in which it documented that starting from 18 October 1932, Umm Kulthum hosted eight concerts in the theater.

[7] Umm Kulthum's popular song "Baghdad, O' Castle of Lions" would be broadcast daily for decades until 2003 in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq.

[29] Another celebrity who also visited the street was the Syrian-Egyptian singer Fayza Ahmed who, just like Umm Kulthum, held concerts in several theaters.

[7] During the 14 July Revolution, the 1958 military coup that overthrew the Iraqi Monarchy, the Crown Prince Abd al-Ilah's corpse was dragged along the street and then cut to pieces.

During the afternoon of that same day, many bodies were dragged into the street including the body of a Jordanian delegation from the Hashemite Federal Parliament who happened to be on a visit to Iraq was dragged through the area with a stick being shoved into his bottom while the crowded shouted for the capture of Muhammad Fadhel al-Jamali, the former-Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs.

[31] It was also around this time Iraqi photographer Latif al-Ani started to take pictures of the daily life at the street.

[32] The following year after the overthrow, on 7 October 1959 Iraqi Republican leader Abd al-Karim Qasim, who led the revolt that overthrew the Monarchy, narrowly avoided death in a botched assassination attempt during a residential motorcade on the avenue.

[34] The plan was to have five of the perpetrators stand behind the pillars of the buildings on the street in front of the Brazilian Café and open fire on Qasim.

Throughout the era of President Saddam Hussein, al-Rashid Street remained the main center of Baghdad despite some of the older buildings being worn out.

[9]Along the street are sidewalks which include arcades built to shade the pedestrians from the sun with three-story buildings along the avenue.

The arcades hold several buildings, many of which are multi-leveled and include post-modernist European, traditional Iraqi, and Renaissance architectural influence which was considered modern for its time.

He also noted the arcades of the street having Mediterranean influence although still keep some native traditional aspects persistent such as the height of the buildings.

[37] Some of the houses on al-Rashid Street also include shanasheel, an old Islamic balcony that was a common architectural feature to preserve privacy.

Often made from carved and paneled wood, these shansheel can still be found around the street in the houses in narrow alleyways and have become part of Iraqi folklore.

[38] Al-Rashid Street is usually divided into five distinctive sections as a result the many places it runs across: Al-Sinak, al-Murabba'a, al-Shorja souks, Haydar-Khana, and al-Maidan areas.

Among the Iraqi singers that the company recorded were Muhammad al-Qubanchi, Nazem al-Ghazali, Hudiri Abu Aziz, Salima Pasha, and Afifa Iskandar while among the other singers include Umm Kulthum, Abdel Halim Hafez, Muhammad Abdel Wahab, Farid al-Atrash, and Fayza Ahmed.

Baghdad, along with Cairo and Beirut, was one of the only Middle Eastern cities that imported American movies that were shown in theatres and cinemas.

[54] In 2015, the Abd al-Karim Qasim Museum was opened after the former house of Halil Kut was restored to preserve the history of the era.

[57] Al-Rashid Street began to see a decline as a general social and intellectual location during the UN embargo on the country, especially the later 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Many of its shop owners have since fled the country although many Iraqis have accused the new government of neglecting and ignoring the street's heritage.

[30] Additionally, due to the invasion and sectarian violence that followed, the street became a victim of several bombing incidents that were planted near it.

[62] However, the Municipality was criticized for the restoration attempts due to having no architects, conservationists, or architecture historians working on the avenue.

[63] Fears of the destruction of the avenue's heritage were especially high after the demolishing of the Syriac Catholic Church in the Shorja areas in favor of a commercial store in 2019.

After the collapse of the Hilal Theater without an effort to rebuild it, concerns over the residents of the avenue were raised as other neglected arcades could fall on people and their shops.