"It is yours, Mr Wright," said King Faisal of Iraq to Frank Lloyd Wright, handing over an island in the river Tigris. It was the summer of 1957 and America's greatest ever architect, then 90 and at the height of his powers, was in Iraq to present his Greater Baghdad project. He wasn't convinced that downtown Baghdad was the best site for his designs, but he thought that the island might be.

In the end, neither Baghdad nor the remarkably named island of Pig in the Tigris was to see the work [completed]...A year after the architect's visit, the Iraqi king was assassinated and Wright's plans were hastily put aside.

Now, half a century and a war of liberation later, some Islamic scholars think it's time for Iraq to take another look at the American architect's vision for the narrow, sun-bleached streets of low-rise 1950s Baghdad. If built, his plans, which included an opera house, university campus and post and telegraph building, could, they say, do much to disabuse Iraqis of the view that Uncle Sam is intent on erasing Islamic culture...

Iranian Muslim architect Nezam Amery, who was Wright's representative in Iraq goes a step further. "Mr Wright designed something that belongs to and has evolved out of Iraq's culture," he says. "If the American government wants to show its goodwill and friendship to the Iraqis it should allocate a budget to build at least one of these buildings."