| News from Iraq |
|
|
 |
| Comments & Analysis |
|
|
|
| Features |
|
|
|
|
|
A history of Baghdad
By: Fouad Kazanchi
Published date: 16/7/2003
To a westerner, Baghdad may well provoke more fabulous images than any other city in the Orient. Throughout most of its long and eventful history, it has been the prized jewel of the Near East, the city of the “Arabian Nights” and the heart of the Arab World.
After its founding between AD 762-767 by Caliph Al-Mansur, Baghdad gradually became the center of knowledge in the medieval ages. However, archaeological evidence shows the site of was occupied by various peoples long before the Arab conquest of the land of Iraq in AD 637.
The famous Michaux Stone , found by a French physician living in Baghdad in 1870, refers to a Babylonian town called Bak-da-du of the 12th century BC. On a small part of an embankment on the Tigris -- near the Al-Karkh end of the Baab El-Maudham bridge -- is an archeological site attributed to the second Babylonian period, circa 600 BC. The original site of Baghdad was on the west bank of the river Tigris, between Kadhumain in the north and Shaljia in the south.
Planners, surveyors, and builders spent more than four years building the Round City of Baghdad along with the Grand Green Mosque, the Palace and the suburbs of the city officially called Midinat Al-Salam or Dar Al-Salam, which means the city of peace, after a Quranic Verse.
It was called the Round City as it was almost the first Islamic round city. The first planners of Baghdad most probably being influenced by ancient Mesopotamian architectural style, particularly that of Hatra City, whose round walls were clearly recorded in the eighth century. In adopting this design, the caliph aimed at making himself as secure and isolated as possible.
The city itself had four gates, each named for the districts of the Abbasid Empire. All of these gateways were duplicated both in the middle and inner walls. The gates of the inner wall lead directly to four main streets, into the great central enclosure, a circle perhaps as large as 1800 meters in diameter.
The middle of this circle was occupied by the caliph’s palace and the Great Mosque. The palace was named the Golden Gate and was remarkably built. One of its most impressive features was a great green dome, surmounted by a figure of a horseman which moved as the wind changed direction.
Four years after the completion of the Round City, construction work began on the east side of the Tigris in a place named Al-Rasafa. In AD 768, when Al-Mahdi, who was Mansur’s son, reached the east side of the river at the head of an army, his father instructed him to encamp. So Al-Mahdi also built a mosque there, which was larger than the one built by his father.
Al-Mansur had a pontoon bridge built to join the Round City with Al-Rasafa. A large suburb known as Al-Mukharram grew along the whole eastern bank. This new settlement was the forerunner of modern Baghdad.
The Caliph Harun Al-Rahid’s success came from his prowess as a great ruler of the east. Baghdad during his era reached its zenith of splendor and glory.
During this age, Baghdad played two roles at once. It absorbed both the Persian and Syrianic cultures and became a center of learning, which started with the Bayt Al-Hikma Academy and led to the establishment of the Great Library, which flourished in the ninth century.
In the era of Al-Mamun, the most reasonable caliph, dozens of scientists, doctors, philosophers, writers and translators, whether they were Arab, Syrianic or Persian, could make the basis of a new civilization next to the Hellenistic civilization which extended to all of the eastern world.
At the same time, the people of the Round City began gradually to abandon it and live in the new side of Baghdad on the west bank (Al-Rasafa). Baghdad then moved to Al-Rasafa site, which took a rectangular shape between Al-Kadhimain and Baab Al-Mukharram (Baab Al-Sharqi, or the East Gate).
The Caliph Nasser Li-Deen-Illah in 1203 wanted to build a huge defensive wall around Baghdad to protect it from invaders and floods. The walls were almost in a rectangle shape.
As before, this wall had four great gates. They were the Al-Bassaliya gate and the Al-Dhafariya, or Wastani Gate, from which the walls ran eastwards. The Sultan gate was in the North. This was pulled down to widen the road during the 1930s. The Talisman gate was demolished in 1917 when the Ottoman army withdrew from Baghdad. Its destruction was a great loss to the Islamic architecture, as it had some fine thirteenth century carving and distinguished ornaments. Fortunately, Al-Wastani gate has survived and been restored by the Establishment of Antiquities and Heritage.
The Caliph Al-Mustansir built the famous Mustanseriya College in 1232. It was considered the first university college in the Arab-Islamic world, along with a great university library housing 80,000 volumes.
In 1258, Hulago destroyed a great part of Baghdad, including schools and libraries. Baghdad was restored to its former glory by the good faith of rulers such as Ameen Al-Deen Marjan, who built a religious school known as Marjan Mosque in 1358. Nearby he built an inn and a marketplace now called Khan Marjan. Parts of the mosque were restored and are used.
Baghdad was gradually neglected by its foreign rulers during the Safwaid and Ottoman periods. Fortunately some sites of 13th century Baghdad still exist: the Abbasid Palace, the Minaret of Khulafa Mosque and the Tomb of Zumurrid Khatun.
By the twentieth century Baghdad had become a small shaky city with a population of 150,000 and covering an area of 100 square kilometers. In 1921, Baghdad regained its dignity when the first national government was formed. Since then, the city has rapidly developed in every sphere. Now, with its 5.5 million inhabitants or more, it covers an area equal to that of London.
Faoud Kazanchi is a professor of history at Al-Mansur University and the author of “Baghdad, the City of Peace -- Its History and Development,” published last year.
Published date: 16/7/2003
Author: Fouad Kazanchi
|
|
|
|
|
