BAGHDAD
• The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, related to previous
settlements on the site. Arab authors realise this and as usual look for Persian origins. They give different hypothetical
explanations, the most common of which is “given by God” or
“Gift of God” (or the Idol). When the Abbasid caliph, al- Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he
chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage,
although the common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, "Baghdad" became almost the exclusive
name for the world-renowned metropolis.
• Geographical Location: The city is located on a vast plain bisected by the Tigris river. The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called "Risafa" and the Western half known as "Karkh". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river.
• Demographics: The capital and largest city of
Iraq, Baghdad, has a population of just over 6 million. It's the Arab world's second-largest city after Cairo and the second-largest city in Western Asia behind Tehran. Almost 75% of Iraq's population is made up of the dominant ethnic group the Iraqi or Mesopotamian Arabs. Other major
ethnic groups include the Kurds (17%), Turkmen (3%), Assyrians (2%), and Persians (2%).
• Religions: Islam is by far the most common religion at 95% of the population. Non-Muslims, mostly Assyrian Christians, make up 5% of the population. The Christian community in Iraq has existed for nearly 2,000 years and most are descended from the pre-Arab Mesopotamians-
Assyrians. It's believed that 65% of Muslims are Shia while
the remaining 35% are Sunni.
• History Of Baghdad :
• After the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the
victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital
of Ctesiphon (and also just north of where ancient Babylon had once stood), and on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the supervision of
the Barmakids. Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic empire under the Abbasids. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward". The city's growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors: it had control over strategic and trading routes along the Tigris, and it had an abundance of
water in a dry climate. Water exists on both the north and south ends of the city, allowing all households to have a plentiful supply, which was very uncommon during this time.
Four equidistant gates pierced the outer walls where straight roads led to the centre of the city.
The Kufa Gate to the
south-west and the Basra Gate to the south-east both opened on to the
Sarat canal – a key part of the network of waterways that drained the waters of the Euphrates into the Tigris. The Sham (Syrian) Gate to the north-west led to the main road on to Anbar, and across the desert wastes to Syria. To the north-east the
Khorasan Gate lay close to the Tigris, leading to the bridge of boats across it.
(Courtyard of Mustansiriya madrasa, established by Al-Mustansir in 1227)
Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad became a hub of learning and
commerce. The city
flourished into an unrivaled intellectual center of
science, medicine,
philosophy, and education, especially with the Abbasid Translation Movement
began under the second caliph Al-Mansur and
thrived under the seventh caliph Al-Ma'mun Baytul- Hikmah or the "House of Wisdom" was among the most well known
academies,and had the
largest selection of books in the world by the middle of the 9th century.
(Scholars at an Abbasid library,1237)
The House of Wisdom (Arabic:Bayt al-Ḥikmah), also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, refers to either a major Abbasid public academy and
intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library belonging to the Abbasid Caliphs during the Islamic
Golden Age. The House of Wisdom was founded either as a library for the collections of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century (then later turned into a public academy during the reign of Al-Ma'mun) or was a private collection created by Al-Mansur (reign 754–
775) to house rare books and collections of poetry in both Arabic and
Persian.
(Conquest of Baghdad by the Mongols in 1258 CE.)
On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu, a grandson of Chingiz Khan (Genghis Khan), during the siege of Baghdad.[56] Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting.
The Mongols massacred most of the city's
inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim, and destroyed large
sections of the city. The canals and dykes
forming the city's
irrigation system were also destroyed. It has been argued that this marked an end to the Islamic Golden Age.
Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate, a
breakaway state of the Mongol Empire,
ruling from Iran. In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur
("Tamerlane").
Baghdad became a provincial capital controlled by the Mongol Jalayirid
(1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–
1469), Turkic Ak
Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian
Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties.
• On Sah Ismail’s orders, many Sunni shrines, especially those of Abu Hanifa and Abd al-Qadir al-Gilani, were ruined, and many of the leading Sunnis were killed.
However, he started building a shrine for the Imam Musa al-Kazim. He appointed a governor with the title Khalifat al- Khulafa. In 941/1534 Sultan Süleyman entered Baghdad.
He built a dome on the tomb of Abu Hanifa, with the
mosque and madrasa, rebuilt the mosque, tekke and tomb of Gilani and had guesthouses for the poor at both
mosques. Following the insurrection of the Subashi Bakr, Shah Abbas I conquered Baghdad in 1032/1623. School buildings and Sunni shrines, including the mosques of al- Gilani and Abu Hanifa, suffered destruction. Thousands were killed or sold as slaves and others were tortured.
Baghdad was regained in 1048/1638 by the Ottomans
under the personal command of Murad IV. Baghdad and
southern Iraq remained under Ottoman rule until 1917,
when captured by the British during World War I.
• Baghdad became the capital of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia with several architectural and planning projects commissioned to reinforce this administration. After receiving independence in 1932, the capital of the Kingdom of Iraq. The city's population grew from an estimated
145,000 in 1900 to 580,000 in 1950. During the Mandate, Baghdad's
substantial Jewish community comprised a quarter of the city's population.
• The Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad in retaliation for Saddam Hussein's continuous bombardments of Tehran's residential districts.
• In 1991 and 2003, the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq caused significant damage to Baghdad's transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure as the US-led coalition forces launched massive aerial
assaults in the city in the two wars. Also in 2003, the minor riot in the city (which took place on 21 July) caused some disturbance in the population.
Important Places In Baghdad
The Iraq Museum contains precious relics from the Mesopotamian, Babylonian and Persian civilization. It was looted during and after the
2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Despite international efforts, only some of the stolen artifacts were returned. After being closed for many years while being refurbished, and rarely open for
public viewing, the museum was officially reopened in February 2015.
Al-Shaheed
Monument, also known as the
Martyr's Memorial, is a monument
designed by Iraqi sculptor, Ismail
Fatah Al Turk, and is situated in the Iraqi capital,
Baghdad. It is dedicated to the Iraqi soldiers who died in the Iran–
Iraq War.
The Qushla or The Qishleh is an
Ottoman site in
Baghdad, Iraq. The Qushla lays at
Rusafa side of the Iraqi capital. The Ottoman Wali
(governor) Namiq Pasha started the
building in 1881. The building was finished after him by the next Wali Madhat Pasha.
Firdos Square (Sāḥat al-Firdaus) is a public open space in central Baghdad, Iraq. It is named after the
Persian word Firdows, which means
"paradise". The site has been the location of
several monumental artworks.
Abbasid Palace
The earliest surviving Abbasid palace, built around 775, is the al-Ukhaidir Fortress. It has a plan derived from earlier
Sasanian and Umayyad palaces.
[10] The palace lies in the desert about 180 kilometres (110 mi) to the south of
Baghdad.[11] It is rectangular in shape, 175 by 169 metres (574 by 554 ft), with four gates.
Three are in half-round towers that protrude from the wall, and one in a rectangular recess in the wall. Inside there is a
vaulted entrance hall, a central court, an iwan (hall) open to the court opposite the entrance
hall, and residential units.
Ancient Babylon City
Babylon was the capital city of Babylonia, a kingdom in ancient Mesopotamia,
between the 18th and 6th centuries BC. It was built
along the left and right banks of the Euphrates river with steep embankments to
contain the river's seasonal floods. Babylon was
originally a small Akkadian town dating from the period of the Akkadian Empire c.
2300 BC. The remains of the city are in present-day Hillah, Babil Governorate, Iraq,
about 85 kilometres south of Baghdad.
• Climate: Baghdad has a hot desert climate, featuring extremely hot, dry summers and mild winters. In the summer, from June
through August, the average maximum temperature is as high as 44 °C (111 °F) and accompanied by sunshine. Rainfall has been recorded on fewer than half a dozen occasions at this time of year and has never exceeded 1 millimetre (0.04 in). Even at night temperatures in summer are seldom below 24 °C (75 °F).
Baghdad's record highest temperature of 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit) was reached in July 2015. Winter
temperatures are typical of hot desert climates.
• Economy:
Petroleum, natural gas, phosphate and sulfur are the main natural resources of Iraq. Crude oil is processed at the refinery facilities in Baiji in Northern Iraq, Dora in Baghdad and Basra. Baghdad
accounts for 22.2 percent of Iraq's population and 40 percent of the country's gross domestic product (PPP). Unemployment is a serious social problem. The unemployment rate in Baghdad is around 10%. The wars in particular had a bad effect on the economy of Baghdad.
