Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of aedition by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, Originally published in, this facsmile copy published inremains exceptional as Guy Le Strange undertakes a comprehensive examination of the original round city dubbed 'the City of Peace" Arabic: مدينة السلام Madīnat asSalām but affectionately known by its original name Baghdad by its old and thennewly settled inhabitants.
The first chapter sets the context for the Middle East at the time and the events leading to the establishment of Baghdad as the capital of the new Abassid dynasty, relatives of Muhammed and cultural heirs to the Assyrians and Persians.
Sure enough, a contradiction comes up due to the archaelogical evidence and the identity imposed by the ruling Persians, Le Strange mentions that during the dry season of, the low water levels of the Tigris River revealed extensive facing on the western bank with each brick being stamped with the name and title of the great NeoBabylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II.
Furthermore he states since that event occurred, an Assyrian geographical catalogue cuneiform tablet from the reign of Sardanapalus Greek rendering of the NeoAssyrian king Ashurbanipal cites a settlement with a name very similar to Baghdad and may well likely refer to the one occupying the site where the new Baghdad was built.
Shortly after, an attempt is made at determining the etymology of Baghdad with the most accepted answer being the Persian compound "Bagh" god and "dad "given".
The Encyclopaedia of Islam Second Edition states that contemporary Arab authors generally sought to find a Persian etymology due to the previous rulers in local memory being Persians and modern scholars seem to support this origin too.
I disagree with it because both the Arab authors and modern scholars have forgotten or ignored the Assyrian and Babylonian elements of the land's history and have jumped at the easiest answer.
Le Strange also informs us that sources mention the descendants of the AssyroBabylonians, the Nestorian Christians, contributed to the caliph Mansur's decision in choosing the site for his new capital.
The story
relates that Nestorian monasteries dotted the plain and the monks told the caliph about the spot and it being free of mosquitoes and enjoying cool and pleasant summer nights.
The following chapters focus on the design of the city and its subsequent expansion and ruin in various areas, or more specifically the fiefs that were granted to the caliph's entourage and eventually transformed into busy suburbs.
We learn that that Abu Hanifa, the prominent Sunni Muslim theologian contributed to the construction of the city through his new technique of calculating the number of sunburnt bricks the most common building supply in Mesopotamia required.
Typical of Persian architecture, the city was given a round design similar to that of Ardashir I's Ardashīr Khurrah modern Firuzabad and was sealed with four gates Kufah and Basra SW and SE and beyond to the Arabian peninsula, Khurasan NE to Persia and beyond via the Silk Road and the Syrian Gate which led NW to Anbar and the Levant.
Other prestigious buildings such as the Golden Palace, the Mosque of Mansur, tombs, bridges, canals and other key administrative buildings with annotated maps to visualise the layout.
The information is drawn up from Assyrian, Persian and Arab historians such as Ibn Serapion, Rashid AdDin, Tabari, Yaqubi and Masudi who wrote on the conditions of the city before and during their visit to the city.
We find that the flooding of the Tigris and the commercial growth of certain districts resulted in population movements from the western half to the east known as AlKarkh.
This name is derived from the Syriac name "Karkha" ܟܪܟܐ in referrence to a citadel or walled town and is the same origin of Kirkuk in northern Iraq.
Overtime, Karkh overshadowed the round city and drew the population and its prosperity, Many of these fiefs and suburbs' original names are also given based on the original owner or the guild that operated in that district.
Throughout the book we witness the occasional wars outside and within Baghdad's walls such as that between the caliphs Amin and Mamun and the eventual fall to the Persians, Turks, Mongols and Ottomans, reducing Baghdad to a semiautonomous city and shadow of its former self.
The content relating to matters besides the physical city itself is brief but provides us with enough pointers to pursue those topics further, whether it be the demographics of the city, the ruling dynasties or the countless wars to choose from.
Scholar in Persian, Arabic, and Spanish, specially notable for his work in the field of the historical geography of the pre modern Middle Eastern and Eastern Islamic lands and his editing of Persian geographical texts.
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