Founding of Baghdad: al-Mansur’s Round City
On a site chosen by the caliph al-Mansur on the west bank of the Tigris, by an old village called Baghdad and some 30 km from the former Sasanian capital Ctesiphon, work began in the summer of 762 on a circular palace city officially named Madinat al-Salam, ‘the City of Peace’. Completed by 766 or 767, it became the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, and Baghdad grew into one of the largest cities in the world.
- Date
- between 30 July and 2 August 762 – between 766 and 767exact date unknown: an interval is given · duration: ≈ 4 years
- Place
- Round City of Baghdad (Madinat al-Salam)approximate locationtoday: west bank of the Tigris, Baghdad, Iraq · Middle East and Egypt
- Participants
- Al-Mansur, Abbasid Caliphate, Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Fazari
- Threads
- Middle East and Egypt (6th–10th c.)
- Also known as
- Madinat al-Salam; City of Peace; Round City; Madinat al-Mansur; Мадинат ас-Салам; Город мира; Круглый город; Мадинат аль-Мансур
After the revolution the Abbasids ruled from Kufa and other residences in Iraq, such as al-Anbar. Al-Mansur wanted a permanent capital for his court, his army and a growing bureaucracy, and chose a place where the Khorasan road met the Tigris and canals linked the river with the Euphrates, beside a village that already bore the Persian name Baghdad. The date was fixed by court astrologers — among them Nawbakht, Masha'allah and al-Fazari — and later sources give it as 30 July 762; according to al-Ya'qubi the building began on 2 August under four architects. The chroniclers speak of 100,000 workers and craftsmen and of costs of 18 million gold dinars or 100 million silver dirhams. The caliph’s palace and the mosque were ready in 763, when al-Mansur moved in, and the rest of the city by 766 or 767.
The city was a circle about two kilometres across — the medieval figures differ — enclosed by a moat and a double brick wall with four gates named after the roads they opened onto: the Kufa, Basra, Khorasan and Syria gates. From each gate a straight road led to the centre, where the caliph’s Palace of the Golden Gate, crowned by a green dome, stood beside the great mosque. The circular plan with four gates recalls Sasanian round cities such as Gur (Firuzabad) and Darabgard, and the palace followed Iranian models; Jacob Lassner has argued that the Round City was essentially a palace city housing the court and the government offices. Troops from Khorasan and Transoxiana were settled in suburbs to the north-west, and al-Mansur moved the markets out to the separate quarter of al-Karkh.
Baghdad soon eclipsed Ctesiphon, which was quickly deserted, and became the centre of Abbasid government, trade and learning. The Round City itself was partly ruined in the siege of 812–813, during the war between al-Amin and al-Ma'mun, and ceased to be the caliph’s residence; nothing of it survives, and its plan is known only from medieval descriptions, reconstructed since G. Le Strange (1900). Stories about the founding circulated early: al-Tabari tells how Christian monks had foretold that a man called Miklas would build a city there, and how the caliph recalled that this had been his childhood name.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Abbasid Revolution9 June 747 – between July and August 750 · Middle East and Egyptthe new dynasty moved the centre of the caliphate to Iraq
Related events
- Abu Hanifa and Malik: the oldest surviving Sunni schools of lawbetween 737 and 738 – 795 · Middle East and EgyptAbu Hanifa, who refused al-Mansur’s offer to make him chief judge, died in prison in the new capital in 767
- Indian astronomy in Arabic: the Zij al-Sindhindbetween 771 and 773 · Middle East and Egyptal-Fazari had helped to cast the horoscope for the founding of Baghdad in 762
Same participants
- Abd al-Rahman I founds the Emirate of Córdobabetween 14 May and 15 May 756 · Western and Central Europevia Abbasid Caliphate
Same place
- Reign of Vologases I51–78 · Middle East and Egypt
- Trajan’s Parthian campaign114–117 · Middle East and Egypt
- Roman–Parthian War of 161–166161–166 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Vologases IV147–191 · Middle East and Egypt
- Mani begins his mission240 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Shapur II309–379 · Middle East and Egypt
- Julian’s Persian expedition and the Peace of 3635 March 363 – July 363 · Middle East and Egypt
- Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon410 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Bahram V Gurbetween 420 and 421 – 438 · Middle East and Egypt
- Suppression of the Mazdakitesbetween 524 and 529 · Middle East and Egypt
- Reign of Khosrow I Anushirvan531–579 · Middle East and Egypt
- Revolt of Bahram Chobin and the restoration of Khosrow II589–591 · Middle East and Egypt
- Paper comes to Baghdadbetween 794 and 795 · Middle East and Egypt
- Siege of Baghdad29 January – 10 February 1258 · Middle East and Egypt
- Capture of Baghdad by Suleiman Ibetween November and December 1534 · Middle East and Egypt
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- Volyntsevo culture: the Slavs of the Dnieper Left Bank in the Khazar agebetween 700 and 750 – between 813 and 833
- The Khazar rulers adopt Judaismbetween 740 and 861
- Saltovo-Mayaki culturec. 750 – between 900 and 950
Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843
Central and Northern Asia
- Bögü Qaghan makes Manichaeism the religion of the Uyghursbetween 762 and 763
- Trisong Detsen: the Tibetan Empire at its height and the founding of Samyebetween 755 and 756 – 797
South Asia
- Krishna I carves the Kailasa temple at Ellorabetween 756 and 774
- Lalitaditya Muktapida rules Kashmir: the Sun temple of Martandbetween 724 and 725 – between 760 and 761
East Asia
- Kim Dae-seong builds Bulguksa and the Seokguram grotto751 – c. 775
- An Lushan rebellion16 December 755 – 17 February 763
North America
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Pueblo I: villages of surface rooms on the Colorado Plateauc. 750 – c. 900
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
Latin America
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Tiwanaku culture at its height by Lake Titicacac. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Round City of Baghdad
- Wikipedia (English): History of Baghdad
- Wikipedia (English): Al-Mansur
- Wikipedia (Russian): Круглый город
- Wikipedia (Russian): Багдад
- Wikipedia (Russian): Абу Джафар аль-Мансур
- Lassner J. The Topography of Baghdad in the Early Middle Ages. — Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970.
- Le Strange G. Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources. — Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900.