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Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers, was the birthplace of the civilizations, and it
was here in about 4000BC that the Sumerian culture flourished. In
635AD Arab Muslims conquered the occupying Persian force, and Baghdad
was established as its capital in 762AD and was regarded the cultural
capital of the Islamic world in the tenth century. Circular walls enclosed the city and, although its original name was Madinat as-Salam (City of Peace), it was more popularly known as the Round City. At the city's centre were the caliph's palace and the grand mosque, with four roads radiating out from these central buildings. The city's gradual expansion caused it to extend beyond the original walls, and as it spread across to the river's east bank, a bridge built of boats joined its two halves. The eastern section was called Rusafah. During the 8th and 9th centuries AD, Baghdad was at the height of its commercial prosperity. Under the rule of the caliphs Mahdi and Harun, it became the centre of many important trade routes between the east and west. Its many impressive buildings and magnificent gardens gave it the reputation of the richest and most beautiful city in the world. In the latter half of the 9th century, the Abbasid caliphs' power was weakened by internal strife leading to civil war. When the Mongols invaded Baghdad in the 13th century, the caliph was murdered; many buildings and the irrigation system were destroyed, thus adding dramatically to the city's decline. Around 1258AD the Mongols sacked Baghdad
and left the countryside totally ruined, and the country was conquered
by the Turks in the 17th century and became a part of the Ottoman
Empire. When in 1534 it became part of the Ottoman Empire, the city fell into obscurity and neglect for several hundred years. Improvements were made on a modest scale at
the beginning of the 20th century, when some schools and hospitals were
built. The oil boom of the 70s brought increased wealth to Baghdad and
the city began to develop on a much more impressive scale, with the
construction of middle-class residential areas. New sewers and water
lines were laid and above ground a network of super-highways was
constructed, as well as a new airport. All such improvements, however,
were brought to an abrupt halt by the war with Iran in the 80s and by
the Gulf War, which immediately followed it. There was very little
development until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the
First World War. British forces occupied Baghdad in 1917 and made a kingdom, and Iraq was
proclaimed a republic through a military coup in 1958. In 1979 Saddam Hussein was inaugurated as the president, and the
Iran-Iraq War (1980 - 1988) had a crippling effect on its economy, so
Iraq invaded Kuwait and maintained its own territory from ancient times. An added bonus of the large-scale construction work in the late 70s was the discovery of many buried artefacts, dating back to a more glorious past. These have been removed to Baghdad's many excellent museums. It is not known, as the time of writing, to what extent these still exist. Today's city is perhaps not as impressive as those images of old Baghdad, which may be conjured by the imagination. It stretches along both banks of the Tigris, with the district of Rusafah on the east and the district of Karkh on the west. Eleven bridges connect the two halves of the city. Tahrir Square, standing on the river's left
bank at one end of the Jumhuriyah Bridge, is the heart of Baghdad and
from it radiate the city's main streets. Saddam Hussein's picture,
mostly larger than life, is displayed everywhere. |
