Tree of Pearls, Queen of Egypt

Baghdad

 Baghdad baghdad had reached the zenith of its architectural glory in the days of Al-Ma’mun. Its numerous buildings and gardens extended over a vast area the size of which was estimated to be 53,750 juribs; 26,750 to the east and 27,000 to the west (a jurib being the equivalent of 3,600 square cubits, and its proportional relation to the feddan, about 100 to 333). The total area of Baghdad was thus about 16,000 feddans—a very large size indeed. We are told that the Abbasid capital was an agglomeration of contiguous towns: forty in all, according to the imperial chronicler Al-Khatib the Baghdadi, who, wishing to give an idea of the city’s architectural splendor, states the following in his History: “In the days of Al-Ma’mun, Baghdad’s public baths numbered 65,000. At least five persons were employed in each of these baths: a bath-attendant, a caretaker, a janitor, an oven-stoker and a water-carrier, making in all 300,000 souls. It is said that five mosques adjoined each one of these baths, a number totaling 300,000 mosques. Each mosque in turn employed at least five persons, making 1,500,000 employees in all.” While these figures are no doubt exaggerated, they do give us some sense of the size of Baghdad at the time. The famous traveler Al-Astakhri described it as he had himself seen it in the eleventh century: “The imperial palaces and gardens occupy two farsakhs between Baghdad and Nahrabin, so that they extend from Nahrabin to the banks of the Tigris. The city rises above the imperial complex about five miles to the north on the shores of this great river. Shamsiyya stands opposite Harbiyya in the western part of the city and descends towards the Tigris, to the extremities of Karkh. Between Baghdad and Kufa (or between the Tigris and the Euphrates) lies a vast and monotonous area of arable land intersected by tributaries of the Euphrates.” The author then counts the tributaries that run from the Euphrates to the Tigris. baghdad |  In those days, Baghdad lay towards the west and the circular capital built by Al-Mansur still stood in exactly the same spot, surrounded by the city’s residential quarters, streets, and markets. Things had changed, however, by the time of our story in the thirteenth century. The city had moved eastwards, and the imperial complex had disappeared along with Al-Mansur’s capital. In the first centuries following its founding, Baghdad was the Mother of Cities : the center of imperial trade and of science and poetry, and a magnet for all those who sought wealth and distinction. When the Caliphate began to grow weak, conspiracies flourished and dissension grew amongst its people. The most devastating of these conflicts was the rift that opened up between Sunna and Shi‘a: a deadly breach that was reproduced at the heart of the government. Not a year would go by without some violent confrontation taking place between the two communities. Though the imperial state usually strove to arbitrate these conflicts, pressure was most often brought to bear on the Shi‘a, since the administration was dominated by Sunnis. Baghdad’s Shi‘a lived mostly in Karkh and Qadhimiyya, and while they patiently bore intermittent persecution, the government continued to entrust them with its interests and to delegate important posts to them. The schism in question eventually brought about the fall of Baghdad and its occupation by the Tatars under the leadership of Hulagu—a typical chain of events in the history of empires. If you but consider the roots of the political upheavals that cause dominion to pass from one dynasty to another, you will note that they are most often nurtured in the soil of religious or political conflict between countrymen. Despair overtakes the weaker party once it is forced into submission, and it seeks the aid of a foreign people to champion its cause. These foreigners then bide their time and wait for the right moment to seize power. Most, if not all, political revolutions of the period of which we speak unfolded in this manner. ...