Sammara' : The Abbasid Capital, Surra-Mn-Raa'a.

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    In 836 the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim shifted the Capital of the Islamic
    world from the 74 year old Baghdad to the newly built Sammara'. Some
    56 years later Baghdad resumed its role as Capital. During this short period
    Sammara' flourished and the tales surrounding it have passed into legend.

    To this day remenants of that great past can be seen along the eastern bank
    of the Tigris, just south of the modern Sammara'.

    The Grand Mosque of Sammara' was built on the orders of the Caliph
    Al-Mutawakkil in 852. At that time it was the largest mosque in the
    world and its 52 meter high minare, Al-Malwiya (The Spiral), the
    tallest. It is said that the Caliph used to ride up the minaret on
    horseback!












    The main street of old Sammara' was called Al-A'adham. (The Greatest).
    At the end of Al-A'adham are the mostly intact remnants of Abu Duluf
    Mosque. Also built by Al-Mutawakkil, it is a a smaller version of the
    Grand Mosque to the extent of having its own Malwiya (standing at 19
    meters high).
    The two great Imams, Ali Al-Hadi and his son Hassan Al-'Askari, are both
    entombed under this graceful golden dome. Both are decendents of Imam Ali
    Bin Abi Talib, burried in Al-Najaf, and Imam Al-Hussain Bin Ali, who is
    burried in Karballa'