The Building Of Baghdad The city was to be built of brick, the basic material of the country. Even before the foundations were laid, large, square bricks were manufactured measuring about eighteen inches on each side, while the half-brick was oblong and about nine inches wide. A carefully constructed canal brought water to the work site for both human consumption and the manufacture of bricks.

The Caliph himself named the city's four gates for the destinations to which they gave access: Kufa (the starting point for pilgrimages), Basra, Khurasan, and Syria. The distance between diametrically opposite gates was a little less than one and one-fourth miles. The gates had double iron doors that were so heavy they required several men to open and close them. Open, the gates were high enough to allow a horseman carrying a banner or a lance to pass through. The wall between the gates, made of brick with clay used as mortar, was about I45 feet thick at its base and about 39 feet thick at its top. This wall was about 98 feet high, including the merlons. It was surrounded by an impressive thick outer wall, at a distance of about I65 feet, which was flanked at intervals by solid towers and was surmounted by rounded merlons. The outer wall was protected by a strong, solid glacis made of baked bricks and quicklime. Beyond that was a water-filled moat. The outer wall was demolished at the end of the ninth century by order of the caliph Mu'tadid, and although its destruction was stopped for a while because of certain protests, riverside inhabitants gradually began to settle on the site. It seems, therefore, that the original plan of the city disappeared at that time.

Wide avenues, bordered by brick and plaster arcades, ran in four directions from the center of the city to the city's entrances. One could enter each through a vaulted passage- way, built of baked bricks and plaster, in the outer wall. A roadway of hard stone led from there to a passageway through the main wall which was closed by iron gates. The passageway had small windows which let light in but kept rain out. Each of the four gates was vaulted, and each of the en tranceways of the main wall was surmounted by an immense gilt cupola, an observation tower on teak columns. Each tower had rooms which were reached by a ramp.

In the middle of the city's central square was the Golden Gate Palace. Over the central part of this building was a green dome about I60 feet high, on top of which was a horseman holding a lamp. It was commonly believed that the statue had magical powers. Its presence is mysterious, for it is not mentioned after about 758 until it fell during a violent storm in 941. After the death of the caliph Amin in 813, the palace no longer served as the caliph's residence, and it fell into ruins in 1255.

At first the palace was surrounded by a vast esplanade onto which only the caliph could come on horseback; near by were a few private mansions and ofIicers' residences. On the side toward the Gate of Syria was a building reserved for the guards and a long, large portico, made of baked bricks and marble, which rested on columns. The palace governor lived in the latter and the commander of the guards in the former. The cathedral mosque adjoined the palace. It was built of sun-baked bricks and clay; its roof rested on wooden columns. The building was rebuilt by order of the caliph Harun al-Rashid in 893. This was the building seen by Ibn Rusteh and described as having been "built of fire-baked bricks and plaster, with a teakwood roof painted the color of lapis lazuli, supported by pillars of the same wood." Re- pairs later made by the caliph Mu'tadid followed the original model, and the front of the building was opened so it could hold more people comfortably. This change was detrimental to the palace, which had been seriously damaged during a bombardment at the time of a siege to which the Caliph Amin was subjected. The minaret of the mosque had been destroyed by fire in 9I5 and was later rebuilt. This venerable sanctuary has to the present time withstood all disasters, including the Mongol conquest. All around the main central square were the houses of Mansur's young children and his personal black slaves, the treasury, the public kitchens, the arsenal, and the offices of the Ministry of Correspondence and Land Taxes, of the Keeper of the Seal, of palace personnel, and of the Finance Ministry. From one end of the city to the other there were alleys and streets bearing the names of officers, the caliph's proteges, or even local inhabitants. In each of them dwelled high-ranking oRicers in whom the caliph had a great deal of faith, his most important freedmen, and public servants who were on call in case of emergency. Solid gates closed of3 the ends of the streets. Except for the four main avenues, no artery ran to the wall surrounding the main, or palace, square, since all other streets and the wall were concentric. It has been impossible to locate this early center of Bagh- dad, this round city, on the site itself, and there is no way even to draw up a hypothetical plan. Baghdad was at first a fortified city inside a rampart, a large palatine city. Even the sites set aside for market places were eliminated for security reasons. Later the outlying parts of the city were divided into four sections separated by the city gates, and an engineer was engaged to lay out each section. He was told how much land to allow for market places in each, and how great an area to allocate each concession-holder. The instructions were to reserve large sites for stores and shops and to plan for a general market in each section to handle various commercial articles. As much room was to be reserved for streets and alleys as for buildings. Avenues were seventy-eight feet wide, and streets were twenty-six feet wide. The number of neighborhood mosques and baths was to depend on population density. The engineer was or- dered to take a set amount of land from the officers' and troops' concessions for the use of merchants, as well as for small retailers and foreigners, who were obliged to build their homes and live there. Because of such planning, the activities in these neighbor- hoods ran smoothly and harmoniously. Unoccupied land was turned into orchards or was cultivated in order that the inhabitants would not be too crowded. A variety of crops ensured harvests in all seasons. Noisy or malodorous facilities, such as camel stables, were set up in outlying areas. Enumeration of the peripheral neighborhoods will help give a better idea of the development of the suburbs closest to the city. Taking the course of the Tigris as a point of de- parture, we find Rusafa, flanked on the northeast by Sham- masiya. These two neighborhoods were separated from each other by the main avenue which started at Bab al-Taq, the Arcade Gate near Ya'qubi's main bridge, and which ran to the Shammasiya Gate. A long boulevard separated this north- ern group of neighborhoods from those to the south, and it too began at Bab al-Taq and ran far to the east to the Khurasan Gate. To the south of this street was the Mukhar- rim neighborhood, which gained renown as the site of the caliph's luxurious palaces after the beginning of Mamun's reign. Across the Tigris, to the south of the city, were the Karkh and Muhawwal neighborhoods. Muhawwal was to become a resort. Because of its many trees and streams, it resembled Ghuta in the Damascus suburbs. Harbiya, situ- ated to the north of the Syrian Gate on the banks of the Tigris, was in ruins by the thirteenth century. Thus, from the beginning, the city stretched out on both banks of the Tigris. The great amount of traffic between the two banks makes it important to determine the number and the locations of the pontoon bridges which were the means of communication. Louis Massignon's remark points out the difficulty of this task: "If the question of the bridges of Baghdad was definitely answered, there would be a solid basis for determining all the topography of the two banks. Unfortunately, historical texts tell us in a confused way of temporary, special bridges answering a passing need or a prince's whim, and of modifications to ordinary service bridges used for commercial purposes and the movement of the local population." It seems that there were four or five bridges up to the reign of Mamun and only three after that. The bridges were, of course, the nerve centers of the city, especially during battles and uprisings. Since they were very busy places, the bodies of distinguished people who had been executed were exposed on them. For example, the bodies of the members of the Barmekid family were placed in the middle of each of the bridges. Sometimes the heads of rebels were accorded this sign of public infamy. The Upper Bridge joined Shammasiya and Rusafa to the right bank and went on to the Harbiya section and the Syrian Gate. It is mentioned in accounts of the sieges of 8I4 and 865, at which time it was damaged. It was composed of twenty pontoons. In 896, perhaps under the weight of too many people, part of it collapsed and one thousand persons drowned. A little later it burned, but was rebuilt under the first Buyids, who, from the time of their arrival, lived in palaces in Shammasiya. A wealthy private citizen provided money for its reconstruction. The Upper Bridge seems to have disappeared finally in the middle of the tenth century, since Istakhri and Ibn Hawqal mention only two bridges. Ibn Hawqal's text remains rather mysterious: "The two banks are today joined by a bridge at the end of Bab al-Taq; there were formerly two, but because of the small number of users, one of them, in need of repairs, has been closed to traffic." The western sector, near the Khurasan Gate, was very close to the Tigris, along which an avenue ran. The Main Bridge crossed over to the east bank and ended near Bab al-Taq almost opposite the Palace of Eternity. The arcade (Taq), all that remained of a palace that had existed in the time of Mansur, was an outstanding landmark in the Middle Ages because of its location near a pontoon bridge. For a while the bridge was divided to provide two one-way lanes. The Lower Bridge was called by Ya'qubi the New Bridge. It was built by order of Mansur and ran from the Barley Gate on the right bank of the Tigris to the Tuesday Market on the other side. The Baghdad historian Khatib mentions only the Main and Lower Bridges. The Lower Bridge did not always re- main in a fixed place. When the Tigris was not raging, there were ships of many kinds on the river. Arab writers liked to name them all from the lowliest to the most fabulous ones used by the aristocracy of the city. In order to let the boats pass, some of the bridge pontoons had to be removed. The Karkh neighborhood, famous later for its restiveness, was in the southern section, between the Kufa and the Basra Gates. It was furrowed by a system of concentric canals, the most important of which joined the Euphrates and the Tigris. The Sarat was the most important canal and was closest to the Round City. It flowed from the Tigris north of the Sharqiya (Eastern) district and ran toward the west through Muhawwal. Sharqiya was a very busy commercial center. There was a market here with rows of shops in which all sorts of products were sold. There were also about one hundred bookshops. It was in a Sharqiya mosque that the Friday sermons were delivered. The name Sharqiya dis- appeared and was replaced by the name of the Basra Gate neighborhood. The controversies between it and Karkh were a subject frequently mentioned in the chronicles. Karkh deserves mention because of its favorable location on a knoll which was not always reached by the periodic overflowing of the Tigris. The Arab name comes from an Aramaic word meaning "fortified city." This section was the most important commercial center. The following anec- dote explains why the markets were installed in the southern sector. Mansur had already reserved for the merchants the arcades in the Round City near the gates. One day he re- ceived a Byzantine ambassador and in showing him through the city asked, "How do you like it?" "It is certainly a well planned city," said the visitor, "ex- cept for one thing. An enemy can cross it at will and without your knowledge. All your secrets will be spread throughout the world without your being able to hide them. For the markets are inside the city; they are open to everyone. The enemy will enter using business as a pretext. Besides, the merchants will travel about and will be able to talk of your most secret affairs." That was all that was needed to move the main markets to Karkh as early as the year 774. At the entrance to Karkh were the merchants who sold cloth and all sorts of clothing imported from Khurasan. But most of the neighborhood consisted of a very large and continuous maze of shops and outdoor stands. Each type of business had its own fixed street with a set number of com- mercial locations so that the professions and various types of commerce were not mixed. No article was put on sale nor was any craft practiced outside its designated location. Each market was set up as a separate entity. Butchers, those "peo- ple totally lacking education who always have a knife in their hands," were completely isolated. They even had a mosque assigned to them in the neighborhood to keep them from entering the center of the city. There were also cloth merchants, soap dealers, and cook-shop owners. In the south- ern part of the district flowed the Canal of the Chickens, so named because of a large chicken market. In the same part of Karkh there was the Street of the Fullers. At the other end, toward the entrance to Muhawwal and in the direction of the Tigris, were open markets that were stocked with all sorts of merchandise. It is rather diR;cuk to locate precisely the Market of Thirst, which hurt Karkh with its competition soon after the Caliph Mabdi set up some retailers there. It is rather vaguely thought that it was in the vicinity af Bab al-Taq, even the name of which was unknown to Ya'qubi. Of course, the goods found in certain markets, especially those in which a little of everything was sold, depended on the character of the people among whom they were estab- lished. Shops were even huddled together inside the walls of the caliph's palaces. Their owners practiced noble trades and furnished the needs of the court. They were the flower and fruit merchants, the goldsmiths, money-changers, and the inevitable armorers. North of the Round City,~beyond the Syrian Gate, were markets where all sorts of products and staples were sold. This well-stocked commercial center, which branched out in several directions and joined the Harbiya sector, had avenues, streets, and courtyards. Ya'qubi states that in his time there was no neighborhood which was bigger, more important, or better provided with streets and markets. He adds that most of the residents were originally from central Asia. There was a smaller neighborhood between the surround- ing wall and the Tigris. Here were the caliph's stables, the drill field, and the Khuld (Eternity) Palace, which faced the Tigris. Mansur lived there, and so did Mahdi before he moved to the Rusafa Palace. Police headquarters and the repair shop for the pontoon bridges were located on this same bank of the Tigris, and the straw merchants also gath- ered in this area. Ya'qubi's statistics for the city and its suburbs should be taken with a degree of skepticism. Ya'qubi said that there were six thousand streets and alleys, thirty thousand places of worship, and ten thousand bathhouses. These figures are certainly grossly exaggerated, as are those of other Arab writers. The markets and the shops were taxed for the first time under Mahdi's reign and must have brought to the treasury more than the equivalent of $I~OO,OOO. Mention has been made of the partly navigable system of canals in the southern suburb which connected the Tigris and Euphrates. They in no way hindered the movement of pedestrians, since they were spanned by arched bridges. The Karkhaya Canal, running from the Euphrates, flowed through solidly vaulted underground tunnels with bottoms made of quicklime and carefully laid baked bricks. This canal provided water to most of the neighboring streets in winter as well as in summer, since a technique had been devised to prevent any halt in the flow. Another canal along the same system, running from the Tigris, was named Little Tigris (Dujail) by the caliph. Its two branches, one of which was called the Canal of the Chickens, brought drink- ing water to the inhabitants of Karkh and the neighboring area. The residents of Karkh were also supplied by the large Isa Canal, which bordered the area to the south. It was navigable, and large ships coming from Raqqa in Upper Mesopotamia brought wheat and a variety of merchandise from Syria and Egypt. They were unloaded in an uninter- rupted flow in the lower port, where warehouses had been built. This canal assured Baghdad of a ranking commercial position. The canals also offered a fine line of defense for the city. They were therefore indispensable, and their main- tenance was essential. Not much information is available about their construction and upkeep, except for the impor- tant repairs during the Buyid period. The inhabitants of Baghdad also had wells which were fed by the canals. As a result, the entire population drank fresh water. Between the Basra Gate and the Khurasan Gate, in the section of the Round City closest to the Tigris, was a thoroughfare called the Street of the Water Carriers. The entire area was prosperous. Trees, especially palms brought from Basra, were planted, and Baghdad had more palm trees than Basra or Kufa. Magnificent fruit was grown, and there were many orchards and gardens throughout the suburb. This is what greater Baghdad was like, with its Round City and its suburbs, the most famous of which was Karkh: "Everything that was manufactured in the other countries was made here, because artisans had emigrated from every point on the horizon; they had come as quickly as they could from near and far." THE FOUNDING OF BAGHDAD On the outskirts of the city, in every direction, were ceme- teries. In 76X the caliph Mansur began to build another section of the city on the east bank, in a bend of the Tigris north~ east of the Khurasan Gate. At first it was called Mahdi's Camp and later, Rusafa. This community was passed on to the future caliph Mahdi. According to its founder's plan, it was to be an outer defense of the capital and was therefore surrounded by a wall and a moat. A palace surrounded by gardens and a cathedral mosque were built there. The site of the mosque can be approximated because the tomb of Abu Hanifa, who was buried near by, is still in existence. This section, in which a canal was dug, was connected to the western bank by two pontoon bridges. Mansur distributed concessions in this district to his brothers and his oR;cers. Ya'qubi writes, "People greatly desired to live near Mahdi because he was popular." Mahdi did not permit buildings to be constructed that were too spacious. Space was set aside for a large market where all sorts of merchandise, food products, and manufactured goods were sold. To the south- east of this neighborhood was the Market of Thirst, but the attempt to attract the merchants of Karkh to this market ended in failure. Five main streets crossed this section of Baghdad. Actually, from the time of the construction of Rusafa, the Round City ceased to exist. All the caliphs from Mahdi to Mu'tasim lived on occasion in Mahdi's Palace in Rusafa. There was a definite reason for the establishment of Mah- di's Camp. The sovereign hoped for peace and quiet. Mansur was advised to have Mahdi and some of the troops live on the east bank. Karkh and Rusafa are names that are still in use. The entire left bank of the Tigris is called Karkh; Rusafa is the name of that part of Baghdad which is on the right bank The original Rusafa fell into ruins at the time of Yaqut. Nothing was left but the mosque, which was destroyed dur- ing the Mongol conquest, the mausoleums of the Abbasid caliphs, and the tomb of Abu Hanifa. Rusafa began at the Shammasiya Gate. A road, called the Grand Avenue, ran from this gate to the neighborhood of the caliph's palaces in the south. In addition to the Palace of the Golden Gate and the one at Rusafa, there were many other royal residences. All have disappeared, but we know approximately where they were located. In 775, the caliph Mansur had another palace built on the west bank of the Tigris, outside the ramparts, facing the Khurasan Gate. It was called Khuld (Eternity) and was used by various caliphs up to the time of Mu'tamid. Accord- ing to an Arab historian, the comparison with Paradise was well founded. The panorama was splendid; the palace itself was amazingly luxurious and surprisingly well planned. Although the caliph Harun al-Rashid preferred staying in Raqqa, in Upper Mesopotamia, rather than in Baghdad, Raqqa was but a vacation spot for him; his real residence was the Palace of Eternity. That is where his harem and his children were housed and where his public treasury was lo- cated. The caliph Amin lived there, but he stayed at the Golden Gate during the siege laid down by his brother Mamun's army. Khuld remained the name of this section of the city. The palaces of the caliphs were on the east bank of the river. Mention should be made of the mansion of the Barme- cide vizier, Ja'far ibn Yahya, who liked to drink and surround himself with musicians and singers. Unable to change his son's ways, Yahya ordered him to build an out- of-tbe-way, isolated palace on the east bank where he could invite his fellow roisterers to revelries that at least were hid- den. So it happened that Ja'far built a mansion that was to become the center of a group of palaces of the caliphate. Fantastic amounts of money were poured into the luxurious residence. The building became the property of Mamun, who moved into it before becoming caliph. He set aside neighboring land for a race track, a polo ground, and a zoo. Toward the east, a gate opened on the surrounding plain, and a canal was dug to supply water to the property. The grounds were bordered on the north by what was called, in Yaqut's time, the Main Boulevard. The building became the property of the caliph's minister, Hasan iLn Sahl. When Hasan's daughter, Buran, married Mamun, the caliph lived in the Palace of Eternity. After Hasan's death, the palace became one of Buran's possessions. Its name, Qasr Hasani, Hasan's Palace, was retained, however, in memory of Mamun's father-in-law. The caliph Mu'tadid, the first to come back to Baghdad after this decline, increased and beautified the surrounding property, bought near-by lands, modernized them, and notably, had the race track moved farther east. The palace named the Crown (Taj) was then founded near the Tigris, and it was protected from the river's wrath by a masonry dike. The building had a cupola and was surrounded by fields and a zoological park. The cupola was called the Dome of the Donkey, because, in order to get to it, one had to ride a little grey donkey up a gently sloping ramp. This cupola was destroyed by lightning in II54. The caliphs Muqtafi and Mustadi had it rebuilt, but with inferior materials. The caliph Qahir was besieged in the Crown Palace, which seems to have been destroyed at a later date. The caliph Mu'tadid had thought of moving into the Crown Palace even before it was completed. In any event, his son Muktah finished the Taj according to plan. Its main fa,cade had five arcades which were supported by six columns. Dominique Sourdel wrote: "A place was set aside for solemn audiences. At the rear of a sort of niche, the caliph appeared to all those present; they were lined up to the right and the left of a long room and stood silent." Mu'tadid thought of leaving the Crown Palace, because he was annoyed by the smoke of near-by houses. In the suburbs two miles to the east, he built the Palace of the Pleiades and had it connected to the other palace by an underground tunnel, which was blocked with the first flooding of the Tigris. The Pleiades received its water supply from the Musa Canal. The outlying buildings and lands stretched toward the east for several miles. A game reserve was set aside in which wild boar was hunted. This palace, of which Ibn Mu'tazz sang in his poetry, was destroyed in 1074 by a terrible flood. The royal hunt amounted to an easy massacre with almost no human danger involved. Apparently the game was killed with the least amount of edort. It was a very elegant sport, demanding preparations as detailed as those of a military campaign, and it could, like polo, be used as a type of army training. The caliphs had had a long wall erected around the Palace of the Pleiades. The game, surrounded by this wall, was easily seen and killed by the caliph and his guests. The hunters were accompanied by servants armed with javelins and boar-spears, by huntsmen and falconers, and by horse- men with trained cheetahs. Of course this type of hunt could be risky when big game was involved. These battues were the occasion for exploits that the poets could sing about. Another palace, al-Firdaus (meaning Paradise) was founded toward the south on the banks of the Tigris, near the Tuesday Market. It too was connected to the Pleiades by underground passageways. On the other side of the perimeter of the caliphs' castles, Mu'tasim had a palace built near the Khurasan Gate, which was in the wall on the east bank. He lived there until his departure for Samarra. It is evident that each caliph tried to beautify this group of palaces, and we shall see the result later with the description of Muqtadir's reception of a Byzantine ambassador. It is useless to list all the luxurious buildings which added to the beauty of these residences, which eventually became an in- dependent, walled part of the city, called Mukharrim. The group of palaces was known as Dar al-khilafa, the Residence of the Caliphate, and it consisted of buildings, gardens, shaded lawns, columned porticoes, and streams that ran into little lakes, all of which was enclosed by a wall in 1095. At this time the area was still called the Harim, meaning reserved enclosure, and was as large as the city of Shiraz, according to contemporary writers. The rampart, which was not very imposing, ran around the area in a half- circle, the ends of which were connected by the Tigris. It had a number of gates, whose names are given us by Ya'qubi. Starting at the northwest and moving east, we find the al-Gharaba Gate and the very high Gate of the Date Market, destroyed at the beginning of Nasir's reign. Then there was the Badr Gate (also called the Private Gate), named after a commander of Mu'tadid's troops. This gate was walled up around 970. Then came the Gate of the Nubian, which sve shall encounter again during the Crusades. This was also called the Gate of the Threshold and was kissed by pnuces and ambassadors as they entered Baghdad. An iron harpoon hung from the People's Gate, where executions took place. This gate, facing toward the east, was a