"I mention Baghdad first of all because it is the heart of Iraq, and, with no equal on
earth either in the Orient or the Occident, it is the most extensive city in area,in
importance, in prosperity, in abundance of water, and in healthful climate.
It is inhabited by the most diverse individuals, both city people and country folk; people
emigrate to it from all countries, both near and far; and everywhere there are who have
preferred it to their own country. All the peoples of the world have theirmen own neighborhoods there, their trade and commercial centers; that is why there is gathered together here what does not exist in any other city in the world. It stretches out on the two banks of those two large rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and watches commercial
products and staples flow to it on land and on water. For it is with great ease that
each commercial object is transported endlessly from East and West, from Moslem
and non-Moslem regions.
Indeed, merchandise is brought from India, Sind, China, Tibet, the land of the Turks, the Khazars, and the Abyssinians -from everywhere in short-to such a degree that it is found in profusion in Baghdad than in its country of origin. It is procured so easily and surely that one would think that all the goods of the earth are sent there, all the treasures of the world gathered there, and all the blessings of the universes concentrated there. Besides, it is the capital of the Abbasids, the center of their empire, and the seat of their overeignty, where no one has appeared before them, and where no other princes have lived.
Its name is famous and its reputation is universally known. Iraq is indeed the center of the world. For, according to the unanimous opinion of the astronomers exposed in the writing of the ancient sages, it is located in the fourth climate, the median climate, where the temperature equals itself by epochs and by seasons. It is extremely hot during summer days, the cold is intense during winter days, and a moderate temperature is enjoyed in autumn and in spring; the change from autumn to winter and from spring to summer takes place without violent contrasts. Thus the passing of the seasons brings repeated and regular variations of temperature. Not only is the climate regular but the terrain is excellent, the water is sweet, the trees flourish, the fruit is of perfect quality, the harvests are magnificent, good things abound, and the water supply is almost at ground level. As a result of this normal temperature, of the quality of the soil, of the freshness of the water, the inhabitants are of a happy disposition, their countenances are bright, and their intelligence is of an open nature. The people also excel through their knowledge, their understanding, their good education, their perspicacity, their distinction, their commercial, industrial, and business sense, their ingenuousness in all controversy, their competence in all trades, and their ability in all industry. No one is better educated than their scholars, better
informed than their authorities in tradition, more solid in their syntax than their grammarians, more supple than their singers, more certain than their readers of the Koran, more expert than their physicians, more capable than their calligraphers, clearer than their logicians, more zealous than their ascetics, better jurists than their magistrates, more eloquent than their preachers, more artistic than their poets, or morevoluptuous than their gay blades."