baghdad project

Baghdad

By Britney Campbell and Bo Crites

Baghdad is the capital of Iraq.It is the center of air, road and rail transport. It is also the leading manufacturing city in Iraq.

Baghdad was founded in 762 A.D. by Abu Jafar al-Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph.

It was originally called Madinat as-Salam which means “ City of Peace”.

Baghdad was at the height if commercial prosperity during the 8th and 9th centuries A.D.

Abu Jafar al-Mansur

The Abbasid Palace

During the 8th and 12th centuries it was the flourishing center of Arab civilization.

As capital of the caliphate, Baghdad was also to become the cultural capital of the Islamic world.

The walled City of the “Thousand and One Nights”, Baghdad, was one of the loveliest cities in the world, with tombs, mosques, minarets, a university and the revered Kadhumain mosque and shrine.

Al Kadhimain Mosque

Tell Harmal, a small mound of antiquity on the outskirts of Baghdad was ancient Shaduppum, was where the first laws were discovered.

This same site has yielded tablets showing mathematical and geometrical problems the precede Greek developments by centuries.

Geometrical Text.

Legal tablets.

Aqarquf is another facinating site. It holds a wonderful Ziggurat, a tall, terraced

ancient Babylonian structure used to protect important buildings from flooding.

Baghdad Mosques

Al-Qadiriya shrine was originally a religious school. Sheik Adul Qadir was one of the most highly respected teachers throughout the Islamic world.

When he died the buried him during the night and when the school opened in the morning, people rushed to pray to him, thus the school became one of the greatest mosques in Baghdad.

The Mosque and tomb of Imam al-A’dham, a famous and holy Islamic site, is flocked to by tourist every year.

Al-Mustansereyya School It took six years to build

(completed in 1233 AD) courses in Arabic, Theology,

Astronomy, Mathematics, Pharmacology and Medicine

Nearly three quarters of a million dinars in gold was spent on its construction and had an endowment valued at about one million dinars in gold from which the School obtained an annual revenue of 70,000 dinars to spend on staff and students.

Khan Murjan Originally designed

as an inn (the oldest in Baghdad) for traveling merchants

The khan contains a large number of rooms distributed on two stories around a closed paved courtyard.

reconstructed in 1935 and is now a first class restaurant where Iraqi dishes are served and folkloric music performed at night.

In 1285, Baghdad was overrun by Mongolian conquer Halagu Kahn. Who killed the last caliph.

In 1401 the Mongols leader Tamerlane (Timur the lame) sacked Baghdad and massacred many of its inhabitants.

By the 16th century it was in disrepair and the population was reduced to 150,000.

The Ottomans maintained Iraq as a Sunni-controlled state until the early 19th century.

By the end of WWI, the league of nations gave Great Britain a mandate to administer Iraq until it established its own government.

The British placed a member of the Hashemite family, Faisal ibn Husayn, on the throne as King Faisal I in 1921.

Oil reserves began to be developed in 1931 after the government signed agreements with numerous international oil companies.

The British mandate was officially removed in 1932 and Iraq was an independent country.

An oil boom in the 1970’s brought wealth to Baghdad, and the city developed on a massive scale.

The city stretches along both banks of the Tigris River with 11 bridges connecting it and its 5 million people.

Sunni and Shiites Split

After Muhammad’s death there was conflict over �who would become his successor, either his closet friend, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, or his son-in-law, Ali ibn Abi Talib.

Supporters of Abu became the Sunnis, those of �ibn Ali the Shiites.

Sunni Muslims

In Iraq, only 35 percent of the population is Sunni

Sunni refers to the sunnas, or oral traditions and interpretations of the Koran

Sunnis believe that the position of Caliph should be a position to which one is elected by the religious leaders of the Islamic community, and not dependent on direct lineage from Mohammed

Shiite Muslims

Shiite Muslims make up the remaining 65% of the Iraqi population.

Shiite comes from the word shia, which means "the party (of Ali)”.

Ali was the first Imam.

Devout Shiites cut their heads with blades during an Ashoura procession to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein

Baghdad mosques. Retrieved from http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/baghdad-mosques.htm

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Muezzin

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/minarets

http://www.iraqwho.com/Tourism_Center_Religious.asp

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