Baghdad

Baghdad
Baghdad; ?????
	Metropolis
	Clockwise from top: Aerial view of the Green Zone; Al-Mustansiriya University; Al-Kadhimiya Mosque; Swords of Qadisiyah monument; and the National Museum of Iraq
	; Seal
	; Seal
	Nickname(s): 'The City of Peace'
	Baghdad Location of Baghdad within Iraq Baghdad Baghdad (Asia)
	Coordinates: 33°20?N 44°23?E? / ?33.333°N 44.383°ECoordinates: 33°20?N 44°23?E? / ?33.333°N 44.383°E; (33°20?N 44°23?E? / ?33.333°N 44.383°E)
Country	Iraq
Governorate	Baghdad
Established	762 AD
Founded by	Abu Jafar al-Mansur
Government
• Type	Mayor–council
• Body	Baghdad City Advisory Council
• Mayor	Zekra Alwach
Area
• Metropolis	204.2 km2 (78.8 sq mi)
Elevation	34 m (112 ft)
Population
• Estimate (2016)	8,765,000
• Rank	1st
• Urban	11,500,000
• Metro	13,500,000
Demonym(s)	Baghdadi
Time zone	Arabian Standard Time (UTC+3)
• Summer (DST)	No DST (UTC+3)
Postal code	10001 to 10090
Website	Mayoralty of Baghdad

Baghdad (/?bæ?dæd, b???dæd/; Arabic: ?????? ( listen)) is the capital of Iraq. The population of Baghdad, as of 2016, is approximately 8,765,000, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab world (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).

Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g., House of Wisdom), garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Centre of Learning".

Baghdad was the largest city of the Middle Ages for much of the Abbasid era, peaking at a population of more than a million. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture.

In contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been frequently subjected to insurgency attacks. The war had resulted in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts as well. As of 2012, Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, and was ranked by Mercer as the worst of 221 major cities as measured by quality-of-life.

Etymology

The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed. The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. By the 8th century AD, several villages had developed there, including a Persian hamlet called Baghdad, the name which would come to be used for the Abbasid metropolis.

Arab authors, realizing the pre-Islamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in Persian. They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God". Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology, which views the word as a compound of bagh ( ) "god" and d?d ( ) "given", In Old Persian the first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Slavic bog "god", while the second can be traced to dad?ti. A similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithrad?t (Mihrd?d in New Persian), known in English by its Hellenistic form Mithridates, meaning "gift of Mithra" (d?t is the more archaic form of d?d, related to Latin dat and English donor). There are a number of other locations in the wider region whose names are compounds of the word bagh, including Baghlan and Bagram in Afghanistan or a village called Bagh-šan in Iran. The name of the town Baghdati in Georgia shares the same etymological origins.

A few authors have suggested older origins for the name, in particular the name Bagdadu or Hudadu that existed in Old Babylonian (spelled with a sign that can represent both bag and hu), and the Babylonian Talmudic name of a place called "Baghdatha". Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations.

When the Abbasid caliph, al-Mansur, founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name Madinat al-Salaam or City of Peace. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although the common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, "Baghdad" became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis.

History

Foundation

A view of Baghdad from the print collection in Travels in Asia and Africa, etc. (ed. J. P. Berjew, British Library)

After the fall of the Umayyads, the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose a site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon (and also just north of where ancient Babylon had once stood), and on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the super

Release Date :

12:00am on Tuesday 1st January 1952