Baghdad Founded

In 762 AD, the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur founded Baghdad on the west bank of the Tigris River, creating a new capital for his young dynasty. Designed as a circular city, it was officially called Madinat al-Salam, the "City of Peace." Within a few generations Baghdad grew into one of the largest cities in the world and a center of trade, scholarship, and culture, though claims that it was the very largest are usually applied to its peak in the ninth and tenth centuries rather than to its first years.

The Abbasids had come to power in 750 by overthrowing the Umayyad dynasty, whose capital was Damascus in Syria. Their revolution drew much of its strength from Iraq and Persia, particularly the eastern province of Khurasan, and the new rulers wanted a seat of power closer to those supporters. Al-Mansur, the second Abbasid caliph, had also faced unrest in nearby Kufa and wished to put distance between himself and unreliable factions. According to later historians, he chose the site for its position among rivers and canals, its fertile surroundings, and its access to routes leading to Syria, Arabia, Persia, and beyond.

Building began in the early 760s and drew on architects, surveyors, and laborers from across the caliphate. Medieval sources describe a round plan with massive walls, four gates oriented toward different regions, and a central area containing the caliph's palace and the main mosque. The ring-shaped design is known mainly from written accounts, since the original city was later overtaken by urban growth and little of it survives, so some details, including exact dimensions, remain uncertain. Outside the walls, markets, neighborhoods, and suburbs quickly spread along both banks of the river.

Baghdad's location made it a natural hub for commerce, linking the Mediterranean world with Persia, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean trade. Wealth and patronage attracted scholars, poets, physicians, and merchants from many backgrounds and religions. Under later caliphs, especially Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun, the city became associated with the translation movement, in which Greek, Persian, Syriac, and Indian works were rendered into Arabic, and with the institution often called the House of Wisdom. Advances in mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and philosophy flourished in this environment.

Baghdad remained the Abbasid capital for roughly five centuries. Its political power declined as regional dynasties gained independence, but its cultural prestige endured until the Mongol conquest of 1258, which devastated the city. Today Baghdad is still Iraq's capital, and its founding is remembered as a turning point when the Islamic world's center of gravity shifted eastward and a new urban civilization took shape.