Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-08T22:28:14.987Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

IMAGES OF ROUND BAGHDAD: AN ANALYSIS OF RECONSTRUCTIONS BY ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2016

Saba Sami Al-Ali  and
Nawar Sami Al-Ali
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the architectural renderings of the round city of Baghdad built by the Abbasid caliph Abu Jaʻfar al-Mansur as visualized by archaeologists and historians. Although nothing of the historic city has survived, descriptions by Arab and Persian authors have provided a guide to its appearance. From an architectural perspective, the work of Ernst Herzfeld and K.A.C. Creswell may be considered the most significant. A study of the details of their architectural drawings reveals inconsistencies with the written descriptions. Reconstructions by other scholars are also examined with special reference to the work of Jacob Lassner. The focus is on the first faṣīl (intervallum) and raḥba (entrance courtyard), the majālis (audience halls) over the four city gates, the maṣʻad (gangway) to the audience halls, the ṭaqāt (arcades) and finally the caliph's palace and the congregational mosque, to suggest a revised reconstruction of al-Mansurʼs Baghdad.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 78 , December 2016 , pp. 137 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

al-Ali, Saleh Ahmed. 1985. Baghdad Mdinat as-Salam. The Iraqi Scientific Council Publications.Google Scholar
al-Ameed, Taher Mudhafar. 1967. Baghdad Madinat al-Mansur al-Mudawara. Najaf.Google Scholar
al-Ameed, Taher Mudhafar. 1976. Al-‘Imara al-‘Abbassia fi Samarra. Baghdad: Dar al-Hurria.Google Scholar
al-Ameed, Taher Mudhafar. 1986. Takhtit al-Mudun al-‘Arabia al-Iaslamia. Baghdad: University of Baghdad Press.Google Scholar
al-Biladhurri, Ahmad bin Yahia bin Jaber. 1987. Futuh al-Buldan. Beirut: al-Maʻaref.Google Scholar
al-Jaqubi, Ahmed Ibn Abi Yaqub Ibn Wadheh. 1890. Al-Buldan. Lugduni Bavatorum: AUPD E.J. Brill, Academiae Typographum.Google Scholar
al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, abi Bakr Ahmed bin Ali. 1931. Tarikh Baghdad. Vol 1. Beirut: Dar al-Kitab al-Arabi.Google Scholar
al-Ma‘adhidy, Abdul Kader Salman. 1978. Khutat Madinat Wasit fi-l-‘Assr al-‘Abbassy. Sumer 34: 181–96.Google Scholar
al-Sudani, ‘Abdullah. 1979. Aswar Baghdad [The walls of Baghdad]. Al-Mawrid 8/4: 39–59.Google Scholar
at-Tabari, abu Jaʻfar ibn Jarir. 1870–1880. Tarikh ar-Rusul wa l Muluk. M.J. De Goeje, Brill.Google Scholar
Creswell, K.A.C. 1940. Early Muslim Architecture. Vol. II. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grabar, Oleg. 1959. Al Mushtta, Baghdad and Wassit. Pp. 99–108, in The World of Islam: Studies in honor of Philippe K. Hitti, edited by Kritzeck, James and Winder, R. Barley. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Herzfeld, Ernst and Sarre, Friedrich. 1920. Archäologische Reise Im Euphrat-Und Tigris-Gebiet. Band II. Berlin.Google Scholar
Ibn Rusta, Abu Ali Ahmed Bin Omar. 1892. Al-Aalaq an-Nafisa.Vol. VII. Lugduni Batavorum: AUPD E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Jawad, Mustafa and Sussa, Ahmed. 1958. Dalil Kharitat Baghdad al-Mufassal [The Detailed Map of Baghdad]. Baghdad: The Iraqi Scientific Council Publications.Google Scholar
Jawad, Mustafa and Sussa, Ahmed. 1966. Madinat al-Mansur wa Jami‘uha. Sumer 22: 2–13.Google Scholar
Lassner, Jacob. 1984. The Topography of Baghdad in The Early Middle Ages. Translated into Arabic by al-‘Ali, Saleh Ahmed as Baghdad Madinat as-Salam. Baghdad: The Iraqi Scientific Council Publications.Google Scholar
Le Strange, Guy. 1830–42. Baghdad during the Abbasid caliphate from contemporary Arabic and Persian sources. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mohammad, Ghazi Rejab. 1984. al-‘Imara al-‘Arabia fi-l-‘Assr al-Islami fi-l-Iraq. Baghdad: University of Baghdad Press.Google Scholar