Happy Birthday, Baghdad!
July 30th marks the founding of the city of Baghdad by Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur in 762. This marks the founding of Baghdad as it is today; a city called Baghdad is mentioned in a number of pre-Islamic texts, most notably the Talmud, indicating that today’s Baghdad was built on an older pre-Islamic (possibly Persian) city. On founding Baghdad, Mansur is quoted as saying, “This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterwards;” he loved the site so much, in fact, that he proclaimed it “Madinat al-Salam,” or “City of Peace.” He was right to have high hopes for the city—Baghdad soon grew and flourished as a center of Islamic culture and one of the most important cities in the world.
[picture via skyscrapercity]
statue of the poet al-mutanabbi on mutanabbi street; baghdad, 2012 (via zagros.os)