Medieval Baghdad: Rise and Fall of the City of Peace

[00:00:07]From Rome to Alexandria and Ctesiphon to Chang’an,  each era of humanity’s pre-modern history had   great cities that inspire the imagination of  modern observers, and it is easy to understand   why that is. In a pre-industrial world that  was overwhelmingly characterized by small rural   communities, cities represented the thrumming  cultural hearts of not only Kingdoms and Empires,   but entire continents. The romantic appeal of  wanting to walk the streets of history’s great   metropolises at their respective heights is  natural, and today, we will do just that by   taking you to perhaps the single greatest city  of the Middle Ages. A city which served as the   capital of an Empire that spanned across three  continents, whose cultural soft power - via trade   routes - extended as far north as Scandinavia and  as far east as China. Welcome to our video on the   history of Baghdad, the glittering crown jewel of  the Islamic Golden Age. Sit back and relax as we   cover what life was like within its gilded palaces  and libraries, providing a general account of its   history, from its cultural heights to its tragic  destruction at the hands of the Mongol Empire.  This video is sponsored by our  kind youtube members and patrons,   without whom our work would have been impossible.  Patrons and Youtube members get 2 exclusive videos   weekly and can currently watch the completed  series on the First Punic War, Peloponnesian   War, History of Prussia, Italian Unification Wars  - Risorgimento, as well as dozens of other videos   and the continuation of our Pacific War series.  New series on the Russo-Japanese War, Albigensian   Crusades, Xenophon’s Anabasis and much more are  being released for our backers right now. You can   join their ranks via the links in the description  and pinned comment to get exclusive videos, early   access to all public videos, schedule, wallpapers,  access to a special discord server, where we are   very active and much more. Thanks for supporting  us. We couldn’t be doing it without your help!

[00:02:22]Within a generation of the death of Islam’s  founder, Muhammad, in 632, the Umayyad   Caliphate took over the Arab heartland as well  as much of the Middle East and North Africa,   continuing the military expansion of the Islamic  dominion even into Spain and France. Based in   Syria and ruling from Damascus, the Umayyads  reigned for almost a century over 11 million   square kilometres of territory until the rival  Abbasid family, claiming descent from Muhammad’s   uncle and backed by military supporters  from Eastern Persia, overthrew them in 750.  Playing on the discontents of marginalized  non-Arab Muslims in the large, multi-ethnic state,   the Abbasids – though Arab themselves – recognized  the need to shift their capital far away from the   former Umayyad centers of power. The first  Abbasid caliph, As-Saffah, had his capital   at Kufa – on the banks of the Euphrates and  near to his Persian base of support. However,   when he died, his brother and successor,  al-Mansur, decided to make an entirely new   capital 170 kilometres to the north at  a tiny, obscure hamlet called Baghdad.  The meaning of Baghdad’s name is unclear, but it  seems that it expressed “god-given” in the Persian   language. Situated in the Fertile Crescent  near Kufa, ancient Babylon, and the former   Sassanid Empire’s capital of Ctesiphon, there was  indeed something blessed about the settlement,   which quickly grew, from the mid-700s, into one  of the great metropolises of the Middle Ages,   housing more than a million inhabitants  and ushering in the Islamic Golden Age.  The city of Baghdad was a product of the Abbasid  Caliphate, being founded as its new capital in   762 and built from scratch on the western bank  of the Tigris River by the second Abbasid ruler,   al-Mansur. Convinced that it was the  perfect location for a new capital,   close to the Persian supporters of the  new Abbasid regime, the caliph gave orders   for a walled settlement to be designed by four  architects and constructed to be perfectly round.   The work was carried out by 100,000 labourers and  skilled craftsmen with no expense being spared.   al-Mansur spent the equivalent of 100 million  silver dirhams to expedite its construction.  About two kilometres in diameter, it had four  gates located at the end of boulevards that   crossed the city diagonally. These gates were  named after the key locations of the Abbasid   state to which they led – Kufa, Syria, Khorasan,  and Basra. At the very center of the city stood   the caliph’s residence – the Palace of the Golden  Gate. Its construction was completed in 763,   at which point the caliph’s household took  up residence. Because the building was topped   by a distinctive green dome, it was sometimes  called “the Palace of the Green Dome.” Perhaps   as a tribute to the cavalry whose barracks were  connected and whose military support was crucial   to the Abbasids, the almost 50-meter-high dome was  topped by the statue of a horseman, lance in hand.  Only one building was permitted to be adjacent  to the caliph’s palace – the Great Mosque of   al-Mansur. It was the first and preeminent mosque  of Abbasid Baghdad, built from sun-dried bricks of   the type that were readily available on the banks  of the Tigris River, while its minaret and columns   were supported by wood. Perhaps the first version  of it, made in great haste by Caliph al-Mansur,   was not overly impressive. It was torn down and  rebuilt already in 807. The boundless enthusiasm   that the caliph, al-Mansur, felt toward the  site of Baghdad is reflected in a comment   that he made at its foundation: “This is indeed  the city that I am to found, where I am to live,   and where my descendants will reign afterward.” These words proved to be, well, prophetic! For   the next five centuries, Baghdad remained  the capital of the Abbasid Dynasty’s rulers   and an unrivaled center of learning in the  Islamic world. Surviving through invasions,   civil wars, and the rise and fall of various  states in the region, it is no wonder that the   Abbasids officially called Baghdad by another  name – Madinat al-Salam – the “City of Peace.”  As the Abbasids’ new capital rapidly expanded  in its first decades, comprising a mainly Arab   population but with a large component  of Persians, its round walls became too   restrictive and new extensions of the settlement  spilled outside into the surrounding countryside,   which was crisscrossed by canals running from  the Tigris. Perhaps as a sign of the peace and   stability of the early Islamic Golden Age,  a new royal residence, the Khuld Palace, was   constructed in 773 outside the city walls in the  extensive verdant gardens right beside the Tigris.   Just north of the palace, a permanently present  pontoon bridge comprised of boats crossed the   river. Located in surroundings like the legendary  Garden of Eden or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,   one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World,  it is little wonder that the Abbasids called   this the Palace of Eternity. But peace was  fleeting, even in the Abbasid Caliphate, and   the palace was already destroyed during a siege  of Baghdad in 812 as part of a power struggle   for the throne between two Abbasid princes. Despite such occasional flare-ups of violence,   Baghdad enjoyed remarkable peace and prosperity  – conditions which led to an unprecedented   golden age of prosperity, literature, and  scientific advancement. This period was   brought about in large part by the activities  of the fifth Abbasid caliph, Harun al-Rashid,   who ruled from 786 to 809. Though he lived  only to the age of 43, he left a great legacy   by establishing the Bayt al-Hikma – the House of  Wisdom – within the walls of the round city. Also   known as the Great Library of Baghdad, this was  the preeminent center of learning in the period,   attracting scholars from all over the world.  Initially founded as a center to house the   caliph’s collections of literature, it became an  institution where many ancient works in Greek,   Syriac, and Sanskrit were translated into Arabic  and preserved. These included works on anatomy   by Galen. Meanwhile, new breakthroughs by  Islamic mathematicians and astronomers,   such as the 9th-century al-Khwarazmi’s treatise  on algebra, were made widely accessible.  Already, in the early 800s, the building’s  purpose was shifted from a royal archive   to a public library. That meant unprecedented  access to knowledge for the citizens of Baghdad,   and not surprisingly, there was an explosion  of scientific and literary accomplishments over   the following centuries. This proliferation of  literature in Baghdad was no doubt helped along   by the Abbasids’ capture of Chinese prisoners  during a war in 751. The captives taught them   how to make paper, which facilitated  the cheap and rapid production of books.  In international relations, Harun al-Rashid was  one of the greatest figures of his age. His armies   pushed to the outskirts of Constantinople, placing  the Byzantine Empire on the defensive. On the   other hand, he had remarkably warm relations with  Charlemagne, the ruler of most of Western Europe   in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. They  exchanged emissaries and gifts quite regularly,   and Europeans thought remarkably well of the  caliph despite their religious differences.   Harun al-Rashid was also remembered very  fondly among his own subjects, appearing   often as a benevolent and wise ruler in the One  Thousand and One Nights – an Arabic collection of   fairytales compiled during the Islamic Golden Age. Being one of the great capitals of the world,   Baghdad attracted visitors from far off. A German  rabbi, Petachia of Ratisbon, visited Baghdad in   the late twelfth century and described a city that  was still flourishing. It was, according to him,   ruled by the caliph whom he called the “king of  Babel” – a term which evoked connections between   the Abbasid city and the famed ancient city  of Babylon ruled by King Nebuchadnezzar. 1100s   Baghdad was exceedingly large – more than  a day’s journey from one end to the other,   the rabbi claimed, adding that it took more than  three days to travel around its perimeter. It   held a Jewish community of 1000 inhabitants,  which, like the larger Islamic community,   pursued literature and learning – including  astronomy concerned with planetary movement.   The head of the Baghdad Jewish community’s academy  had 2000 disciples to whom he delivered lectures,   apparently with two “interpreters”  present. All this points to a degree   of knowledge-sharing within even the  distinct religious communities of Baghdad.  Nonetheless, the increased dangers imposed by the  outside world and the weakening of the Abbasid   Caliphate meant that Baghdad had to build new  fortifications to protect its enlarged territory.   Four new gates were created in the 1100s and  1200s. As a sign of their solid construction,   the gates lasted until the 20th century,  when most of them were destroyed in World   War I during the fighting over the city  between the Ottomans and the British.  In such a huge medieval metropolis, tensions  could flare up between the inhabitants – not   helped by Baghdad’s being on the fault line  of Sunni and Shiite Islamic sects. In 1205,   a major riot occurred when the inhabitants of the  southern Azaj Gate neighbourhood decided to parade   the corpse of a lion that they had killed through  the rival district of al-Ma’muniyya. Resulting   from this provocation, a public brawl broke out  which even the local garrison commander could   not stop. The following day, the people of the  respective districts fought with swords and bows;   a garrison of Turks was finally able to part  the combatants. Only a few days later, again,   a huge brawl broke out between two other districts  because of the parading of a dead lion. Accounts   of this kind remind us that not everyone in  medieval Baghdad was a poet and scholar. Fires   that burned down whole districts, infestations  of rats, and floods from the Tigris are recorded.  Yet the greatest disaster of all – one which  ended the Abbasid Caliphate after five centuries   of relative stability and prosperity – came in  the form of the Mongol conquests. After several   decades of successful resistance against Mongol  advances into Iraq, the Abbasids were finally   overwhelmed by the massive army under Hulegu, the  brother of the fourth ruler of the Mongol Empire,   Möngke Khan. In 1256, this huge army, comprised  not only of Mongols, but of contingents from   China, Inner Asia, and other conquered regions,  arrived in the Middle East. Their primary target   was Baghdad, which had just been devastated by a  50-day flood that destroyed half of its suburbs.   The Abbasid Caliph, al-Mustasim, himself was also  a target. After destroying the Ismaili Assassins   and leveling their fortresses in northern  Iran, Hulegu advanced on Baghdad in late 1257.  Faced with the danger of Mongol conquest, high  officials began to conspire against each other,   going to the caliph to report about real or  imagined conspiracies and traitors who were   secretly working with the Mongols. Unrest broke  out among the ordinary people, in this atmosphere,   as they began to doubt the ability of the Abbasids  to face the challenge posed by Hulegu’s army. For   his part, Hulegu wrote an angry threat to the  caliph to submit, or: “I shall not leave one   person alive in your realm, and I shall  put your city and country to the torch.”  The caliph signed a death warrant, so to speak,  for Baghdad’s entire populace when he sent the   message back: “Young man… Since you’re not going  to get anything from me, why do you seek it? You   come with strategies, troops, and lassos,  but how are you going to capture a star?”  On hearing the reply, Hulegu wrote back: “You must  get ready for battle, for I am coming to Baghdad   with an army as numerous as ants and locusts.” The caliph ultimately put his trust in Baghdad’s   centuries-long history of resisting invaders  and enjoying stability and prosperity,   but that era had unfortunately come to an  end after half a millennium. As Hulegu was   advancing on the city for the final battle, he  apparently asked an astrologer to foretell what   would happen. The astrologer warned of epidemics,  lack of sunlight, and crop failures. Intriguingly,   the invasion was happening in the  immediate aftermath of the eruption   of Mount Samalas – the greatest volcanic eruption  of the Common Era – when such events would have   been the result of the post-volcanic syndrome  occurring over the entire globe. Regardless,   the astrologer was executed within a couple  years for his prediction, probably indicating   that the misfortunes he predicted came true. In early 1258, the Mongols forced a crossing   of the Tigris River. The Caliphate’s forces put  up serious resistance, but the Mongols were able   to drive them back by destroying the irrigation  dykes, causing flooding through the entire area.   Having encircled Baghdad, Hulegu set up the  standard Mongol palisade to trap anyone trying   to escape. He then demanded the caliph come out  to surrender. The city’s inhabitants continued to   fight desperately even as negotiations between the  magnates on both sides were carried out. Running   out of stones to fire from their catapults, the  Mongols started firing local date palm trees   into the city. Finally the caliph came out to  surrender. Persuaded by Hulegu whose captive he   now was, the caliph ordered Baghdad’s citizens to  stop resisting and come out. On 13 February 1258,   the Mongols commenced a general massacre  of Baghdad’s citizens. A week later,   the last Abbasid caliph, al-Mutasim, and all  his children were executed in a nearby village.   The Mongols were already rushing away from the  fallen city because of the outbreak of epidemic   disease. Amidst all this, observers noted that the  Tigris River ran black with the ink of destroyed   manuscripts taken from the House of Wisdom. In one of the valuable geography treatises   composed in Persian in the 10th century – at the  height of the Islamic Golden Age – the author   described Baghdad simply as, “the seat of the  caliphs, the most prosperous town in the world,   and a place of great scholars and riches.” Indeed, historians are richer today owing to the   great center of Baghdad which functioned not only  to preserve, but also build on ancient literature.   The traders and geographers of the Abbasid  Caliphate charted out maps of the wider world,   leaving us with vivid descriptions of medieval  societies and settlements as they actually were.   The literary and scientific works produced  in Baghdad have left their stamp on world   culture. Despite its destruction, the House  of Wisdom’s efforts to translate writings   from Asia and Europe preserved many books  that would have otherwise been lost forever.  The city survived its sack by the Mongols  but never quite regained the luster of its   golden age under the Abbasid Caliphate. In 1831, a  combination of flooding from the Tigris River and   outbreaks of deadly epidemics reduced the city’s  population to 25,000 – a mere fragment compared   to the glory days of the Abbasid caliphate. As  it shrank, Western archaeologists and curiosity   seekers arrived. They noted that one could  still easily view the outlines of its once   magnificent buildings and medieval boulevards,  testifying to a time when, for millions of   people over the course of centuries,  Baghdad was the world’s brightest light.  More videos on Islamic history are on the  way. To ensure you don’t miss that, please,   consider liking, subscribing, commenting,  and sharing - it helps immensely. 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