Baghdad

The Abbasid caliph al-Mansur began building a new capital in 762 near the Tigris, where routes and supplies were accessible. The early Round City formed part of this political and planned centre. Later Baghdad expanded far beyond it rather than preserving an intact circular city unchanged.

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Baghdad connected river and land routes through Iraq and traded with Iran, Central Asia and farther regions. Merchants moved goods, techniques and information, while local production included textiles. The Silk Roads were a network of routes, not one continuous road passing through an isolated city.

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Abbasid Baghdad attracted scholars from different backgrounds, including exchanges that brought Indian astronomical materials into Arabic. Translation, computation and observation developed together, supported by patronage, books and scholarly networks rather than attributable in full to a single institution.

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Modern Baghdad has publishing, poetry festivals, translation and literary research and joined UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network for literature in 2015. Its political transformations and conflicts should be considered alongside cultural life, distinguishing the ancient capital from contemporary inhabitants while retaining the connections between them.

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