Baghdad: An Urban History through the Lens of Literature

Iman Al-Attar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429862199
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architettura
• Subtopic: Storia dell'architettura

In recent years, Baghdad has been viewed as a battleground for political conflicts; this interpretation has heavily influenced writings on the city. This book moves away from these perspectives to present an interdisciplinary exploration into the urban history of Baghdad through the lens of literature. It argues that urban literature is an effective complementary source to conventional historiography, using in-depth analysis of texts, poems and historical narratives of non-monumental urban spaces to reveal an underexamined facet of the city's development.

The book focuses on three key themes, spatial, nostalgic and reflective, to offer a new approach to the study of Baghdad's history, with a view to establishing and informing further strategies for future urban developments. Beginning with the first planned city in the eighth century, it looks at the urban transformations that influenced building trends and architectural styles until the nineteenth century.

It will appeal to academics and researchers in interdisciplinary fields such as architecture, urban history, Islamic studies and Arabic literature.

1
The urban history of Baghdad

The context of Baghdad

The case of Baghdad provides an excellent vehicle to investigate the general problem of historiography. The vague representation of Baghdad’s urban spaces in historical studies and the shortage of architectural documentations, in addition to its long history of creative writings, make this case ideal for such kind of investigation. Baghdad is located on a strategic site that increased its significance as a commercial, social and political hub, and “made it at the same time a major inland port and a great centre of overland trade”.¹ This unique location allowed a substantial mixture of different cultures. In addition, Baghdad has an outstanding history as an administrative centre and a hub of knowledge and learning for many centuries, along with its complex history of conquest. According to Rẚuf, the case of Baghdad attracted historians because it was the hub of most human activities of a particular civilisation, which makes the history of the city a representative of human history in general.²

In a study that examines the foundation of Baghdad among three examples of symbolic appropriation of land, Grabar interrogates the original goals of establishing the round city, which was the first planned city in Baghdad’s area. He questions an ‘unknown component’ of Baghdad’s history, noting that many events contributed to the foundation of Baghdad, including political, economic, strategic, administrative and climatic influences. However, all these factors could apply to several other early settlements in Iraq, which raises questions about the specific features of Baghdad that differentiated it from others. He notes “it is therefore legitimate enough to suppose that something else was involved here”.³ Likewise, Warren points out the mysterious criteria of this city that “has never given its secrets lightly. Even among Muslim cities it has been reticent, its architectural splendours hidden behind high walls and within deep courtyards”.⁴ I presume these ‘secrets’ are the result of inconsistent representation of urban history, in addition to transmitting ideas without sufficiently analysing them.

The bright history of Baghdad is considerably outlined by historians, calling it “the city of peace, the capital of Islam, of noble rank and conspicuous virtue”.⁵ Further, they described it as “a city of no particular dimension, because it was a city of all dimensions, with life focusing on every aspect of human endeavour”.⁶ Cooperson recognises Baghdad’s uniqueness among other cities; “only a traveller ignorant of the Arabic literary tradition could place Baghdad on equal footing with other towns on his itinerary”.⁷ These remarks highlight what is called the ‘golden age’ during the Abbasids period (168/785–232/847). Yet, examining the texts of this period shows that the amazement at the golden age is always related to the architectural forms and the political order, rather than social and environmental aspects.

A critical analysis of the written history of Baghdad during the golden age outlines an overemphasis on the characteristics of the round city of Baghdad that was founded in 144/762.⁸ This history approves its astonishing composition that was palatial and not really an urban one, “to which none of the early Islamic cities corresponds”.⁹ The excitement for the round city was initiated by the Orientalists who have articulated the remarkable features of this city that represents ‘the glories of medieval Islam’.¹⁰ This glory became the focus of historical literature, particularly studies of Islamic art and architecture. The magnificent attributes of the city and the strong aesthetic and geometric criteria meet their anticipations about Islamic architecture as an ‘expression of power’,¹¹ a utopian experiment in a scientific order¹² and as a model of Islamic cities.¹³ Since the round city has diminished completely, the major source for this city in historiography continues to be literary.

Apart from the round city myth, another cause of the vagueness of the urban history of Baghdad is that the name ‘Baghdad’ took multiple identities in historic writing. While some writings state the round city as Baghdad, other writings point to the second settlement of Baghdad, or the western or eastern part of the city, or the ancient settlement, or even the whole area of Baghdad that combines all settlements. Although the different settlements of Baghdad took different names in history, the name ‘Baghdad’ survived and remained as a representative of the identity of the place. The difficulty in distinguishing which definition of Baghdad is shown in specific writings creates a problem for Baghdad’s historiography.

Another cause of the ambiguity of Baghdad’s urban history is the shortage of original books. Available historical studies on Baghdad, specifically, are few compared with studies on other cities in the region, such as Cairo, Damascus and Istanbul. The continuous loss of original books due to constant floods, epidemics and conflicts made it extremely difficult to preserve these precious works. Nadia al-Baghdadi suggests the reason for the shortage of original books is that writers did not provide multiple copies.¹⁴ Nevertheless, the existence of insufficient copies was not completely through individual choice; it also related to other social and political circumstances. When conditions improved, presses were established in Baghdad’s area, including the first printing press in al-Kazimiyya in 1821,¹⁵ and dār al-salām press in Baghdad in 1833.¹⁶

On the other hand, Raymond notes an investigation into the historical sociology of Baghdad, showing that the reason behind the absence of the basic studies of Baghdad and the absence of documentation is due to the pre-eminence of French scholarship at that time, which lacked interest in ‘British-controlled Iraq’.¹⁷ European travellers who visited Baghdad in the eighteenth century were mostly German and French, while the travellers of the nineteenth century who visited Baghdad were mostly British and American.¹⁸ Moreover, Bonine implies that the lack of awareness of the eighteenth century’s texts of Baghdad is a result of political tension which may have curtailed the research and made it difficult to progress further.¹⁹

In fact, the case of Baghdad is complex if it was portrayed from political perspectives. Yet, one of the most distinctive aspects of Baghdad is its attractiveness and prestige. This city has been a major source of inspiration for poets throughout its history to a degree that almost all scholars mentioned it and its river (Tigris River) in their writings. The following is an example of a recent poetic work by shaykh Aḥmad al-Waʾili:

Oh Baghdad, your face will remain glorious and attractive
No matter if the atmosphere was terrible or superior
Every time I examine your originality closely
My admiration for you increases more
Different races added different bloods to your character
Yet they didn’t change your distinguished origins
Many intellectual tributaries flowed in your river
They seduce the minds and astonish the brains²⁰

In this poem, al-Waʾili questions the reasons for Baghdad’s attractiveness, and implies that eternal beauty of the city prompted its love. He associates the flow of the Tigris River with scholarly motivation, which highlights this river and educational events among the compelling aspects of Baghdad. This designates the unknown secret of attachment to Baghdad that started to grow gradually, as “nearly every generation of writers has felt the same way, with as much or as little justification”.²¹

The urban history of Baghdad

The beginnings of Baghdad’s history is controversial. While some historians claim it starts in the eighth century with the foundation of the round city, others verify that Baghdad’s history goes back to four thousand years ago. Among the evidences of its old age is that it was mentioned in documents of King Hammurabi in 1750 BC. Also, the Aramaic word bakdādu was engraved on the old Babylonian mud stone that was discovered in 1780.²² Moreover, the close proximity of Baghdad to the historical cities of Babylon, dūr kūrigalzu, ʾUr and Nineveh, from which ancient civilisations emerged, confirms its ancient history. Although most of the existing urban forms were inherited from the period following Islam,²³ the cityscape of Baghdad and the traces of architectural and urban forms reflect the diversity that resulted from this long urban history.

Historians bring up different interpretations of the word ‘Baghdad’. For example, Cooperson links it to a Persian inte...