Three Scholars One City: Baghdad

THREE SCHOLARS, ONE CITY

Baghdad, one of the important centers of learning and culture in the Islamic world, has since its founding hosted diverse civilizations and been a prized city of each. Its construction began under the authority of al-Mansur Billah Abu Ja'far fer b. Muhammad b. Ali b. Abdullah ibn Abbas b. Abdulmuttalib, who in 726 first established the region as a province and city. The city, situated on both banks of the Tigris River at 33° 26' 18" north latitude and 44° 23' 9" east longitude, was founded in the eighth century by the Abbasid Caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur. Baghdad remained the seat of the caliphate from its foundation until the collapse of the Abbasid state. Although it suffered a devastating Mongol invasion in 1258, Baghdad endured. Three geographers—Ibn Abd al-Hak, Ibn Battuta, and Hamdallah Müstevfî—provide accounts of Baghdad’s condition during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Ibn Abd al-Hak, in his work Merâsid, states that nothing remained in Baghdad except the deserted quarter of Kerh, which was the most populous. The Mongol invasion constituted a great destruction not only for Baghdad but for the entire Islamic world. Baghdad, having withstood numerous struggles, passed under the rule of the Safavid ruler Shah Ismail in 1508, sparking a rivalry between the Ottomans and the Persians over control of the city. Suleiman the Magnificent Sultan Süleyman entered Baghdad in 1534. From 1534 to 1917, Baghdad remained under Ottoman State rule and, due to its strategic location along key trade routes, became one of the symbolic cities in the Ottoman struggle for Europe. During the Ottoman period, Baghdad became the center of its vilayet and in 1921 the capital of Iraq.

Caliph al-Mansur named the city he founded after the Arabic word Medînetüsselâm, derived from the term Dârüsselâm, meaning “City of Peace,” as used in the Law’ân-ı Kerim’. Over time, the name evolved into Baghdad. It is also said that the word Baghdad comes from bâg, meaning “garden,” and dâd, meaning “given.” Thus, Baghdad: Mother of the world and lord of cities. Baghdad’s plan was drawn with social objectives in mind. Each region was assigned to a specific ethnic or professional group. Baghdad was a major center of culture, translation and science. The Hanafi and Hanbali schools of jurisprudence originated here. Additionally, the House of Wisdom like and other translation institutions were located here. Estimating Baghdad’s population is difficult. We will examine this precious city, which hosted multiple civilizations, through the travelogues of Sipahizade Mehmed (d. 997/1589), Aşık Mehmed (d. 1006/1598), and KÂTİB ÇELEBİ (d. 1067/1657), who included this ancient city in their accounts of geography and cosmography.

When the subject is the city of Baghdad and we wish to examine it from the perspectives of three distinct scholars, we must also draw upon the works of Abu’l Fida, who lived in the fourteenth century and holds an important place among Islamic geographers, as well as Aşık Mehmed’s Menâzırü’l-avâlim, Kâtip Çelebi’s Cihannümâ and Fezleke, and Sipahizade Mehmed’s Evḍaḥu’l-mesâlik ilâ maʿrifeti’l-büldân ve’l-memâlik. We must also refer to the Takvimü’l Büldan, which serves as the primary source for the description of Baghdad.

Abu’l Fida, after examining earlier works, resolved to compile a comprehensive geographical text by gathering scattered information, correcting data on zics and longitudes, incorporating accounts from merchants and travelers he encountered, and integrating his own observations. He structured his book in the style of Ibn Jazla’s medical treatise Takvimü’l Ebdan, organizing it into tables and arranging cities according to customary climates. He divided the world into twenty-eight chapters, each beginning with general information about a climate zone, followed by tables listing cities with their latitudes, longitudes, and geographical details. He mentioned a total of 623 settlements, one of which was Baghdad.

Tenth Climate

Abu’l Fida places Iraq in the tenth climate, bordered by the Jazira region and desert to the west, desert and the Persian Sea and Khuzistan to the south, the Cibal region as far as Hulwan to the east, and the Jazira region from Huvan northward. Iraq lies on both banks of the Tigris River.

Baghdad

Baghdad lies on the edge of the third climate of Iraq, at 33° 25' latitude and 70° longitude according to Kamun and Atval. Baghdad is situated on both banks of the Tigris; the western bank is called Kerh. The city’s founder, Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, resided here. When Baghdad was built, it was named al-Zawra, because the gates within the inner wall were more ornate than those of the outer wall. The eastern bank is called al-Askar al-Mahdi, as it was first settled by the soldiers of Caliph al-Mahdi, son of al-Mansur. This area is also known as Rusafa. It is also referred to as the Tak region, in relation to Ra’s al-Tak, the site of the great marketplace. In al-Mushtarak, the “Nehr-i Maulla” (Mualla Canal) is named after Maulla b. Tarif, a freedman of al-Mansur. This is the largest quarter of eastern Baghdad, where the caliph’s harem palaces are said to be located. In the works of Sipahizade Mehmed and Aşık Mehmed, the sections on the Tenth Climate and Baghdad are reproduced verbatim without any modification or addition.

The Tigris River, Its Tributaries, and Its Distributaries:

In al-Mushtarak, the Tigris is described as a great river originating in the land of Rum (Anatolia). It flows past the cities of Amid, Hisn Kayfa, Jazira, Mosul, Tikrit, Baghdad, Wasit, and Basra before emptying into the Persian Sea (the Gulf of Basra). It lies at 39° latitude and 64°40' longitude. The author of al-Azizi, al-Muhallabi, writes: “The source of the Tigris lies beneath Zulqarnayn Castle, north of Mayyafariqin. The Tigris flows from northwest to southeast. Upon reaching 37° latitude and 64° longitude, it turns eastward, then flows northward to 68° longitude and 38° latitude. It then turns southward and westward, reaching the city of Amid at 65°+2/3° longitude and 37°52' latitude, then flows southward to Ceziret-i Ibn Ömer (Jazira) at 37.5° latitude and 65°2/3° longitude. It then turns southeastward, reaching Mosul at 66°40' longitude and 36.5° latitude. Continuing southeast, it arrives at Tikrit at 68°+25' longitude and 34° latitude. It then flows directly eastward to Samarra at 69° longitude and 34° latitude. It turns southward to Ukbera at 69° longitude and 33° latitude, then to Berdan at 69°56' longitude and 33.5° latitude. Finally, it turns eastward and continues southward to Baghdad at 70° longitude and 33°25' latitude.”

When examining Kâtip Çelebi’s Cihannümâ, we observe that he directly borrowed information from the Takvimü’l Büldan. Kâtip Çelebi treated Baghdad systematically under various headings: its boundaries (Hudud), subdivisions (Taksimat), districts (Nahiyeler), Baghdad Sanjak (Baghdad Livası), its characteristics, tombs and martyrdom sites, and the quarter of Imam al-Azam. He measured distances using the unit of 40,000 cerib, with each cerib equal to 60 zira.

In Aşık Mehmed’s Menâzırü’l-avâlim, Baghdad’s sections are presented within a general framework, unlike the more detailed approach of the Cihannümâ. Rather than relying solely on Abu’l Fida’s Taḳvîmü’l-büldân, Aşık Mehmed compiled information from Ibn Hurdâzbih, Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Kazwini, Ya’qubi al-Dimashqi, and Hamdallah al-Mustawfi, organizing it into eighteen chapters on the earth’s regions. Regarding Baghdad, Aşık Mehmed simply lists passages from these sources consecutively without commentary or commentary. Some of these passages contradict one another. As evident from the introduction, he reproduces the information from the Takvimü’l Büldan unchanged. A cosmographic approach is evident. In our view, the sections containing entertaining anecdotes are placed alongside sections requiring serious and rigorous engagement with historical and mathematical geography. Aşık Mehmed, interestingly, attempts to correct information provided by philologists based on his own observations.

Figure 1. Representative city plan of Baghdad.

Sipahizade Mehmed’s work consists of five sections. The fifth father concerns cities (büldân). In this section, Sipahizade Mehmed arranges the cities listed in the Takvimü’l Büldan alongside those he collected from other sources and added himself, in alphabetical order. City descriptions are provided. In manuscripts of Evḍaḥu’l-mesâlik, the fifth chapter begins directly with “Faslu’l-elif,” starting with the city of Abuskûn. In the fifth chapter, each letter of the alphabet represents a chapter (fasl). From the letter “Alif” to the letter “oh,” 2,756 chapters describe cities located in the true and customary climates. Regarding Baghdad, the work includes a historical account of its name. “The palace has a wall. It begins at the Tigris and ends at the eastern bank of the Tigris. It is shaped like a crescent or a semicircle. It has gates. The first is the Garb gate, located on the Tigris. Near this gate are date trees. This gate is called Bab-ı Şahık. The next gate is Bab el-Nuli. Here, atabeks, princes, and envoys were received. This gate is also called Babul-Ammurriyye. After this gate, the walls extend for nearly a mile without any gate. There is a gate called Babu-Meratib. The distance from the source of the Tigris to this gate is approximately equal to the distance between a hunter and his prey. The complex within is called Harem-i Darü’l Hilafe. Here are neighborhoods, markets, and a large number of taxpayers. Between the people within this wall and the Tigris River, there is another outer wall. No public property lies beyond this final wall.” He continues to provide information on Baghdad exactly as described in the Takvimü’l Büldan. The description of Baghdad’s name and meaning, as written in the text, is again cited from the Takvimü’l Büldan as follows: “In Lübab, it is stated that Baghdad received its name thus: A woman was given as a gift to Kisra. Kisra granted her Baghdad as an estate. The community to which this woman belonged worshipped an idol named Bağ. She named the estate Baghdad, meaning ‘the gift of Bağ.’ For this reason, jurists disliked the name Baghdad. Mansur renamed it Medinetü’s-Selam, since the Tigris River was called Wâdisselam. Ibn al-Mubarak said: ‘It is not called Bağdâz, for Bağ means devil and daz (dad) means gift. To say so is polytheism. Instead, the forms Bağdad and Bağdan are used.’” Another person says: “Bağ means garden in Persian, and Dad is a man’s name; thus, it means ‘Garden of Dad.’” -Harîm (Harem): The interior of Darülhilafe in Baghdad.

In conclusion, upon examining the contents of the three works, it is evident that the most detailed information was provided by Kâtip Çelebi. His account, enriched with geographical, cosmographical, and topographical data, is more comprehensive than the sources used by Aşık Mehmed and Sipahizade Mehmed. Kâtip Çelebi’s examination of sources and his personal knowledge are presented in the most extensive and systematic manner.

Takvimül Büldan Ebü’l Fida Coğrafyası sf. 244-245

Takvimül Büldan Ebü’l Fida Coğrafyası sf. 252

Takvimül Büldan Ebü’l Fida Coğrafyası sf. 63

Sipahizade Mehmed’in Evḍaḥu’l-mesâlik ilâ maʿrifeti’l-büldân ve’l-memâlik sf. 304-305

Sipahizade Mehmed’in Evḍaḥu’l-mesâlik ilâ maʿrifeti’l-büldân ve’l-memâlik sf. 245