Bagdad

the capital city and emporium of the Turkish province of that name. The city was founded in 762 by the Arabs. It is in the latitude of Los Angeles. Old Bagdad lay on the west bank of the Tigris. Under the rule of Haroun-al-Raschid it became the center of caravan traffic in the oriental world, and, a little later, 2,000,000 people--officeholders, merchants, artificers, servants, and rabble--are said to have crowded within its walls. The modern city lies on the east bank. The two parts are connected by a pontoon bridge resting on thirty boats and guarded by a citadel. The crooked streets are so narrow that two horsemen can hardly ride abreast. They are filled with all sorts of garbage, dead animals, and fighting dogs. The houses are one-story brick buildings with flat roofs.

Windows and doors open on inner courts, so that, save for gates, wayfarers pick their way between continuous brick walls as repulsive as the streets themselves. The interiors of the better houses have vaulted ceilings and are decorated with gilded moldings, inlaid mirrors, etc., suggestive of former wealth. The present population is estimated at 145,000. Three-fourths of the people are Turks. The rest are chiefly Arabs, Persians, Hindus, and Jews.

In summer the heat is oppressive, ranging from 75 deg. F. at sunrise to 120 deg. F. at noon. During their rainless summer the entire population sleeps on the house-tops. The bazaars are composed of numerous shopkeepers' stalls facing a common avenue and under a common roof of vaulted tiles or even of straw. There are fifty baths. From the outside the city is well nigh hid by a green canopy of palm trees, through which the brightly colored domes and minarets of a hundred mosques gleam with picturesque effect. Commerce with London is maintained by way of the Tigris and the Suez canal. Wheat, wool, gum, galls, dates, and oriental rugs are exported. A considerable caravan trade is still carried on with Persia and with Mediterranean ports. A railway to the seacoast is under consideration. For glimpses of old Bagdad, read Arabian Nights.

See Haroun; Arabian Nights

The city was built with great bricks, and surrounded by a wall a hundred and twenty feet high; at a good distance without this wall rose a second, guarded by mighty bastions, and surrounded by a moat which could be filled with water at pleasure. The city was entered by four massive iron gates through which could ride horsemen with upright lances, and each of which required four men to stir it. On each was a gilded dome, where commissioned troops were on constant watch. Within the double walls was an open space, surrounded by arcades, which served as barracks for the troops of the palace garden. Beyond the arcades and another open space and another gateway, stood the palace of the caliph and the chief mosque.

A hundred feet was fixed for the breadth of the chief, and thirty feet for that of the side streets. In the suburbs were great tracts of cultivated land and beautiful gardens, watered by countless canals from the Tigris and Euphrates. The most beautiful of these plantations were full of vines and citron trees.

On the western bank of the Tigris rose a royal castle, towering over all that part of the city with its walls, its balconies, and domes. Out of the sea of houses rose countless minarets into the air, among them the famous "green" minaret, covered with shining green tiles. Here, too, was the great "green dome," a hundred and sixty feet in height.

On the western bank of the Tigris were palaces, baths, mosques, bazaars, and among these splendid buildings lay a confused labyrinth of the poor houses of the lower classes. The bazaars were rich with the wares of Asia, and one was especially famous for its costly profusion of Chinese silks.

The palace of the caliph was set in the midst of large and well-kept gardens, and surrounded by countless courts, open halls, balconies, kiosks, all most richly adorned by splendid carpets and divans, with gold-embroidered curtains and rich vases of gold and silver, or Chinese porcelain. In the gardens bloomed the finest plants of Asia; within the inner chambers were richly clad and handsome slaves, who lived as befitted the servants of a prince.

Our picture would be incomplete without a visit to the quays, which stretched for miles on either shore of the river. Whole fleets were here at anchor, sea and river boats of all sizes, from the Chinese junk to the awkward old Assyrian rafts. There, too, were anchored countless ships of war, and between these lay the pleasure-boats of the caliphs and the nobles, glittering in gold and brilliant colors.--Kremer, Description of Bagdad in Time of Haroun-al-Raschid.