Abbasid Samarra
is a city in central Iraq, which served as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate from 836 to 892. Founded by the caliph al-Mu'tasim, Samarra was briefly a major metropolis that stretched dozens of kilometers along the east bank of the Tigris, but was largely abandoned in the latter half of the 9th century, especially following the return of the caliphs to Baghdad.
Due to the relatively short period of occupation, extensive ruins of Abbasid Samarra have survived into modern times. The layout of the city can still be seen via aerial photography, revealing a vast network of planned streets, houses, palaces and mosques. Studies comparing the archeological evidence with information provided by Muslim historians have resulted in the identification of many of the toponyms within the former city.
The archeological site of Samarra was named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 2007, calling it "the best-preserved plan of an ancient large city." The modern city bearing the same name lies within the Abbasid ruins.
Etymology
The toponym Samarra is known to have existed prior to the Islamic period. Classical authors mention the name in various forms, including the Greek Suma, the Latin Sumere and the Syriac Šumara.The formal name of the Abbasid city was Surra Man Ra'ā, meaning "he who sees it is delighted". This name appeared on coins and was adopted by some medieval writers. Other contemporary sources, however, used Sāmarrā or Sāmarrā' as variants of the pre-Islamic name, and the latter form eventually became the standard spelling.
History of the Abbasid city
Foundation
Samarra was founded by the eighth Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim in 836. Al-Mu'tasim's immediate motivation for the decision was a need to find housing for his newly formed Turkic and other army regiments. These troops, who were from groups that had previously held only a marginal role in the Islamic world, were deeply unpopular among the residents of Baghdad, and violent incidents had repeatedly broken out between the soldiers and Baghdadis. Al-Mu'tasim therefore resolved in ca. 835 to depart from Baghdad, the usual seat of the Abbasid caliphs since 762, and create a new capital city of his choosing.Following a period of searching for an ideal spot, al-Mu'tasim settled on a site approximately north of Baghdad on the east side of the Tigris, near the head of the Nahrawan Canal. After sending men to buy up the local properties, including a Christian monastery, the caliph had his engineers survey the most suitable places for development. By 836, buildings had been erected at the site and al-Mu'tasim moved into the new city.
From the start, construction at Samarra was undertaken on a massive scale. Space was no object; land was plentiful and cheap, with little in the way of preexisting settlements to hinder expansion. Al-Mu'tasim marked out various allotments in the new city and granted these spaces to various elites of the army and administration for them to develop. Numerous cantonments were established for the army regiments, who in many cases were intentionally segregated from the residences for the general populace. Markets, mosques and baths for the people were built, together with a number of palaces for the caliph and other prominent individuals. Materials and laborers were shipped in from various parts of the Muslim world to help with the work; iron-workers, carpenters, marble sculptors and artisans all assisted in the construction.
Founding a new capital was a public statement of the establishment of a new regime, while allowing the court to be "at a distance from the populace of Baghdad and protected by a new guard of foreign troops, and amid a new royal culture revolving around sprawling palatial grounds, public spectacle and a seemingly ceaseless quest for leisurely indulgence", an arrangement compared by Oleg Grabar to the relationship between Paris and Versailles after Louis XIV. In addition, by creating a new city in a previously uninhabited area, al-Mu'tasim could reward his followers with land and commercial opportunities without cost to himself and free from any constraints, unlike Baghdad with its established interest groups. In fact, the sale of land seems to have produced considerable profit for the treasury: as Hugh Kennedy writes, it was "a sort of gigantic property speculation in which both government and its followers could expect to benefit".
Under al-Mu'tasim's successors
After al-Mu'tasim's death, his successor al-Wathiq remained in Samarra. His decision to stay convinced the residents of the new city's permanence and a fresh round of construction began during his reign. Al-Wathiq himself built a new palace, the Haruni on the bank of the Tigris, which became his new residence.Al-Mutawakkil aggressively pursued new construction, extending the central city to the east and building the Great Mosque of Samarra, the cantonment of Balkuwara and numerous palaces. After moving to Damascus in 858, he returned to Iraq and undertook his most ambitious project, the new city of al-Mutawakkiliyya to the north of Samarra. Included in the new area was the palace of al-Ja'fari, which he moved into in 860. In the following year, however, he was assassinated, and al-Mutawakkiliyya was abandoned soon after.
The decade following al-Mutawakkil's assassination was a turbulent period, sometimes known as the Anarchy at Samarra, during which the capital was frequently beset by palace coups and troop riots. Al-Mutawakkil's son al-Muntasir abandoned al-Ja'fari and moved back to the Jawsaq palace, which remained the residence of his successors. Al-Musta'in, finding it impossible to control the Samarran regiments, left the city and attempted to establish himself in Baghdad in 865, but the Turks and other troops responded by deposing him and besieging Baghdad until the caliph agreed to abdicate. His two successors, al-Mu'tazz and al-Muhtadi, were similarly overthrown by the army.
Al-Mu'tamid undertook the last known building projects in Samarra, but in the later period of his reign, he appears to have spent less time in the city. After his death, al-Mu'tadid formally returned to Baghdad, thus bringing an end to the Samarran interlude. Al-Muktafi at one point considered moving back to Samarra and encamped in the Jawsaq palace, but was eventually dissuaded after his advisers informed him of the high costs of the plan.
On its own, Samarra had little to incentivize residents to stay; the water supply was problematic and the city seems to have been heavily dependent on supplies from elsewhere. As long as the caliphs were willing to pour vast sums of money into the city, it continued to survive; with the return of the caliphs to Baghdad, this investment dried up and soon much of the city was abandoned. In the following centuries, a few isolated settlements survived within the ruins, but the vast portion of the city soon became uninhabited.
Overview of the city
The known remains of Samarra occupy an area of approximately, mostly on the east side of the Tigris. Out of 6,314 registered buildings at the site, only nine still have any components of significant height; the vast majority of the ruins consist of collapsed mounds of rammed earth and scattered debris. At ground level, the remains are mostly unimpressive; when viewed from the air, however, the entire plan of the Abbasid city, with its buildings and street pattern, can clearly be seen.Central Samarra
The core area of the city was initially constructed in the reign of al-Mu'tasim, with further development taking place under al-Wathiq and al-Mutawakkil.The street layout of this area was dominated by a series of long, broad avenues which ran north-to-south and northwest-to-southeast. These avenues are described in detail by the Muslim historian and geographer al-Ya'qubi, who lists the various buildings and allotments which were located along each one. In between the avenues were a great number of smaller streets and housing blocks, together with several larger buildings.
The residents of this section of the city were a mixture of civilians and military personnel. In some cases, the cantonments of the troops were explicitly segregated from the rest of the populace. Numerous army commanders, together with their regiments, were granted allotments here, including those of the Turks, Faraghina, Ushrusaniyya, Maghariba, Ishtakhaniyya, Jund, Shakiriyya, Arabs and Khurasanis. Several bureaucrats, Abbasid princes and other personages also had allotments along the avenues.
File:Samrraa 05.jpg|thumb|253x253px|Great mosque of Samarra, built between 848 and 851 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutawakkil
Besides residences, a number of other buildings were located in this area, including the public and private stables, the office of the Bureau of the Land Tax, and the great prison. The markets, as laid out by al-Mu'tasim, are described as having broad rows, with each type of merchandise sold in a separate section. Near the markets was the gibbet from which the rebel Babak Khorramdin was hanged, and which served as a place for displaying executed persons. On the Tigris were a great number of wharves, where provisions from Mosul and other cities were unloaded.
The original mosque, laid out by al-Mu'tasim, soon became too small for the city's residents; it was eventually demolished by al-Mutawakkil, who replaced it by building the Great Mosque of Samarra in the vicinity of al-Hayr. This mosque, the largest in the world at the time, measured and had 17 aisles in the prayer hall. An enclosure wall measuring featured covered porticoes to accommodate additional worshippers. The spiral minaret, also known as the Malwiya, is high and still stands in the rear of the mosque. its design was used as a model for the Mosuqe of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, which is the oldest mosque in Egypt to largely retain its original form, since Samarra was where Ibn Tulun had spent much of his early career before being sent to Egypt as a governor.