بغداد
Above is Arabic for Baghdad, the current population if the city is just above 7 million people, it's the current capital of the Republic of Iraq. It's the second largest city in the Arab world right behind Cairo, Egypt. In my travels in this country I research each place I arrive at so I can in turn educate, even just a little, my readers about this part of the world. This whole country has a wealth of history but none so great as the actual city of Baghdad. None so troubled as well.
Two main rivers run through Iraq, the Tigris and Euphrates, Tigris on the right and the Euphrates on the left. Close to the middle where they are closest without touching on the right side of the Tigris river is Baghdad. It was founded in 762 AD as commissioned by caliph Al Mansur. He wanted it to be the perfect city for the Islamic people under the Abbasid Caliphate. Whoa, you say who are the Abbasid Caliphate, well I'm going to tell you! They were once a great empire that rivaled that of even Rome Their empire stretched from what is now 3/4ths of Spain down through the habitable upper portion of Africa and up throughout the Middle East.
They reigned from 750 AD til 1517 AD, but there was few years in there where the Mongols were in control, but it doesn't count because the Mongols ruled everything they came across then. So, this Al Mansur dude said, "Build me this city, because you know, I'm in charge." So they did. He had a vision for this city because he and his people were the descendants of of the youngest uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, so with that sense oif entitlement they built a grand city next to this river. Then he was like "Well what should I name this city?". Well him and his bros sat around and thought about this and after they kicked a few idea around and realized that no city called CamelJunk would ever reach greatness, one of his buds said, lets slow our roll and remember this city is to stand for something.
Well after being influenced by reading too many cuneiform comics in his childhood he wanted the city to be named what it stood for and that was Peace, Justice and the Islamic way. So he named the city Madinaat al-Salaam which stood for the "City of Peace". He was quoted to say "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward". So they built this city, on rock and rolling stones. Good location, plenty of water, good people. Soon it took off and started to become a central hub of culture and learning. Madinaat al-Salaam looked like a huge success.
Something wasn't right though, during the building of the city the construction workers, of which there were said to be 100,000 also knew it was it was to be a great city but they figured I'm not giving this preppy rich boy the credit. Let's give credit where credit is due. Well they recognized that it was only through the grace of God that they were building this city and it was turning out so well. So they named it God's Gift, Persian language: god (bag) + gift (dad)= Baghdad, well the unofficial name took and even though on there money it stated the official name, Baghdad stuck and after, by 1100AD it was the accepted name for the city.
So after it was built Al Mansur and his buds high fived each other, and were pretty impressed with their city's own kick-assedness. Well time went by and within one generation of it's founding Baghdad quickly became a hub of learning. One building named the بيت الحكمة; (House of Wisdom) was a huge attraction, it was the center of the center of learning. It was all the geeks would get together and learn. Yes, maybe that's why I'm so interested in this place is because for centuries this city has attracted geeks. These geeks didn't have the Internet though or Google Translate, so they had to painstakingly take Western Greek and Indian writings and gather them together and finally translate them, in between the critical rolls and perception checks, which attracted even more geeks and a vicious spiral of geekdom occured. I think if they really looked at the Persian language it would really translate to "The City of Geeks". What do I know though?
