

































!e eighth-century Abbasid capital, the Round City of Baghdad, existed in its perfect, circular form for a short 
period of time. However, even a"er its ruin, its physical shape and the reasons for its establishment were vehemently 
remembered in a manner unrivaled in the dense history of Islamic cities; this round city became storied. While 
the intertwined legends of the city’s site, foundation, and founding caliph established (and perhaps exaggerated) 
through historical descriptions and stories enable architectural reconstructions, this foundation lore opened a realm 
of continued glori#cations, re$ections, and lamentations of the early Abbasid capital in literature succeeding its 
construction and ruin. Research and writing by scholars across disciplines including history, literature, and art 
and architecture history delve into the city’s foundation and its mythology as separate entities. Diverging from this 
dichotomy, this research draws a connection between the legends of its foundation and its continued mythology to 
suggest that the Round City of Baghdad must be studied simultaneously as an architectural site and an imagined 
landscape.

Aisthesis      Volume 14,  202323

Architectural Site and Imagined Landscape: !e Foundation 
Lore and Perpetuated Mythology of the Round City of 
Baghdad

by Samantha Oleschuk

 !e Round City of Baghdad, the Abbasid capital 
completed by Caliph al-Mansur in 766, witnessed 
a short phase of inhabiting its perfect, circular 
construction before its eventual expansion that 
humbled the structure to a single part of the larger 
urban complex. However, as Oleg Graber eloquently 
states, even a"er its ruin, “the memory of its original 
shape and of the ideas behind it lasted for centuries 
in a way that has no parallel in the history of Islamic 
cities, even though dozens of new urban centers 
were founded by the new faith” (69). Baghdad, what 
Michael Cooperson calls “the mother of the world, 
the mistress of nations, Heaven on Earth, the city 
of Peace, and the dome of Islam,” became storied 
(111). While there are no physical remains of the 
Round City, the intertwined legends of the city’s site, 
foundation, and founding caliph established (and 
perhaps exaggerated) through historical descriptions 
and stories enable architectural reconstructions 
of the eighth century marvel. !is foundation lore 
has “passed, almost in a twinkling, into the realm of 
memory and myth” (Goodwin 28). !is realm has 
elicited continued glori#cations, re$ections, and 
lamentations of the early Abbasid capital in literature 
a"er its construction and ruin. !is literature 
perpetuates the city’s mythology in its reference to 
the city’s initial legends and its incorporation of new 
stories. Such a connection between the legends of its 

foundation and its continued mythology suggests 
that the Round City of Baghdad must be studied 
simultaneously as an architectural site and an 
imagined landscape. 

A Brief Outline of Baghdad’s History from 
Foundation to Siege
 While evidence reveals the presence of various 
settled civilizations occupying the site of Baghdad 
throughout ancient times, the origins of the 
present-day metropolis follow the Arab conquest 
of Mesopotamia in 637 (Davidson and Lusk Brooke 
64). Caliph al-Mansur, the second caliph of the 
Abbasid dynasty who ruled from 754 to 775, moved 
his capital to a new site “where the two great rivers, 
Tigris and Euphrates, are closest to each other” (Al-
Attar 8). !e market village of suq Baghdad thrived 
on the Tigris’ eastern bank until al-Mansur founded 
his circular city on the western bank and o%cially 
titled it Madinat al-Salam (City of Peace) (Snir 5; 
Al-Attar 8). Shortly a"er its construction, and in 
the lifetime of its founder, the Round City expanded 
beyond its constrictive circular walls, growing into 
the urban settlement of al-karkh (!e Topography of 
Baghdad 27; Al-Attar 10). Eventually, the Abbasids 
crossed the Tigris and repurposed the old settlement 
of suq Baghdad to establish a second settlement 
called al-rusafa (Al-Attar 11). !e sites of Madinat 



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al-Salam, Karkh, and Rusafa along the Tigris are 
designated in Figure 1.
 !e growth of this second settlement in al-rusafa 
eclipsed the rule of al-Mansur and launched the city 
into the “golden age” of the Abbasids (785-847), 
for with its centrality to eastern trade routes and 
abundant markets, al-rusafa evolved into the ever-
present commercial core of Baghdad (Al-Attar 11). 
!is settlement beyond the Round City established 
Baghdad as “an entrepôt for the world’s goods… 
[and] a clearing-house for the higher sciences 
of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, law, and 
astrology” (Goodwin 27). !is period is glori#ed, 
admired, mourned, and eternalized in literature. !e 
city grew most quickly under the rule of Harun al-
Rashid, the storied caliph of !e One !ousand and 
One Nights (also known as !e Arabian Nights) who 
reigned from 786 to 809 (Davidson and Lusk Brooke 
64). 
 Al-Rashid’s death witnessed the gradual decline 
of the Abbasids due to internal strife, including a 
civil war induced by a succession dispute between his 
sons al-Amin and al-Ma’mun which consequently 
reduced much of the original Round City to ruins 
(Kennedy 149; El-Hibri 463). !e empire temporarily 
abandoned Baghdad for Samarra, and upon their 
return in 1187, the Abbasids rebuilt their capital 
from the ruins le" by the Persian Buyids and Turkish 
Seljuks who had occupied Baghdad during their 
absence (Al-Attar 15; Davidson and Lusk Brooke 65). 
1258 marked the siege of Baghdad by the Mongols 
which e&ectively ended the Abbasids’ control of 
the city (Al-Attar 15-17). !rough his analysis of 
the poetry of the siege of Baghdad, Hugh Kennedy 
captures the destruction and life changes that befell 
the inhabitants of Baghdad by stating that “it is the 
ordinary people, the civilians rich and poor, who 
are having their lives torn apart by those for whom 
the achievement of a transitory military success or 
political power outweighs any moral considerations 
or the most basic kinds of human decency” (164).

!e Architecture of the Round City
!e Palatial Architectural Plan
 !e construction of Madinat al-Salam began 
in 762 and was completed in 766. While records of 
its exact dimensions are inconsistent across various 
sources, the approximate diameter of the Round 
City was 2300 meters or 1000 cubits (Grabar 68, 
Goodwin 25). As the recorded measurements of 

the city’s layout and architectural components vary, 
architecture scholars Saba Sami Al-Ali and Nawar 
Sami Al-Ali facilitated an analysis and synthesis 
of the hypotheses of numerous historical accounts 
and later architectural drawings (al-Ali and al-Ali 
137). !eir study suggests a revised reconstruction 
and interpretation of the City of Peace including a 
general plan of the Round City (Fig. 2), a plan and 
section of the entrance rahba and gate (Fig. 3), a 
plan and section of the domed gates (Fig. 4), and an 
architectural plan of the central complex’s palace, 
Great Mosque, and mosque extension (Fig. 5). !ese 
architectural drawings, amalgamated from various 
accounts and attempts at delineating the dimensions 
of the Round City, may not represent the city’s 
precise measurements, but the study from which 
they resulted emphasizes the discrepancies present 
when envisioning early Baghdad. In highlighting 
how much is unknown about the city, the study 
therefore contributes to the enigma of the Round 
City.
 !e circular form of the city was contained by 
double walls with four double gates oriented to 
points midway between the cardinal directions 
(Wendell 116). Over their main doorways, each gate 
supported a second story reception hall that was 
accessed via a mas’ad (gangway/ramp) and whose 
primary feature was a gilded cupola (small dome) 
adorned with sculpture (al-Ali and al-Ali 146; 
Grabar 68). Entering through the dihliz (passage) 
of the outer gates into the rahba (the #rst open 
space that is encountered), one in#ltrated the "rst 
fasïl (the area between the double walls of the city) 
which was devoid of buildings, for according to al-
Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-Mansur declared that “no 
one should dwell beside the inner higher wall, nor 
should build a house” (qtd. in al-Ali and al-Ali 139). 
Traversing into the center of the walled city, the open 
space contained market complexes in the arcades 
near each gate, neighborhoods and residential 
quarters populated the space between the gates, and 
administrative buildings clung close to the walls 
(Grabar 68; Al-Attar 8). 
 While the circular plan of the city was indeed 
celebrated, Madinat al-Salam was a palatial city. 
!erefore, the focal point of the city was dar al-
Khilafah, the imperial complex of the caliph’s palace 
and the Great Mosque. Grabar articulates that “the 
important point about Baghdad is that all parts of 
the city were both compositionally and functionally 



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united, as though they were but parts of a single 
palace entity” (70). Al-Mansur’s opulent residence 
and mosque were centrally situated in the Round 
City and enclosed within an inner courtyard by a 
third inner wall (!e Topography of Baghdad 142; al-
Ali and al-Ali 138). !e rationale for the circular plan 
and subsequent centrality of the palace, including its 
visual support of the caliph’s power and its potential 
cosmological signi#cance, is later described.
 !e palace housed a large reception hall with an 
irregular iwan which led to two domed rooms, one 
above the other (Ettinghausen et al. 52). Visible from 
the outskirts of the city and topped with a statue of a 
rider mounted on his horse with a lance (Fig. 6), the 
Green (or Heavenly) Dome was viewed as the crown 
jewel of dar al-Khilafah and the Round City in 
general (“Baghdad: Legendary Origins and Historic 
Realities” 168). Grabar includes that “according to 
tradition [the rider’s] lance would always point in the 
direction of the enemies of the Muslim empire” (69). 
!e traditional hypostyle mosque was erected as the 
congregational mosque for the city and its qibla wall 
is believed to be oriented slightly incorrectly due 
to miscalculations of its juncture with the palace 
(“Baghdad: Legendary Origins and Historic Realities” 
167-68). !e mosque later extended under the reigns 
of caliph Harun al-Rashid and Al-Mu’tadid; though 
it penetrated the walls of the palace, its borders never 
reached al-Mansur’s famed Green Dome (al-Ali and 
al-Ali 152). 

Elements Borrowed from Iranian Traditions
 As only ruins of the Round City remain, it 
is di%cult to determine its exact architectural 
innovations and in$uences; however, whether 
for political, cosmological, practical reasons, or a 
combination of the three, the Round City borrowed 
various methods and techniques from predecessors 
of the area. !e doors of the gateway entrances were 
taken from older cities (one from Wasit and one from 
Syria) and their use exempli#es the “repossessing of 
ancient traditions of the area” (Ettinghausen et al. 52). 
!e palace plan was taken from Sassanian tradition 
and previously employed in the Umayyad structures 
of present-day Syria and Iraq (ibid 52). Baghdad 
shares architectural elements (i.e., heavy pillars, long 
vaulted halls, blind arch decorations, two storied 
domed reception halls, etc.) with two other early 
Abbasid monuments, Raqqa and Ukhaydir (ibid 54). 
Baghdad exhibits palatial architecture in plan and 

Sassanian methods in technique which is consistent 
with the early Abbasid architectural canon (ibid 54). 
It is through this evidence that with its enduring 
Iranian elements, the Abbasid capital “was intended 
to be a visible sign of the ‘Abbâsid inheritance of 
Persian royal tradition” (Beckwith 150). Baghdad 
eclipses merely inhabiting its land and instead 
leans into the appropriation of previous cultures, 
exemplifying early Islam’s “conscious attempt to 
relate meaningfully to the conquered world, by 
islamizing forms and ideas of the old” (Grabar 72). 
By integrating visual aspects of previous cultures, 
Baghdad employed a visual language understood 
by and appealing to native populations in order 
to frame al-Mansur as “the successor to the great 
emperors of the past” (“Some Speculative !oughts” 
210; Wendell 119). 

!e Interwoven Legends the Round City’s Site, 
Foundation, and Founding Caliph 
 !e Abbasid caliphate demonstrated a penchant 
for constantly moving their capital; the term al-
Hashimiyah refers not to a single place, but to 
wherever the caliph established his residence as the 
capital (!e Topography of Baghdad 123). While 
unexplained, this phenomenon suggests that the 
establishment of a permanent capital must satisfy 
an abundance of requirements. In this way, multiple 
factors contributed to al-Mansur’s decision to 
move the Abbasid government to Baghdad. Logical 
reasons include the climatic conditions of Baghdad 
which permitted year-round residence and strategic 
considerations of the site’s location on the Tigris and 
its connection to the Euphrates via the Sarat Canal 
(ibid 126). Ninth-century geographer Ya’qubi credits 
the statement “this island between the Tigris in the 
East and the Euphrates in the West is the harbor of the 
world” to al-Mansur (qtd. In ibid 127). A secondary 
systematic advantage of establishing the Abbasid 
capital in Baghdad is its potential to politically unify 
the Islamic world and function globally. Edward 
Zychowicz-Coghill explains that the location of 
Baghdad is “presented as the natural centre of 
the world, able to gather in all the products of the 
earth from the caliphate and beyond, including the 
medieval Roman empire, India and China” (130). 
In addition to these rational justi#cations, legends 
o&ering more mythic explanations of the site and 
construction of Madinat al-Salam have manifested.



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!e Prophecy of Miqlas
 During al-Mansur’s travels to locate a site for 
his new capital, a Christian doctor treating one of 
the caliph’s entourage informed al-Mansur of an 
old legend known among Christian monks that a 
king by the name of Miqlas would someday erect a 
magni#cent new city named al-Zawra’ (“the askew” 
or “the crooked”) between the Tigris and the Sarat 
Canal (!e Topography of Baghdad 124-25). !e 
version of this legend written in the ninth-century 
reports of al-Tabari detail that a"er laying the 
city’s foundation and constructing a portion of the 
enclosure wall, the site would be breached by the 
Hijaz and then al-Basrah, eliciting a “greater deal of 
damage than before. But it will not be long before he 
[Miqlas] repairs the breaches and returns to building 
the city; then he will complete it…” (qtd. in ibid 125). 
 !is story was only related to the caliph upon the 
doctor’s discovery of al-Mansur’s endeavor to build 
a city and Jacob Lassner suggests that “the literary 
play is to indicate that al-Mansur would be wasting 
his time there, unless, of course, his name was really 
Miqlas” (“Baghdad: Legendary Origins and Historic 
Realities” 165). !e caliph was not deterred by the 
legend, for he divulged that his nickname was Miqlas 
as a child and designated the site speci#ed by the 
doctor as the destined location for his new capital 
(!e Topography of Baghdad 125).
 Whether al-Mansur’s claim of his being called 
Miqlas in his youth is truthful or apocryphal, it is 
quite evident that the prophecy of Miqlas is tethered 
to the building program of the caliph. !e legend’s 
language is purposefully ambiguous and prophetic, 
but the breaches mentioned in the story are plainly 
understood to have transpired as the sequential 
rebellions of ‘Alid leaders, Abdallah and Ibrahim, 
in 762 (“Baghdad: Legendary Origins and Historic 
Realities” 165). Such halts on construction due 
to the caliph’s military campaign amid the revolts 
postponed the completion of Madinat al-Salam until 
766 (Wendell 112). !ese events align perfectly with 
the legend, leading some scholars to suggest that this 
is a contemporary story created to enhance the image 
of Baghdad. Lassner asserts that “if this is insu%cient 
it can be shown that the name al-Zawra, given to 
the city in this purportedly ancient manuscript is 
also an indication that the doctor’s sacred vision is 
actually based on contemporary events” as al-Zawra, 
one popular name for the Round City, translates 
as “the crooked” and references the slightly askew 

orientation of the mosque (“Baghdad: Legendary 
Origins and Historic Realities” 165). Further, Lassner 
states that “this motif may have become a cliché 
which Muslim authors used to glorify the building 
programs of the Caliph” following his note that the 
story of Miqlas is also reported in the construction 
of ar-Ra#quah which was founded by al-Mansur in 
772 (!e Topography of Baghdad 125). !e story of 
Miqlas is permeated with suspicion, but even without 
con#rmation of the legend’s veracity (or fallacy), its 
prevalence within numerous historical accounts 
and its continued presence in contemporary studies 
suggest an existent mythologized Baghdad prior to 
the placement of the #rst brick.

Al-Mansur: Domineering Caliph or Quali"ed 
Architect?
 Conveyed in historical accounts and reviewed in 
scholarly studies, it seems that the overall plan of the 
Round City of Baghdad was cra"ed according to the 
personal preference of al-Mansur. !e foundation 
lore of the city conveys al-Mansur as the initiator 
and facilitator of Madinat al-Salam. However, his 
involvement in the technical architectural drawings 
and physical construction of Madinat al-Salam as well 
as his conscious consideration of the city’s political 
symbolism and aesthetics are continually debated. 
Al-Tabari reports that “when al-Mansûr decided to 
build it he wanted to behold it with his own eyes, 
so he ordered that it be delineated with ashes… 
and he commanded that the foundation thereof be 
excavated according to the design” (qtd. in Beckwith 
144). !e caliph opted for a circular construction due 
to its advantages over a square design; eighth century 
jurist Waki’ ibn al-Jarrah recounted that “if the 
monarch were to be in the center of a square, some 
parts would be closer to him than others; however, 
regardless of the divisions, the sections of the Round 
City are equidistant from him when he is positioned 
at the center” (qtd. in “Baghdad: Legendary Origins 
and Historic Realities” 171). Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, 
in his account of the building of the Round City, 
explains that al-Mansur summoned masters of 
engineering, architecture, surveying, carpentry, and 
blacksmithing, and he did not begin construction 
“until the number of cra"sman and skilled laborers 
in his presence reached many thousands” (qtd. in !e 
Topography of Baghdad  46). Such a large aggregation 
of skilled personnel for the construction of the 
Round City illuminates what Lassner designates as 



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the “relationship between al-Mansur’s city and the 
legitimization of his political authority” (“Baghdad: 
Legendary Origins and Historic Realities” 164).
 !ese passages are o"en interpreted to mean that 
the caliph himself designed the city, but Christopher 
Beckwith contends that the historical accounts 
“cannot be interpreted as literally meaning that the 
ruler personally delineated the city, and al-Khatib 
does not in fact say that al-Mansur delineated his 
city, he says ikhtattahâ, ‘he laid it out [or “founded 
it”]’” (145). While the attribution of the Round City’s 
construction to al-Mansur contributes to his image 
as a powerful #gure of Abbasid authority, perhaps 
such an attribution is an exaggeration of the caliph’s 
contribution. Beckwith asserts that “one must reject 
the idea that an untrained layman like al-Mansûr, who 
had no known experience in architectural design (or 
with round structures) could have personally created 
ex nihilo such a sophisticated and unusual design” 
and instead acknowledge that the Iranian Buddhist 
priest Khâlid ibn Barmak, who had experience in 
architecture and speci#cally in circular structures of 
royal Iranian origin, is the most likely candidate for 
architect of the Round City (145). Regardless of the 
extent of his involvement, “there can be no question 
that, in both design and function, the Round City 
was a most dramatic expression of centralized rule 
and was thus well suited to al-Mansu’'s particular 
needs” (“Baghdad: Legendary Origins and Historic 
Realities” 171). Whether al-Mansur actually 
delineated the city or simply domineered over its 
construction, his central presence in its foundational 
lore serves to bolster this image of the Round City as 
a symbol of the prestige and authority of the Abbasid 
caliphate.

!e (Possible) Role of Cosmology
 Various instances of potential cosmological 
signi#cance have been extracted from tellings of 
the Round City’s foundation, and in conversation 
with the legend of Miqlas and the city’s storied 
construction, it is evinced that “the foundation lore, 
by its very nature, obscures the subtle line between 
fact and #ction” (“Baghdad: Legendary Origins and 
Historic Realities” 164).
 !e primary cosmological reading of the Round 
City is that the Abbasid capital was created in the 
image of the world and al-Mansur’s purview over this 
metropolis center indicated his jurisdiction over the 
Islamic world. Visually translating the imago mundi, 

the sacral image of the world upheld by Buddhists, 
Hindus, and Zoroastrians, into its architectural plan, 
the city enlisted Iranian cosmology, conforming to 
a recognized type of city arrangement employed 
by its geographic predecessors and centering its 
“‘celestially’ domed palace [that] lay precisely at the 
‘cross-roads of the world’” (Wendell 120). Further, 
cosmological elements of its mandala plan, the 
symbolic orientation of its gates, and its Jupiter 
horoscope which “foretold long life, fame, grandeur, 
and the ‘special quality’ that no Caliph would ever die 
in it,” suggest that these features were purposefully 
included to further the concept of Baghdad as an 
imago mundi, or a microcosm of the world, where 
the caliph’s dominion over his cosmological city 
symbolized his authority over the entire earth (ibid 
122). 
 However, despite these cosmological claims and 
speculations, there is no explicit evidence in accounts 
that al-Mansur thought or acted cosmologically 
(Beckwith 143). When it is dismissed that al-Mansur 
purposefully entertained and enacted the proposed 
cosmic symbols of the Round City, and it is accepted 
that he himself either designed the city or domineered 
over its construction, it may be that “the proposed 
cosmic origins of the Round City seem at best a 
rationalization a"er the fact” (“Baghdad: Legendary 
Origins and Historic Realities” 173). In regarding 
the cosmology as a mere retroactive consideration, 
Lassner notes, “the suggestion has been put forth 
that al-Mansur wished to present himself as the 
‘successor to the great emperors of the past,’ but, 
among the subjects whose loyalty he coveted, who 
was likely to be impressed by representations derived 
from Iranian cosmology?” (ibid 179).

Literature that Perpetuates the Round City’s 
Mythology
 With the abundance of lore shrouding the 
foundation of Madinat al-Salam, it is quite certain 
that “no literate resident of or visitor to Baghdad 
could experience the material reality of the city 
without confronting the tropes that had gathered 
around Baghdad” (Cooperson 111). Much of the 
literature – poetry, prose, and travel journals – that 
followed the construction (and ruin) of Madinat al-
Salam glori#es the Round City through themes of 
nostalgia, desire, mourning, and elegy. 
 !e most basic of iterations that simply glori#es 
the Round City pertains to its various names and 



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their interpretations. !e Abbasid capital is referred 
to as Madinat al-Mansur (City of al-Mansur), 
Madinat al-Salam (City of Peace), al-Zawra’ (the 
bent, or the crooked), and al-Madina al-Mudawwara 
(Round City). !e most proli#cally used, Madinat 
al-Salam, and its shortened version, Dar al-Salam, 
reference “the Koranic paradise, the heavenly City 
of God, known as the Abode of Peace,” propelling 
the analogy of Baghdad as the center of the Islamic 
universe to an extreme (Beckwith 144). Ana Negoi'ã 
explores the re$ection of paradise in the caliphal city, 
explaining “one manner to accomplish the religious 
and ideal goal of peace on earth is to establish a 
favorable ‘functional,’ yet deeply symbolic form for 
its existence – a city” (168).
 !e operation of this interpretation of Baghdad 
as paradise presents itself in a wide array of di&erent 
forms in writing. An example of this glori#cation 
manifests in an anecdote where, in a dream, the 
deceased linguist Abu 'Amr ibn al-'Al(' al-Basri 
proclaims that “whoever lives in Baghdad and dies 
a Sunni moves from one Paradise to another” (qtd. 
in Cooperson 101). Further, within the century 
following the Round City’s construction, classical 
Arab author Abu ‘Uthman ‘Amr ibn Bahr al- Jahiz 
expressed, “I have seen the greatest of cities that are 
known for their perfection and re#nement, in the 
lands of Syria and the Greeks and other countries, 
but I have never seen a city like Baghdad whose roofs 
are so high, a city which is so round or more noble, 
the gates of which are wider and the walls better. It is 
as if the city were cast into a mould and poured out” 
(qtd. in Snir 6). Al-’Uzari’s poem engages a more 
complex form of glori#cation:

If you mention beautiful places in the area
Do not forget the crescents of al-zawra'
!is land over$ows with beauty from its sides
!e beauty pours like rain that pours from the 

sky
I wonder if this is only a city or is it heaven on 

earth!
Or is it a rosy cheek of a beautiful girl!
I ask you my friends; will the good times ever 

come back?
And would the calm shade be delivered again by 

the grand green tree!
I salute those wonderful nights from the past
!ey were bright and full of dignity and eminence 
(qtd. in Al-Attar 55). 

!e poet describes the Round City as an idyllic 
paradise, indicating its natural beauty as “heaven on 
earth.” Asking “will the good times ever come back?,” 
the poem enters into a nostalgic glori#cation of the 
Round City. And, in its melancholic expression 
related to losing a loved one, the poet mourns 
Baghdad like the beautiful girl the city is likened to. 
While this nostalgia manifests in al-’Uzari’s poem 
temporally, in al-Baghdadi’s poem, the nostalgic 
idealization of Baghdad materializes through 
distance and spatiality:

I le" Baghdad and its people, aiming to #nd a 
comparable place

But I realised that I decided on something that 
leads to hopelessness

It is impossible to #nd a better place!
For me Baghdad is ‘the entire world’
And the residents of Baghdad are ‘all of 

humankind’ (qtd. in Al-Attar 40).

In his view of Baghdad as “the entire world,” it seems 
that al-Mansur’s intention to legitimize the Abbasid 
caliphate’s authority through the construction and 
perpetuated image of the Round City was successfully 
realized, remembered, and revered nostalgically.
Replicated in poetry over time, this nostalgic 
glori#cation evinces a perpetuated fervent 
attachment to Baghdad by Arab poets. !is a&ection 
and nostalgia presented itself in more romantic ways 
as well, casting Baghdad as an object of desire and 
longing. !is untitled poem by Abu al-Mutahhar al-
Azdi’s Abu al-Qasim explicitly exposes Baghdad as 
an object of desire, admired because of an inherent 
inaccessibility, much like that of the poet’s lover:

I greet Baghdad from far away,
But you think of me no more
You take your ease with song and wine
By distant Tigris’ shore.
You greet my love from close at hand
I long for him, and weep:
A face like moonlight, and a scent
Like blossoms, in my sleep (qtd. in Cooperson 
102).

!is almost lustful yearning elevates the image 
Baghdad to the precipice of illusory immortalization, 
thrusting what was once represented by a physical 
construction into an oxymoronic and elusive space 



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of simultaneous glori#ed omnipresence (of its 
memory) and mourned absence (of the city itself).
 A more subdued example of the legacy of 
Baghdad as an entity to which one may compare 
another—lover, city, or otherwise—is the description 
of Baghdad by medieval explorer Ibn Battuta. In his 
remarks written in his travel book Rihlah (Travels), 
Battuta mentions that the western part of the city 
(the site for the Round City) lays in ruins, but 
what remains elicits his statement that “in no town 
other than Baghdad have I seen all this elaborate 
arrangement, though some other towns approach it 
in this respect” (Battuta). !e traveler’s description 
of the western part of Baghdad and his naming of the 
city as the “Abode of Peace” suggest that the legacy— 
physical and literary—of Baghdad continued as 
the ruins of the original Round City were regarded 
highly and still integrated into the city’s function. 
Later in his travels notes, Battuta visits and describes 
the city of Marrakesh, only to compare it to Baghdad 
and proclaim that the latter is #ner (Battuta). 
 !ese examples and others display that much of 
the literature celebrating Baghdad surpasses simple 
glori#cation and either teeters on the boundary or 
completely enters a realm of immortalization. !e 
idealization of Baghdad is underlaid with nostalgia, 
re$ective elegy, and fervent desire. !ese provided 
glori#ed imaginations of the Round City in literature 
suggest that “its magical image was perpetuated in 
peoples’ [sic] minds, reminding them of a great 
history” (Al-Attar 55). Further, such re$ections 
allowed for a #xation on a historical past of Baghdad 
that can be celebrated, mourned, and “free of the 
miseries and a)ictions of the writer’s present;” 
in other words, “the remembrance of the round 
city was a stimulus to be positive about the future, 
since it keeps reminding them of a great history” 
(Cooperson 103; Al-Attar 11).
 While it was determined to focus on the perpetual 
glori#cation of the Round City in correlation with its 
foundation lore, further study may be undertaken 
to investigate how these celebratory mythologies 
are complicated when the glori#ed image of 
Baghdad elicits opposition. Many negative aspects 
accompanied Baghdad’s foundation and a breadth 
of literature illuminates the “contrasting notions of 
privilege and adversity;” such literature portrays 
Baghdad as a cause of disappointment rather than 

solely celebrating, immortalizing, and longing for 
the material and metaphorical splendor of the Round 
City (Al-Attar 37). 

Conclusion
 Despite the short-lived existence of the Round 
City in its initial perfect circular design, it truly 
established Baghdad as the core of the Abbasid 
empire. Its mythology and “the memory of its 
original shape and the ideas behind it[,] lasted for 
centuries in a way that has no equivalent in the 
history of other cities in the region” (Al-Attar 11). 
Madinat al-Salam is understood and memorialized 
as an architectural site due to the historic accounts of 
its construction. While these accounts describe the 
Round City’s design, borrowed cultural traditions, 
political motivations, and intention to legitimize the 
caliph as a veritable authority, they are laced with 
lore. Detailing its architectural presence, narrating 
its storied materialization, and planting seeds of 
speculation, the early legends of the Round City’s 
site, foundation, and founding caliph function as the 
genesis of the Round City’s dense mythology. !e 
prevenient mythologizing of Baghdad established 
that the architectural site of Madinat al-Salam is 
inextricably linked with its imagined, mythologized 
landscape. In crystallizing this connection before the 
#rst brick was laid, the opportunity for additional 
literature perpetuating this glori#ed image of the 
Round City of Baghdad as the center of the Islamic 
world was granted. From the city’s founding, 
inhabitants of and visitors to Baghdad, including 
poets and writers, have become engrossed in the 
storied city in a way that allowed the mythic glori#ed 
iteration of the early Abbasid capital to transcend its 
physical presence and continually expand within 
literature. 
 

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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

Appendix

Fig. 1. “!e round city on the western side of the 
Tigris and the second settlement on the eastern side,” 
from Warren and Fethi (1982) reproduced in Al-
Attar, Baghdad: An Urban History through the Lens 
of Literature, 2018.

Fig. 2. “General plan of Round Baghdad,” from 
Saba Sami al-Ali and Nawar Sami al-Ali, “Images of 
Round Baghdad: An Analysis of Reconstruction by 
Architectural Historians,” 2016.  

      
Fig. 3 (le"). “Plans of the ground and #rst $oors 
and section of the entrance rahba and gate,” from 
Saba Sami al-Ali and Nawar Sami al-Ali, “Images of 
Round Baghdad: An Analysis of Reconstruction by 
Architectural Historians,” 2016.

Fig. 4 (right). “Plan of #rst $oor and section of the 
domed gate,” from Saba Sami al-Ali and Nawar Sami 
al-Ali, “Images of Round Baghdad: An Analysis of 
Reconstruction by Architectural Historians,” 2016. 

Fig. 5. “Plan of the central complex of the Round 
City with the caliph's palace and Great Mosque with 
extension,” from Saba Sami al-Ali and Nawar Sami 
al-Ali, “Images of Round Baghdad: An Analysis of 
Reconstruction by Architectural Historians,” 2016.  

 

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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

Fig. 6. “Drawing of an automaton rider with lance 
on the Green Dome, Baghdad, founded 762,” from 
Ettinghausen et al., “Central Islamic Lands,” !e Art 
and Architecture of Islam 650-1250, 2001.
 

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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023

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