e Arab city of Bagdad was
founded by the caliph Mansur, there was nothing on that site except an old
convent. One may venture to doubt the literal accuracy of this statement.
It is clear that the ancient name, at least, still held firm possession of
the site and was hence inherited by the new city.

The Arab city, the old or round city of Bagdad, was founded by the caliph
Mansur of the Abbasid dynasty on the west side of the Tigris just north of
the Isa canal in A.D. 762. It was a mile in diameter, built in concentric
circles, with the mosque and palace of the caliph in the centre, and had
four gates toward the four points of the compass. It grew with great
rapidity. The suburb of Rusafa, on the eastern bank, sprang up almost
immediately, and after the siege and capture of the round city by Mamun, in
814, this became the most important part of the capital. The period of the
greatest prosperity of Bagdad was the period from its foundation until the
death of Mamun, the [v.03 p.0198] successor of Harun, in 833. During this
period the city, including both sides of the river, was 5 m. across within
the walls, and it is said to have had a population of 2,000,000 souls. In
literature, art and science, it divided the supremacy of the world with
Cordova; in commerce and wealth it far surpassed that city. How its
splendour impressed the imagination may be seen from the stories of the
_Arabian Nights_. It was the religious capital of all Islam, and the
political capital of the greater part of it, at a time when Islam bore the
same relation to civilization which Christendom does to-day. As in Spanish
Islam, so in the lands of the eastern caliphate, the Jews were treated
relatively with favour. The seat of the _exilarch_ or _resh galutha_ was
transferred from Pumbedita (Pumbeditha or Pombeditha) in Babylonia to
Bagdad, which thus became the capital of oriental Judaism; from then to the
present day the Jews have played no mean part in Bagdad.

Situated in a region where there is no stone, and practically no timber,
Bagdad was built, like all the cities of the Babylonian plain, of brick and
tiles. Its buildings depended for their effect principally on mass and
gorgeous colouring. Like old Babylon, also, Bagdad was celebrated
throughout the world for its brilliant-coloured textile fabrics. So famous
was the silk of Bagdad, manufactured in the Attabieh quarter (named after
Attab, a contemporary of the Prophet), that the place-name passed