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بغداد (Bagdād)

بغداد (Bagdad), also spelled Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, has more than five million in the city proper, more than 10.6 million in the metropolitan area1. It sits, southeast of the Assyrian Highlands, straddling the Tigris. Its glory days ended when the Mongols sacked it and put hundreds of thousands to death. The tallest buildings are the Iraq Medical City Surgical Hospital and the Palestine Hotel, both 20 stories. A television mast is the tallest completed structure (207 meters). It also has an international airport.

YearPopulationPolitical entity
800700,0002Al-Khilafah al-'Abbasiyyah al-Islamiyyah
900900,0002Al-Khilafah al-'Abbasiyyah al-Islamiyyah
1000125,0002Buwayhid Amirate
1100150,0002Dawlat-i Saljuqian
1200100,0002Al-Khilafah al-'Abbasiyyah al-Islamiyyah
130040,0002Ilkhani S-l-s-l-h or Il Khan Uls4
140090,0002Jalayirid Shaikhdom
170050,0003Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye
180080,0002Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye
1900145,0002Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye

It was the largest city in the world from 775 to 9355, was tied for seventh in 10002 and was tied for sixth in 1100. It was the largest city in Iraq from before 800 to the present6 and topped a million before 2000.1

External References

Martyr's Monument

Historical maps

map showing part of al-Khilafah al-'Abbasiyyah al-Islamiyyah, 800 and 900 CE

map showing part of the Buwayhid Amirate, 1000 CE

map showing part of Dawlat-i Saljuqian, 1100 CE

map showing part of Al-Khilafah al-'Abbasiyyah al-Islamiyyah, 1200 CE

map showing part of Ilkhani S-l-s-l-h or Il Khan Uls, 1300 CE

map showing part of the Jalayirid Shaihkdom, 1400 CE

map showing part of Iran, 1500 CE

map showing part of Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, 1600 to 1900 CE

map showing al-'Īrāq and al-Kuwayt, 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. World-gazetteer.com (accessed 5/15/2010). City figures are from the Iraq page and metropolitan figures from the Asia page.
2. Estimate in Tables of the World's Largest Cities, in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987).
3. ibid., pg. 313.
4. The Persian and Mongolian scripts were both official. I do not know the vowels for the second word in the Persian version, which in script is: سلسله ايلخاني
5. ibid., List of cities that can have been largest. A side note states that it was the first city with more than one million residents.
6. ibid. for 800 through 1900. World-gazetteer.com (accessed 5/15/2010) for being the largest in recent years.