Baghdad, The Round City

Baghdad was once a simple hamlet, a collection of small villages in a strategic location in between the two great rivers of Euphrates and Tigris, due to it's strategic location as well as the fertility of the surrounding lands,
Caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the guidance of the Barmakids. Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic Empire under the Abbasids. The Muslim historian al-Tabari reported an ancient prediction by Christian monks that a lord named Miklas would one day build a spectacular city around the area of Baghdad. When Mansur heard the story, he became very joyful, for legend has it, he was called Miklas as a child. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward".
Baghdad was originally a round walled-city with a great Mosque at its center and various palaces surrounded by palm trees spread around it, over time the city expanded greatly beyond the original round walls which was protected by a secondary outer wall, the rivers not only provided water for irrigation and steady supply of drinking water, but also as a highway for transportation and trade.
Copyright Notice
The artwork has been commissioned and is owned by EPIC HISTORY TV as part of the Abbasid Series.