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Samarra Abbasid's Capital 836 AD to 892 AD

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  Quote azimuth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Samarra Abbasid's Capital 836 AD to 892 AD
    Posted: 25-May-2006 at 01:19
 
In 836 the Abbasid caliphate's Turkic and Armenian slave soldiers -known as Mamluk- agitated the citizens of Baghdad, provoking riots.
 
 
The capital of the Caliphate was moved from Baghdad to the new city of Samarra later that year by Caliph Al-Mu'tasim.

During this time the original pre-Islamic settlement was replaced with a new city established in 833. Samara would remain the capital of the Muslim world until 892 when it was returned to Baghdad by al-Mu'tamid. Al-Mu'tasim's successor, al-Wathiq, developed Samara into a commercial city, and it was further developed under Caliph Al-Mutawakkil.

The latter sponsored the construction of the Great Mosque of Samarra with its spiral minaret or malwiyah, built in 847. He also laid out parks and a palace for his son Al-Mu'tazz. Under the rule of Al-Mu'tadid, the Abbassid capital was shifted back to Baghdad and Samarra entered a prolonged decline, which accelerated after the 13th century when the course of the Tigris shifted

 
 
 
The Great Mosque of Samara
 
 
 

The Mosque of al-Mutawakkil

 The first mosque, built in 836, has now disappeared; it was replaced in 849-852 by a new mosque built on a grand scale, which for a long time was the largest mosque of the Islamic world. It continued to be used until the end of the 11th century.

 

The mosque itself measures 239 x 156m, with 17 aisles in the prayer hall and a triple portico around the courtyard. The piers were reconstructed as octagonal with marble columns on the corners; however, only one pier base exists today. The mihrab was decorated with glass mosaic, of which only small fragments survived. The excavations of the Iraq Directorate of Antiquities in the 1960s discovered in situ fragments of panels of dark blue glass, which lined the walls.

The mosque is set in an outer enclosure measuring 374 x 443m. In this enclosure there are covered porticoes to accommodate additional faithful at the Friday prayer (ziyada), and a building behind the mihrab which seems to have been intended to receive the Caliph, and perhaps accommodate the imam of the mosque.

The famous minaret is 52 m high, with a square base, and a spiral exterior staircase, up which the caliph al-Mutawakkil is said to have ridden on a white Egyptian donkey. At the top there are traces of a wooden pavilion to protect the muezzin.

Three avenues, 52 m wide, were cut through the houses to permit easy access to the mosque.

 

 
Note that the minaret were used for Astronomical observations.
 
when the Abbasides moved their Capital Back to Baghdad, the importance of Samarra declined and the Great mosque was left to time which caused the collapse of its roof and some parts of its structure.
 
 
this is a picture of the Mosque from google earth.
 
 
 
 
and this is the layout
 
 
 
The Minaret
 
 
The Great Mosque - exterior of Qibla (south) wall
 

The Great Mosque - mihrab (interior of south wall)

The Great Mosque - from the minaret
 
 
 
 
 
 
sources
 

http://www.dur.ac.uk/derek.kennet/mosque.htm

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  Quote Aktufe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-May-2006 at 01:33
Is the name for the city dervived from "Surra man ra'a"  or "Sa'a man ra'a"

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  Quote azimuth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25-May-2006 at 08:49
Originally posted by Aktufe

Is the name for the city dervived from "Surra man ra'a"  or "Sa'a man ra'a"
Smile
 
well Wikipedia says its not from "Surra man Ra'a" and says its from the Assyrian name "Sur-marrati",  i dont know what that means but could mean the same that Assyrians were semitic too.
 
note that Surra Man Ra'a is not a mis understanding its more like Renaming or a punning for the older name.
 
"Surra man Ra'a" means "he who sees it is delighted" that it looked Great after the Caliph decided to make it the new Capital and worked on constructing its palaces and mosques.
 
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  Quote Decebal Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27-May-2006 at 21:08
I remember reading in Philip Hitti's "History of the Arabs", that back when the capital was first moved to Samarra, the people of Baghdad used to joke that he who sees (that the khalifah and the Mamluk are  gone), is delightedWink
Thanks for ths pics!
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  Quote azimuth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Jun-2006 at 08:34
Originally posted by Decebal

I remember reading in Philip Hitti's "History of the Arabs", that back when the capital was first moved to Samarra, the people of Baghdad used to joke that he who sees (that the khalifah and the Mamluk are  gone), is delightedWink
Thanks for ths pics!
 
lol i didnt know about this.
 
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  Quote Kapikulu Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 11-Jun-2006 at 17:03
From what I know,Samarra was initially established as a home and a base for non-Arab warriors,mostly Turks, serving Abbasid Empire
We gave up your happiness
Your hope would be enough;
we couldn't find neither;
we made up sorrows for ourselves;
we couldn't be consoled;

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  Quote azimuth Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22-Jul-2006 at 07:42
there is a new Huge Mosque underconstruction in UAE's Capital Abu Dhabi,
and its total cost is around 700 million USD.
 
so i compared the $700 million  new mosque with the 1200 years old Samarra Mosque and found out that the older one is bigger and must have been even larger in its days.
 
here are pictures of both mosques from  Google earth at the Same Altitude.
 

 
amazing.
 
 
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  Quote Guests Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21-Aug-2006 at 08:05
beautiful... thanks for sharing.....
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