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The Rest Is History

377. Baghdad: Crossroads of the Universe (Part 2)

The Rest Is History

Goalhanger

History

4.618.6K Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2023

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

“No city in the world will ever rival it for prosperity...“ Baghdad, originally a Christian village in Iraq, was chosen by the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mansur as the site for the new capital of his empire, and it would become a cosmopolis to rival Rome or Babylon. Its foundations were built in a perfect circle, with walls 90 feet tall, and at its heart, the monumental Palace of the Golden Gate. Rejecting the Umayyad Caliphate's desire to conquer Constantinople, Al-Mansur founded his own “centre of the universe”. In the second part of our series on Baghdad, Tom and Dominic look at how the Abbasids solidified their rule after overthrowing the Umayyads, and the beginnings of Baghdad as their new capital. *The Rest Is History Live Tour 2023*: Tom and Dominic are back on tour this autumn! See them live in London, New Zealand, and Australia! Buy your tickets here: restishistorypod.com Twitter:  @TheRestHistory @holland_tom @dcsandbrook Producer: Theo Young-Smith Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for listening to the rest is history.

0:02.2

For weekly bonus episodes, add free listening, early access to series and membership

0:07.3

of our much-love chat community, go to the rest is history.com and join the club. That is, the rest is History. is History.

0:15.0

This episode is

0:18.0

by Diet Coke.

0:20.0

Time for a Diet Coke Break.

0:25.0

Enjoy what you like.

0:27.0

Just how you like it.

0:30.0

This is my taste. What's yours? Celebrate your unique taste with Diet Coke. assuredly, this island of land between the two great rivers bounded on the east by the

1:01.3

Tigris and on the west by the Euphrates is destined to become the very crossroads of the universe.

1:08.5

Ships from the great trading cities of the south, sailing up the Tigris will land and drop anchor here.

1:15.2

Here it is that merchandise will arrive from Mosul on the lands of the north.

1:20.2

Here too will come products transported from Syria, Egypt and beyond.

1:25.7

The city will also lie on the roads taken from the east,

1:29.5

from Iran and Kaurasan.

1:32.1

By God, I will build this city to be my capital and it shall be my

1:37.3

residence for the rest of my life. It shall be the residence too of my heirs.

1:43.6

No city in the world will ever rival it for a prosperity.

1:49.4

So that was the Caliph al-manseur, declaring his resolve to found a city at Baghdad, and Tom, that was as quoted

1:57.1

by the ninth century geographer and historian Yakubi.

2:01.6

Of course it was, and what listeners don't know is that this is the

2:06.1

second version of that introduction because your first introduction dominate

...

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