For centuries, Baghdad seemed to stand at the centre of the world. Chosen as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate around the year 762, the city rose from the banks of the Tigris River with circular city walls enfolding lush palaces, becoming a beacon for the world’s great creative, cultural and scientific minds.
One of the first astronomical observatories in the Islamic world was built in the city. Its library — the House of Wisdom — amassed vast collections of texts, enough to rival the Great Library of Alexandria. And its population swelled to over a million, as merchants and pioneers in mathematics, physics and machinery gathered within its gates.
