
The birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisation - pepys
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/mar/16/story-cities-day-3-baghdad-iraq-world-civilisation
======
narrator
The Baghdad they are talking about here was largely destroyed in 1258 by the
Mongols.

[1][https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_(1258)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Baghdad_\(1258\))

~~~
jvm
Many of Asia's greatest cities were destroyed in the space of about 50 years:
Constantinople in 1206 (almost Asian!), Beijing in 1215, Samarkand in 1220,
Baghdad 1258. History might have looked very different if these cities had
been saved.

For example, it's likely that much of the scholarship of western antiquity was
lost in the closely spaced sacks of Constantinople and Baghdad. The Mongol
destruction was particularly thorough in their destruction of scholarship:
"The books from Baghdad’s libraries were thrown into the Tigris River in such
quantities that the river ran black with the ink from the books."[1]

[1]
[http://lostislamichistory.com/mongols/](http://lostislamichistory.com/mongols/)

~~~
winter_blue
> The Mongol destruction was particularly thorough in their destruction of
> scholarship

Why did the Mongols hate books so much? Central Asian Turkic invaders (related
to the Mongols) were also responsible for burning down one of India largest
libraries (at Nalanda).

I don't understand why certain groups of people would be so bent on
destruction. Destruction of life, property, art, culture, scholarship,
literature, etc.

It is very sad.

~~~
swombat
Having listened to some history (some who don't like him would say pseudo-
history) lectures by Dan Carlin on the whole Mongol thing, my takeaway was
that the reason for all the murder is the classic dehumanisation approach.

Mongols did not consider the people they conquered to be far above cattle.
When they took over cities they staged systematic executions where they would
literally corral a hundred thousand people together, and have a thousand of
their soldiers armed with axes be told "go collect 100 right ears to prove
that you've killed your quota of people". As far as I can tell the way to get
humans to do that to other humans seems, throughout history, to be to convince
the murderers that the people they're killing aren't really human, they're
just some sort of weaker other-species.

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hackuser
A perspective on the cities of the Arab world that I found helpful:[1]

 _An old Arab saying goes, 'Cairo writes, Beirut publishes and Baghdad reads.'
These three capitals, along with Damascus, were long the hubs of culture and
education in the Arab world. ... a new set of cities started to emerge in the
Gulf, establishing themselves as the new centers of the Arab world. Abu Dhabi,
its sister emirates of Dubai and Sharjah and the Qatari capital, Doha ..._

[1] I have no idea how accurate it is: [http://www.al-
monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/abu-dhabi-...](http://www.al-
monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/abu-dhabi-dubai-doha-arab-centers.html)

~~~
IkmoIkmo
You just named some of the most culturally devoid places on the planet, if you
ask me, these cities are jokes compared to the old arab world.

But then, the arab world is a joke right now, it's hard to really point out
what the center of the arab world is, other than to really just look at a
proxy of who has had the most oil money and oil geopolitical relations with
the west the past 50 years, which are the places you mentioned. Take away the
oil and these cities are nothing, attract no academics or entrepreneurs,
engineers, medical professionals or journalists. As for artists, writers, film
makers, it's tiny.

Of course after some time, an oil-subsidised society attracts enough talent to
be meaningful without oil, but if you visit these places I still think you'll
find a pretty empty place that runs on fossil riches. Although to their
credit, they're aware of this and are trying to diversify.

Take Abu Dhabi, they mentioned having a GDP larger than any arab country save
for Suadi Arabia. It's economy consists 85% of oil exports, a place of 2
million people. To act like that's some kind of cultural capital like the
journalist does is a joke.

It's a fluff piece by a journalist from the Emirates if you ask me.

~~~
sndean
> It's economy consists 85% of oil exports, a place of 2 million people.

To be fair, you could also say that many nations are very dependent on digging
things out of the ground. That probably isn't related to whether they're
cultural capitals.

Russia
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Russia_E...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/86/Russia_Export_Treemap.png)

Norway
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/No...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Norwar_Exports_Tree_Map_\(2009\).pdf/page1-1333px-
Norwar_Exports_Tree_Map_\(2009\).pdf.jpg)

Mongolia
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Mongolia...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/Mongolia_treemap.png)

Colombia
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Colombia...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Colombia_Export_Treemap.jpg)

~~~
vixen99
its economy. It's = it is or it has.

------
teddyh
“ _This_ is the greatest city that Allah, may he be raised from the rising of
the sun in the morning until the setting of the sun in the evening, and also
in the nighttime, and in the hours before the dawn, has seen fit with which to
bless the world. And _this_ age is the _perfect_ age.”

— Haroun Al Raschid, _The Sandman_ , issue 40, _Ramadan_

~~~
cholantesh
The illustrations in that issue are breathtaking.

------
danans
An interesting fact about Baghdad is that the name itself isn't Arabic, but
rather Persian. It translates to something like "given by God". This reflects
the long multicultural history of the city and region.

~~~
Oras
It means The Garden in Persian

~~~
danans
The name dates to middle Persian when Bagh meant god, not garden, as it does
in modern Persian/Farsi. Cf Sanskrit Bhaga.

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hvmonk
First, we destroy a place/city/habitat, and then after completely ruining
beyond any hope of recovering, make a museum or write a posthumous article
about it.

~~~
x5n1
We did not destroy anything. Our beloved leaders did. Let's keep that
distinction in mind about who to blame.

~~~
typon
Either the majority of Americans are culpable or America is not a democracy

~~~
Retric
Only the ignorant call America a democracy. Also:

    
    
      George W. Bush: 50,456,002
      Al Gore: 50,999,897
    

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2000)

PS: The supreme court chose 7–2 not to count 70,000 ballets in Florida when
537 votes was the margin of victory. That's all kinds of sketchy, but...
America FUCK YEA!!!

~~~
prawn
Florida: The Dance State?

