The modern Islamic city of Samarra is located on the Tigris River; its earliest urban occupation dates to the Abbasid period. Samarra was founded in AD 836 by the Abbasid dynasty caliph al-Mu'tasim [ruled 833-842]who moved his capital there from Baghdad.
Samarra's Abbasid structures including a planned network of canals and streets with numerous houses, palaces, mosques and gardens, built by al-Mu'tasim and his son the caliph al-Mutawakkil [ruled 847-861].
The ruins of the caliph's residence include two horse-race tracks, six palace complexes and at least 125 other major buildings stretched along a 25-mile length of the Tigris. Some of the outstanding buildings still in existence at Samarra include a mosque with a unique spiral minaret and the tombs of the 10th and 11th imams.
Sources
Burgio, Lucia, Robin J. H. Clark, and Mariam Rosser-Owen. 2007 Raman analysis of ninth-century Iraqi stuccoes from Samarra. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(5):756-762.
Northedge, Alistair. 1993. An interpretation of the palace of the caliph at Samarra (Dar al-Khilafa or Jawsaq al-Kahqani). In Ars Orientalis, Vol. 23. Gülru Necipoglu, ed. Ann Arbor: Department of History, University of Michigan. Free download via Archnet
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology. Any mistakes are the responsibility of Kris Hirst.
