The Tomahawk., 1919-08-14

~ EOPLE are apt to be disappoint-
ed in Bagdad, but this is not un-
natural unless one bears clearly
in mind that what one sees to-
day is comparatively modern Turco-
Arabian town and not the city Of rO-
nance of Arabian Nights entertain
ments that one has probably imagined.
That old Bagdad, or rather Dar-eS-
Salam as it was originally called, was
built in the year 763 A. D. by Al Man.
sur, the second Abbasid caliph, out Of
the ruins of the city of Ctesiphon. It
saw it's palmiest days in the time of
Caliph Haroun-al-Raschid, the fifth of
the Abbasid line, Who flourished from
786 to 800 A. D. The city soon after
this came to its end.
The caliphate was for political rea-
sons moved to Samarrah in 836 and
when it was brought back again to
Bagdad in 1872, a new city was built
on the opposite /. e., left, bank of the
Tigris, q mile or two downstream from
the old site. OF Dar-es-Salam nothing
now remains but q few indistinct
mounds, says writer in the Times Of
India Illustrated Weekly.
It cannot even be said that the new
capital of which we have just spoken
is the Bagdad that we know today.
The site has remained the same, but
of the city there is now nothing above
ground that can be identified as being
nearly as old as 892. Bagdad has suf-
fered more often and more severely
from destruction and decay than Eu-
ropean or Indian cities, even taking
into account such incidents as the
great fire Of London or the sequence
Of events that has produced the seven
capitals at Delhi, or the CHEEKY habit
Of the old Roman emperors of pulling
down the buildings Of their predeces-
sors in order to build finer ones for
themselves. Twice has Bagdad been
sacked: in 1858 by the Mongols under
Hulaku Khan and again in 400 by
Tamerlane. It has been besieged many
times and flooded still more often.
Such q life would be bound to tell
on the constitution even Of a well-built
city and Bagdad was not that. 1t was
built with inferior building material
and as often as not with inferior skill,
and its sufterings have entirely chang
ed it during the course Of time.
Few Old euiIdInos Remain.
How thoroughly bad the construction
of some buildings has been-more par
ticularly in modern times-may be
judged from the fact that two large
minarets belonging to one of the
mosques Of the city, which were built
within the memory of the inhabitants
of Bagdad, have already lost their top
stories. But this, of course, is an ex-
treme example. On the other hand
there is the Khan Aurtmah, a large
brick vaulted building in the center of
the city, which is, in its way, as won
derful a piece Of construction as one
can see anywhere. It was built in
1859 and is still in use and in excel
lent preservation. The Marjaniyah
mosque, close by, and having as part
Of it's endowments the income derived
from the Khan Aurtmah, is another
fine old building. 1t was built two
years before the Khan and IL Of con-
siderable architectural merit.
A few fragments of an earlier date
are to be found In different parts of
the city. Some portions of the old
fortifcation Of mustashir, for exam
pie, and the eleventh century minarets
of Suqal- -Ghaxl and Of the Qamariyah
mosque and, ut any rate, some Of the
walls Of the old Nustansariyah college
eleventh century, may be mentioned.
But there are NO other old buildings
as complete ~ the khan and the
mosque.
0eausiful-from q Distance.
Apart from these few examples Of
an earlier period, the Bagdad we know
today Is Of the seventeenth or eight
eenth and succeeding centuries, which
IN terms Of architecture Is compara-
lively modern. Judged In this light
Ragcad is not disappointing. 1t IL,
particularly for Mesopotamian town,
qr,,e O delightful place. From the dis-