Baghdad

"Baghdad among the lands is like a master among slaves."

"Baghdad is the metropolis of the world ... Outside it there is only desert."

"Baghdad is determined to force the Mongols of our age to commit suicide at its gates."

"I have seen the greatest of cities that are known for their perfection and refinement, in the lands of Syria and the Greeks and other countries, but I have never seen a city like Baghdad whose roofs are so high, a city which is so round or more noble, the gates of which are wider and the walls better. It is as if the city were cast into a mould and poured out."

"This old city still serves as the Abbasid capital ... but most of its substance is gone. Only the name remains. ... The city is but a trace of a vanished encampment, a shadow of a passing ghost."

"Baghdad is safe, protected. There are no American infidels in Baghdad."

"Jaffàr, the Barmecide, the good Vizier, The poor man’s hope, the friend without a peer, Jaffàr was dead, slain by a doom unjust; And guilty Hàroun, sullen with mistrust Of what the good and e’en the bad might say, Ordained that no man living from that day Should dare to speak his name on pain of death. All Araby and Persia held their breath.All but the brave Mondeer. He, proud to show How far for love a grateful soul could go, And facing death for very scorn and grief (For his great heart wanted a great relief), Stood forth in Bagdad, daily, in the square Where once had stood a happy house; and there Harangued the tremblers at the scymitar On all they owed to the divine Jaffàr.“Bring me this man,” the caliph cried. The man Was brought,—was gazed upon. The mutes began To bind his arms. “Welcome, brave cords!” cried he; “From bonds far worse Jaffàr delivered me; From wants, from shames, from loveless household fears; Made a man’s eyes friends with delicious tears; Restored me,—loved me,—put me on a par With his great self. How can I pay Jaffàr?”Hàroun, who felt that on a soul like this The mightiest vengeance could but fall amiss, Now deigned to smile, as one great lord of fate Might smile upon another half as great. He said, “Let worth grow frenzied, if it will; The caliph’s judgment shall be master still. Go; and since gifts thus move thee, take this gem, The richest in the Tartar’s diadem, And hold the giver as thou deemest fit.”“Gifts!” cried the friend. He took; and holding it High towards the heavens, as though to meet his star, Exclaimed, “This, too, I owe to thee, Jaffàr!”"

"As the Qur’an itself had quoted Moses to declare (and as Muhammad had cited in his final letter to the assassin Musailimah): “The earth belongs to the Loving Divine, who allots it to whomever He wills; yet the most lasting legacy will be the enduring impact of those who have action-based hope.” Tellingly, when Al-Mansur inaugurated his new capital, the cornerstone of Baghdad featured that very verse etched for all to see."

"What is a television apparatus to man, who has only to shut his eyes to see the most inaccessible regions of the seen and the never seen, who has only to imagine in order to pierce through walls and cause all the planetary Baghdads of his dreams to rise from the dust."

"Two people, one city, different times; connected by a memoir. Can love exist in a city destined for decades of misery?"

"Thou, too, art fallen, Bagdad! City of Peace, Thou too hast had thy day; And loathsome Ignorance and brute Servitude Pollute thy dwellings now, Erst for the mighty and the wise renowned. O, yet illustrious for remembered fame,— Thy founder the Victorious,—and the pomp Of Haroun, for whose name by blood defiled, Yahia’s, and the blameless Barmecides’, Genius hath wrought salvation,—and the years When Science with the good Al-Maimon dwelt; So one day may the Crescent from thy mosques Be plucked by Wisdom, when the enlightened arm Of Europe conquers to redeem the East!Then Pomp and Pleasure dwelt within her walls; The merchants of the East and of the West Met in her arched bazaars; All day the active poor Showered a cool comfort o’er her thronging streets; Labour was busy in her looms; Through all her open gates Long troops of laden camels lined the roads, And Tigris bore upon his tameless stream Armenian harvests to her multitudes."

"In 762, to symbolize and propel the new order, decided to build the grand new capital of Baghdad as a massive round city. The caliph assembled an elite team of the empire’s top engineers, architects, and visionaries—notably including Zoroastrians, Christians, and Jews, such as Mashallah Ibnul-Athari."