This paper examines the dramatic transformation of Baghdad from its celebrated peak during the Islamic Golden Age — when it was described as a city of palaces, gardens, hospitals, and great centers of learning — to its modern condition under the influence of religious extremism. Drawing on historical accounts by the geographer Yakut and analysis by scholars such as Russell Glenn, the paper contrasts the cosmopolitan, intellectually vibrant Baghdad of the Abbasid era with a contemporary city marked by rigid religious laws, the subjugation of women, and sectarian violence. The paper argues that strict religious governance and extremist ideology are the primary forces responsible for Baghdad's decline.
In its heyday, Baghdad must have been a beautiful sight. The medieval geographer Yakut describes it as a "veritable city of palaces," and each of the palace grounds were "laid out with gardens, and adorned with exquisite taste with plants, flowers, trees, reservoirs and fountains surrounded by sculpted statues" (Yakut). One can only imagine how majestic the city must have been. According to Yakut, both sides of the river were fronted by the palaces, kiosks, gardens, and parks of the grandees and nobles; marble steps led down to the water's edge, and the scene on the river was animated by thousands of gondolas, decked with little flags, dancing like sunbeams on the water.
Compare Yakut's description to today's more "modern" description of the same area, and one would wonder whether the two accounts described the same society at all. Of course, it is a given that the rule of the Abbasids coincided with what many experts agree was the Islamic Golden Age, and that Baghdad was at the epicenter of that Golden Age. At the time, Baghdad housed "numerous colleges of learning, hospitals, infirmaries for both sexes, and lunatic asylums" (Yakut). Additionally, according to Yakut, the mosques of the city were "vast in size and remarkably beautiful."
To go from vast and remarkably beautiful to a city, an area, and a region now almost completely transformed takes not only war — or ten or twenty wars — but also a religious governance that demands of its people certain activities and behaviors not necessarily conducive to numerous colleges of learning or a Golden Age of any kind.
One can scarcely imagine an epicenter so beautiful, so filled with learning, so magnificent that scholars and men and women of learning traveled from around the world — gathering in Baghdad to discuss, to argue, to contend with one another in intellectual forays that produced magnificent works of art and scholarship. Compare that scene to a Baghdad where militant forces stand on the brink of entering and decimating the city in an attempt to bring its residents to submit to a religion that, to many, appears arbitrary and capricious in its application.
The rules, laws, and regulations under which the city's residents now labor are largely religious in nature, and according to some experts, acceptance of that religion is mandatory — with the penalty for refusal being death. It appears to be an extremely rigid set of beliefs that guides the government, the rulers, and the leaders of this once great city. Many of the laws governing residents are couched in religious terms, and a majority of the leaders follow the Quran and institute laws based on the Prophet Mohammed's teachings.
For example, the Prophet is recorded as having "cursed ten persons on account of wine: 1) the first extractor of the juice of the grape for others; 2) for himself; 3) the drinker of it; 4) the bearer of it; 5) the person it is brought to; 6) the waiter; 7) the seller; 8) the eater of its price; 9) the buyer of it; and 10) the person who has purchased it for another." This is according to the Sunnah, and it is possible that individuals who meet any of the ten descriptions above are, if discovered, publicly declared guilty and then put to death. That is the extremity of this particular religious extremism that has established a stranglehold on the once beautiful city of Baghdad.
"Women reduced to second-class status under religious doctrine"
"Non-Muslims labeled heretics; pluralism destroyed by extremism"
"Cautious hope for Baghdad's revival and restoration"
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