or Bagdad
City (pop., 1999 est.: metro. area, 4,689,000), capital of Iraq.
Located on the Tigris River , the site has been settled from ancient times. It rose to importance after being chosen in AD 762 by Caliph al-Manṣūr (r. 754–775) as the capital of the Hārūn al-Rashīd it achieved its greatest glory
reflected in the many tales from The Thousand and One Nights that were set there
as one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities. A centre of Islamic civilization, it was second only to the Byzantine capital, Constantinople (modern Istanbul ), in trade and culture. The capital was moved briefly to Sāmarrāʾ in 809, after which the city was prone to bouts of political instability. It was sacked by the Mongols under Hülegü in 1258, taken by Timur in 1401, and captured by the Persian Safavid dynasty in 1508. Under the sultan Süleyman I , the city became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1534 and remained so
save for a brief period (1623–38) when it returned to Ṣafavid rule
until the end of World War I (1914–18). It became capital of the kingdom (1921) and then the republic (1958) of Iraq. During the 20th century the city grew greatly in size and population. Severely damaged by bombing during the {{link=Persian Gulf War, First">Persian Gulf War (1990–91), it suffered under international trade sanctions that lasted for more than a decade.