Commerce·
- Very prosperous
- Caliph’s merchants were trade marts of the world
- Ports, water trade
- Created trails to Medina and Samarcand
- Bazaars, exotic goods
- Luxurious
- Gold, pearls, platinum, furs, clothes, spices, porcelain, vegetables, textiles, leather, paper
- During Ottoman period, trade declined
- Khurasan Road-an established meeting place for caravan routes
Culture and Society
- Aramaean and Greek cultural influences
- Cultural capital of Islamic world
- Rich would play polo or go hunting, poor would engage in cock-fights or ram-fights
- Caliphate
- Most significant cultural centre of Arab and Islamic civilization
- Well-educated
- Women had many rights
- Caliph of all Muslims and Defender of the Faith, Chosen One of Allah, Sultan of Baghdad, Overlord of the Two Rivers and the Persian Gulf , Rightful Protector of the Holy Cities, Lord of Persia
Location on the Post-Classical Trade Networks
- Linked to trade in Persian Gulf
- Reached ports of Ubullah and Siraf
- Reached the city along canals and rivers direct from the port of Basra
- Sophisticated trading market
- Between Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
Religious Influences
- The first commentaries on the Koran were written in Baghdad
- Mutazilites-God was a Perfect Being took no attributes other than his unity into account
- Koran became a creation of the Divinity
- caliphs imposed it officially upon the people in a particularly unpleasant way
- Ash'ari-doctor of laws, dominated and definitively unified all the future beliefs of Islam
- Glorified as well as it could its religious position which made of the Koran a revelation in the Arabic language
- Religious poems
Reasons for Growth
- An important trade center
- Very prosperous
- Growing population
- Drew scholars and people of higher status
- Cosmopolitan city
- Troubles with caliphate caused growth to slow
- Taken over by Mongols
Innovations
- Baghdad's most famous innovation was the baghdad battery
- Invented by Count Alessandro Volta
- Wasn't the first battery but simply a reinvention of it
- Fritware pottery
- Tin-glazing of ceramics
Bibliography
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_Baghdad_People_trade
http://islam.about.com/cs/history/a/aa040703a.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/wiet.asp
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Baghdad.aspx
http://islamicceramics.ashmolean.org/Abbasid/trade.htm
http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/timeline.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48773/Baghdad
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196303/the.splendid.sultan.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Baghdad
http://www.unmuseum.org/bbattery.htm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_did_Baghdad_People_trade
http://islam.about.com/cs/history/a/aa040703a.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/wiet.asp
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Baghdad.aspx
http://islamicceramics.ashmolean.org/Abbasid/trade.htm
http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/timeline.htm
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48773/Baghdad
http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/196303/the.splendid.sultan.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Baghdad
http://www.unmuseum.org/bbattery.htm