Great Cities Collection: Baghdad (Black Box). In the year 762, Al-Mansur, founder of the Abbasid Caliphate, built the “Round City” of Madinat al-Salam on the banks of the Tigris. Situated near the ruins of ancient Babylon and the old Persian capital city of Ctesiphon, Baghdad, as it came to be called, evolved into the largest city in the world during the Islamic Golden Age, peaking at a population of more than a million. Baghdad was known the world over as the “Center of Learning.” The old city was largely destroyed during the Mongol Invasion of 1258.--This silver dirham was struck by Al-Mansur, 754-775.
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