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Samarra

سامراء

City on the Tigris founded in 836 CE as the Abbasid capital, with the Great Mosque and its spiral minaret.

Depth

At a glance

Region
Levant & Iraq
Identifiers
GeoNamesPleiades
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Overview

Samarra is a city on the Tigris, founded in 836 CE as the capital of the Abbasids. It has the great mosque and its spiral minaret. 1

An additional source is needed: the description is taken from the summary of the data and has not yet been checked against specialist references.

Connections

Explore the connections

Birthplace of
Ibn Sinina al-Samiri
Site of
The Killing of Abu Faqqas by Flogging· Death of al-Wathiq· The Founding of al-Mutawakkiliyya· The Garrisoning of Sur man Ra'a (Samarra)
Contains
al-Askari shrine (Samarra)· Dome of Redress of al-Muhtadi

People and things also explored

al-Muntasir bi-Allah· al-Mu'tasim Abu Ishaq ibn al-Rashid· al-Mutawakkil ala Allah· al-Wathiq· Ashinas al-Turki· Bugha, mawla of al-Mu'tasim (Bugha the Elder)· Harun al-Rashid· Baghdad

Sources

  1. GeoNames gazetteer
  • al-Farghani, Elementa astronomica (Golius, Amsterdam 1669)
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Samarra”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/place/samarra/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-23.

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Place

Cities, sites and routes on a map that moves through time. Related

al-Muntasir bi-Allah

Abbasid caliph, pledged allegiance after his father al-Mutawakkil was killed in 247, and he died in 248. According to al-Suyuti, he was first pledged heir apparent; then al-Mutawakkil wanted to advance al-Mu'tazz over him and asked him to step down, and when he refused, al-Mutawakkil kept lowering his standing. The Turks agreed with him to kill his father; five men entered upon the caliph and killed him on 5 Shawwal 247. According to al-Suyuti, he was handsome and dignified, of full intellect, eager for good and little given to injustice. Among his sayings: 'The pleasure of pardon is sweeter than the pleasure of vengeance, and the ugliest of al-Muqtadir's deeds was retaliation.' Yazid al-Muhallabi said of him: 'You were generous to the Talibiyyun after they had blamed the age, time after time, and you restored the kinship of Hashim, so that I see them, after enmity between them, as brothers'. According to al-Mas'udi, Bugha al-Saghir plotted his father's murder. He put Bugha to the test through his son Faris, then through his brother Wasif, then through Bugha himself, and Bugha said: 'He kills the son while the father remains; let us begin with the father first'. According to al-Mas'udi, he was proclaimed on the morning of the night his father was killed at al-Ja'fari, aged twenty-five. His mother was an umm walad called Habashiyya Rumiyya. He stayed seven days in the al-Makhura pavilion where his father was killed, the place where Shiruyah had killed his father Khusraw Parviz. Muhammad ibn Sahl the scribe saw in its carpet the figure of Shiruyah, who killed his father and ruled six months, and the figure of Yazid ibn al-Walid, who killed his cousin and ruled six months; he said: 'I do not see his rule lasting longer than six months', and so it was. He died in 248.