Researchers
Baghdad and the Silk Roads
Baghdad: the City of Peace al-Mansur built in 762 as a round city on the Tigris — a caliphate's seat, a trade port and a library of knowledge in one place. In it the Silk Roads from China met the sea routes from India and the Gulf, making it the age's greatest world market: paper, spices, porcelain and learning all traded in its souks. It held the House of Wisdom where al-Khwarizmi taught algebra and Greek and Persian sciences were translated, and observatories measuring the sky. For five centuries it stayed the Islamic world's centre until it fell to the Mongols in 1258, and its name stayed on history's tongue: every old road can begin or end in Baghdad. On today's maps Baghdad stays the same knot of routes: it is no accident the Tigris lies at old trade's heart, but the geography of a city fated to be East's and West's port.