II. Architecture Sāmarrā is at the present day a vast area of ruins lying on the left bank of the Tigris about sixty miles north of Bag̲h̲dād. These ruins cover the site of one of the richest and most prosperous cities of the ʿAbbāsid period, the building of which cost vast sums. It was begun in 838 in the reign of the Caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, son of Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd, reached its zenith under Ḏj̲aʿfar al-Mutawakkil (847—861) and died with him. Sāmarrā’s brilliant but ephemeral existence gives these ruins a special interest for the student of the origins of Muslim art. Unfortun…

, a town on the east bank of the middle Tigris in ʿIrāḳ, 125 km north of Bag̲h̲dād, of about 35 ha in 1924, and ca. 120 ha in the 1970s. Between 221/836 and 279/892 it was the capital of the ʿAbbāsid caliphs, and expanded to an occupied area of 57 km2, one of the largest cities of ancient times, whose remains of collapsed pisé and brick walls are still largely visible. The district was only lightly occupied in Antiquity. Apart from the Chalcolithic Samarran Culture excavated at the rich site of Tell al-Ṣuwwān, the city of Sur-marrati , refounded by Sennacherib in 690 BC…

Historical Topography. Sāmarrā, which is now a mere village, lies on the east bank of the Tigris half way between Takrīt and Bag̲h̲dād. The original form of the name is probably Irānian. The following etymologies have been proposed: Sām-rāh, Sāʾi-Amorra, and Sā-morra, the last two meaning the place of payment of ¶ tribute. On the coins of the Caliphs Sāmarrā is written Surra man raʾā, i. e. “delighted is he who sees (it)”. Sāmarrā was founded in 221 (836) in the reign of al-Muʿtaṣim by one of his Turkish generals, As̲h̲nās, two parasangs south of the village of Kark̲…

or ʿAskar al-Muʿtaṣim, the camp of Sāmarrā or of Muʿtaṣim, is the place where the Caliph al-Muʿtaṣim bi ’llāh encamped with his Turkish troops at the founding of Sāmarrā in the year 231 (836). Hence this quarter of the town, like ʿAskar Abī Ḏj̲aʿfar at Ubulla or ʿAskar al-Mahdī, i. e. Ruṣâfat Bag̲h̲dād, received his name, and with greater right, since Sāmarrā retained as long as al-Muʿtaṣim was ruler, i. e. till 227 (842), the character of a camp, and only became under al-Wāt̲h̲iḳ, as Yaʿḳūbī s…

[see sāmarrā ] ¶

[see sāmarrā ].

[see sāmarrā ].

[See ʿaskar sāmarrā.]

(Ottoman Turkish pronunciation of the Persian kūs̲h̲k; the Arabic derivative d̲j̲awsaḳ, pre-supposes an unattested form * gōs̲h̲ak, gōs̲h̲a, “corner”), isolated pavilion in a park, kiosk. This name was given to the country houses of the caliphs (as opposed to their house in the town), such as the Ḏj̲awsaḳ al-Ḵh̲āḳānī of Sāmarrā, the plan of which has been given by Ernst Herzfeld ( Mitteilung über die Arbeiten der zweilen Kampagne von Samarra, Isl., 1914, v. 203). There were in Cairo a certain number of these pavilions, also called ḳaṣr (pl. ḳuṣūr), at the cemetery of Ḳarāfa (Maḳrīzī, Ḵh̲iṭ…

, Abu ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī b. Muḥammad, the tenth Imān of the S̲h̲īʿites, who have given him the honorific title of al-Naḳî (the pure); he was born in 213 (828) and passed his youth in Medīna, where also his father, Muḥammad al-Ḏj̲awād, usually resided. Although he exhibited in public the greatest piety and apparently took no part in political intrigues, yet he aroused the suspicions of the ʿAbbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, who had him transferred to his new residential town Sāmarrā in order to keep a better watch on his actions. Hence he has become known under the Nisba al-ʿAskarī [see supra, Art. …

, nisba from the pre-Islāmic divine name Nahīk noted by Wellhausen and Nöldeke among the Tamīm, the Nak̲h̲aʿ (of Mad̲h̲ḥid̲j̲) and in Mecca before Islām. — In Kūfa and Sāmarrā it was the name of the Āl Nahīk, a family of S̲h̲īʿī scholars of the tribe of Nak̲h̲aʿ: descendants of Nahīk, grandfather of Kumail b. Ziyād, a partisan of ʿAlī, also celebrated as the founder of the Kumailīya sect (or Kāmilīya: Ibn Saʿd, vi. 124; ḳaṣīda of Miʿdān Samīṭī in Ḏj̲āḥiẓ, Ḥayawān, ii. 98). Two of its members settled in Sāmarrā (Ṭūsī, Fihrist, p. 203; cf. p. 179, 196): the first ʿAbd Allāh b. Muḥammad (…

(the elder), a Turkish military leader who played a political rôle during ¶ a troubled period under the ʿAbbāsid caliphate. Under al-Muʿtaṣim and his successors, he distinguished himself in several expeditions against rebellions tribes in the region of Medina in 230/844-45, in Armenia in 237/851-52, and against the Byzantines in 244/857. Absent at the time of the assassination of al-Mutawakkil in 247/861, he returned subsequently to Sāmarrā and, making common cause with the other Turkish officers, compelled the succession of al-Mustaʿīn in 248/862. He died in the same year. His son,…

, Muḥammad, an Arab philologist, a pupil of Ḳuṭrub [q. v.], died at Sāmarrā in 245 (859). Of his many works only a treatise on the similarities and differences between Arab tribal names has come down to us and was published by Wüstenfeld ( Ueber die Gleichheit und Verschiedenheit der arabischen Stämmenamen, Göttingen 1850). Bibliography Fihrist, p. 106 Flügel, Die grammatischen Schulen der Araber, p. 67 Wüstenfeld, Die Geschichtschreiber der Araber, N°, 59 Brockelmann, Geschichte der arab. Litt., i. 106.

(I) bi ’llāh , Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Muḥammad , ʿAbbāsid caliph, reigned 248-52/862-6, grandson of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim [ q.v.] and the son of a slave concubine of Ṣaḳlabī origin named Muk̲h̲āriḳ. When his cousin al-Muntaṣir [ q.v.] died, the Turkish commanders in Sāmarrā plucked al-Mustaʿīn from a life of obscurity (he is said to have made a living as a copyist of manuscripts) to become caliph (6 Rabīʿ II 248/9 June 862). The choice aroused discontent in Sāmarrā and unrest broke out among those who supported al-Muʿtazz [ q.v.] which was only put down after much bloodshed and fina…

ʿAbbāsid art and architecture was the visual culture of the ʿAbbāsid caliphate at its height (132–320/750–932). The architecture was mainly a Mesopotamian tradition of unfired and fired brick but also included other techniques and styles in Iran, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, the building types developed from the requirements of an Islamic society originating in the Arabian Peninsula. Decoration began to include styles from outside the Middle East, notably Central Asia, while c…

Al-Fatḥ b. Khāqān (b. c. 200/817–8, d. 247/861–2) was an ʿAbbāsid courtier, diplomat, and scholar. His father, Khāqān ʿUrṭūj, was probably of Turkic/Inner Asian noble origin, as the (reconstructed) name suggests. There are no indications of ties to the Farghāna (Fergana) valley (pace Pinto, “Favorito,” 134) nor of enslavement of any family members, as was the case with many of the so-called Atrāk (Inner Asian soldiers, lit., Turks) of ʿAbbāsid Sāmarrāʾ. The family probably represented the presence…

bi ’llāh, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. Muḥammad, an ʿAbbāsid caliph. His father was a son of the caliph al-Muʿtaṣim, his mother a slave-girl named Muk̲h̲āriḳ of Slav origin. After the death in Rabīʿ II 248 (June 862) of al-Muntaṣir the praetorians appointed his cousin Aḥmad caliph under the name al-Mustaʿīn. The choice aroused discontent in Sāmarrā and unrest broke out among those who supported al-Muʿtazz [q. v.] which was only put down after much bloodshed by the Turkish soldiers. When al-Mustaʿīn was reco…

ʿataba (A, pl. ʿatabāt) : doorstep. In (folk) poetry, ~ (or fars̲h̲a ‘spread, mat’) is used to designate the fi…

, or al-ʿalt̲h̲ , town, to the north of Bag̲h̲dǎd, between ʿUkbarā and Sāmarra, on the eastern bank of the old course of the Tigris. As the course of the Tigris has changed (cf. did̲j̲la ), ʿAlt̲h̲ is today on the western bank, on al-S̲h̲uṭayṭa. The extensive ruins of the town are known as ʿAlt̲h̲ up to the present day; they lie about 4 1/2 m. N.W. of the modern town of Balad. The town is already mentioned by Ptolemy (v. 20) under the name of Altha. According to the medieval geographers the northern limit of…

, Abu ’l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad b. D̲j̲aʿfar, ʿAbbāsid caliph (256-79/870-92), son of al-Mutawakkil [ q.v.] and a slave-girl from Kūfa called Fityān. He seems to have had no political experience before being chosen as caliph in Rad̲j̲ab 256/June 870 on the ¶ death of his nephew al-Muhtadī [ q.v.] and he was never able to build up an independent power base. For most of his reign he remained a figurehead in Sāmarrāʾ while effective power was exercised by his brother Abū Aḥmad, who took the quasi-caliphal title of al-Muwaffaḳ [ q.v.]. Al-Muʿtamid was able to appoint his own wazīr , …