—ʿAlī ibn Ḥasan al-Tanūkhī, who said:

“Muḥammad al-Amīn was not killed inside the city. He had gone out on a boat upon the Tigris to take his ease; he was seized mid-river and slain there.” This was also reported by al-Ṣūlī and others.

It is related from one of the senior shaykhs of Baghdad that he said, “The area of Baghdad is one hundred and thirty jarīb—roughly two miles by two miles.”

Imām Aḥmad (1) said, “Baghdad extends from al-Sarāh to Bāb al-Tibn (the Straw Gate).”

Al-Khaṭīb (2) records that the distance between every two of its eight gates is one mile—some say a little less.

Al-Khaṭīb (3) likewise describes the Palace of Government and the Green Dome within it, eighty cubits high. At its summit stood a statue of a horse with a rider holding a lance that revolved. Whatever direction the lance faced and remained facing signalled to the ruler that an incident had occurred in that quarter, and news of it would soon reach the caliph.

That dome sat upon a platform at the head of the audience hall of the court, the hall itself measuring thirty cubits long and twenty cubits wide. The dome collapsed on a night of cold, rain, thunder, and lightning—Tuesday night, the seventh of Jumādā al-Ākhirah, 329 AH.

Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī (4) also states that in the days of al-Manṣūr a full-grown ram sold in Baghdad for one dirham, a lamb for four daniqs; mutton was cried out at one dirham for every sixty ratls, beef at one dirham for ninety ratls, dates at one dirham for sixty ratls, oil at one dirham for sixteen ratls, ghee at one dirham for eight ratls, and honey at one dirham for ten ratls. Thanks to such security and low prices the population swelled, and the flow of people in its markets and alleyways became so dense that a passer-by could scarcely make his way through the crowds.

One of the amirs, returning from the market, remarked, “By Allah, it has been a long time since I chased rabbits over this spot!”

Al-Khaṭīb (5) relates that al-Manṣūr was once seated in his palace when he heard a tremendous clamour, then another, and yet another. He said to al-Rabīʿ the chamberlain, “What is that?” The latter looked and discovered a cow that had broken loose from its butcher and was running through the bazaars.

A Byzantine observer said, “O Commander of the Faithful, you have built a structure that no one before you ever built, yet it has three faults: it is far from water; the markets are too near it; and it has no greenery—while the eye is green and loves green.” Al-Manṣūr did not so much as raise his head. He then ordered that it be altered—