—so he diverted water to it, laid out orchards around it, and thereafter moved the markets to al-Karkh.

Yaʿqūb ibn Sufyān said: “The building of Baghdad was completed in the year 146 AH. In 157 AH he transferred the markets to Bāb al-Karkh, Bāb al-Shaʿīr, and Bāb al-Muḥawwal, and ordered that the bazaars be widened by forty thousand (1). Two months later he began the construction of his palace called al-Khuld; it was finished in 158 AH, and he placed the work under a man named al-Waddāḥ. He also built for the populace a congregational mosque for the daily prayers and Friday service so that they would not go into al-Manṣūr’s mosque.

“As for the Caliphal residence that later stood in Baghdad, it had belonged to al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl, then passed to Būran, the wife of al-Maʾmūn. Al-Muʿtaḍid—some say al-Muʿtamid—asked her for it; she granted it to him but requested a few days’ grace to vacate. He agreed, whereupon she spent those days repairing, whitewashing, and beautifying it. She spread within it all kinds of carpets and rugs, hung every variety of curtain, stocked it with the female attendants and servants proper to the caliphate, dressed them in splendid clothing, filled the storerooms with foodstuffs and provisions, and placed in some of its rooms diverse sums of money and treasures. She then sent him the keys. When he entered and saw what she had provided he was astonished and greatly impressed. He was the first caliph to reside there, and he enclosed it with a wall.” Al-Khaṭīb records this.

The palace called al-Tāj (the Crown) was built by al-Muktafī on the Tigris; surrounding it were domes, reception halls, a parade ground, the Thurayyā pavilion, and an enclosure for wild beasts (2).

Al-Khaṭīb also describes the Dār al-Shajarah (House of the Tree) that existed in the days of al-Muqtadir bi-llāh, with its furnishings, draperies, servants, mamlūks, dazzling pomp, and manifest luxury. It contained eleven thousand eunuchs and seven hundred chamberlains, while the mamlūks numbered uncountable thousands. A detailed account will appear in the section on their era and their dynasty, which vanished like the dreams of sleepers after the year 300 AH.

Al-Khaṭīb (3) further mentions the royal residence at al-Mukharram, the mosques in which the Friday prayer was held, the canals and bridges there, what stood in the time of al-Manṣūr, and what was added after him down to his own day.

He also quoted, concerning the bridges of Baghdad over the Tigris, the verses of a poet:

A day when secretly we stole a taste of life,
seated in Tigris’ solitary court;
The air grew gentle—so delicately gentle before him—
that I grew pliant to a time made fortunate;
So Tigris seemed a mantle, white and gleaming,
and the bridge upon it like black embroidery.