Baghdad

This catalogue is published in conjunction with the exhibition Baghdad: Eye’s Delight, that celebrates Baghdad as the most important and influential city ever created in the Islamic world, revealing its outstanding heritage as the capital of the great Abbasid caliphs (750-1258 CE) but also its renewed period of prosperity in the 20th century thanks to the discovery of oil.

The display will take visitors on an imaginary tour across centuries, highlighting Baghdad’s role as a city of power, scholarship and riches, ending the tour with a look at the city’s social fabric, its cosmopolitan population, and many traditions, which have - despite war and destruction - enabled the city to thrive, time and time again.

This catalogue brings together a collection of essays written by some of the best-known scholars in the field. Their essays touch upon the history of the city across many periods and themes, following the divisions of the exhibition while offering unique insights into the complicated and layered history of one of the most fascinating cities of the Middle East.