Database: Other Palaces
Baghdad was the caliphal capital and residence for most of the Abbasid period. But before as well as after the foundation of the city, some caliphs chose to live in other locations.
The first Abbasid caliph, al-Saffah (r. 750-754), had chosen the city of Anbar ("the granary"), a major crossing point of the Euphrates occupying an extremely fertile region, as his capital. From the third to the seventh centuries, it had been called Peroz-Shapur, the "Victorious Shapur", from the name of the Sasanian King Shapur I who, in 244, had won a great victory in the city's vicinity against a Roman army. Choosing this strategic and symbolically important location therefore seemed like a good option. But the city s population was unhappy with what it considered the Abbasid "usurpation" and defiantly continued to refer to the caliph's palace as the Hubayra, from the name of the last Umayyad governor of Iraq. When Caliph al-Mansur (r. 754-775) succeeded al-Saffa, he promptly started to look for a new location for capital, eventually founding Baghdad in 762.
Eighty years later, another Abbasid caliph chose a new location as his capital. Caliph al-Mu'tasim (r. 833-842) wanted to insulate his army from Baghdad's politics. In 836, he therefore moved his court, administration and army to a massive new city located 130 kilometers north of Baghdad: Surra Man Ra'a / Samarra ("he who sees it is delighted"). It was a completely new foundation of artificial creation and as such acted as a powerful statement of caliphal power. But it was also untenable, in part due to an insufficient water supply. In 892, after the caliphs had returned to Baghdad and stopped pouring vast sums of money into Samarra, its elegant buildings became gigantic ruins haunted by a golden past. Well-preserved, they have been a part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 2007 and provide an unparalleled example of Abbasid architecture and urbanism.