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Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood
Justin Marozzi
Da Capo Press
November 2014
On Sale: November 4, 2014
536 pages
ISBN: 0306823985
EAN: 9780306823985
Kindle: B00NP8ME12
Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction History
For much of its extraordinary life, Baghdad, known for
centuries as the "City of Peace," enjoyed both cultural
and
commercial preeminence. For five centuries it was the seat
of the Abbasid Empire, a marvel of glittering palaces,
exquisite parks, magnificent mosques, and Islamic
colleges.
It was a city boasting the most accomplished astronomers,
mathematicians, doctors, musicians, and poets—it was here,
in the time of the caliphs, that the great Arabic classic
One Thousand and One Nights was set. With its teeming
markets watered by the Tigris, Baghdad was a thriving
trading emporium, attracting merchants from Central Asia
to
the Atlantic; its economy was the envy of West and East
alike. Yet Baghdad's inhabitants have also seen many terrible
hardships, from epidemics and famines to invasions and
devastating floods. And it has also been one of the most
violent cities on earth. When U.S. troops entered in 2003,
they became the latest participants in a turbulent history
stretching back to the city's founding in 762. Over most
of
its thirteen-century history, Baghdad has endured the rule
of brutal strongmen, from capricious caliphs to Saddam
Hussein; and it has suffered violent occupations at the
hands of its conquerors, from the Mongol Hulagu, grandson
of
Genghis Khan, to Tamerlane, known as the "Sword Arm of
Israel." Here, in this vivid new history—the first published in
English in nearly a century—Justin Marozzi brings to life
the whole splendorous and tumultuous story of what was
once
the greatest capital on earth.
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