Baghdad

Baghdad

Baghdad, Iraq

Baghdad, also spelled Bagdad, Arabic Baghdād, formerly Madīnat al-Salām (Arabic: “City of Peace”), city, capital of Iraq and capital of Baghdad governorate, central Iraq. Its location, on the Tigris River about 330 miles (530 km) from the headwaters of the Persian Gulf, is in the heart of ancient Mesopotamia. Baghdad is Iraq’s largest city and one of the most populous urban agglomerations of the Middle East. The city was founded in 762 as the capital of the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, and for the next 500 years it was the most significant cultural centre of Arab and Islamic civilization and one of the greatest cities of the world. It was conquered by the Mongol leader Hülegü in 1258, after which its importance waned. A provincial capital under the Ottoman Empire, Baghdad regained prominence only when it became the capital of Iraq in 1920; over the next half century, the city grew prodigiously and took on all the characteristics of a modern metropolis.

Baghdad was heavily damaged by aerial bombardment during the Persian Gulf War (1990–91) and again by air and ground operations during the Iraq War (2003–11). During the interwar period the city’s services and infrastructure deteriorated badly because of inattention and fiscal constraints resulting from economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the United Nations (UN). Pop. (2009 est.) 5,521,242; (2018 est.) 6,719,476.