ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the urban literature of Baghdad since the foundation of the round city until the eighteenth century. This period introduced numerous writings on different subjects. The texts of the period between the eighth and fourteenth centuries contained direct clues on the urban forms of Baghdad, while the texts between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries lacked these direct indications. However, literature continued to convey different spatial and social qualities.

The interrogation of the texts of this period highlights the great influence of social and cultural matters on the material conditions of the city. It designates remarkable qualities of specific architectural forms that can promote interaction between people and place, and it reflects the great effect of social qualities on the development and continuity of the city. The textual representation illustrated a distinctive phenomenon in Baghdad’s literature, which was the enhancement of remembrance as a common method in writing. The reading of these texts confirms the disparity between political and intellectual lines in history, regardless of their intermittent influence.