Do we have any idea of what medieval Baghdad would have looked like?
Any artistic reconstructions?
No, but here have a mycenae.
>>385436
More or less like todays (square yellow buildings)
These people didnt evolve a lot since Middle Age
At its center was the 'Round City', or a round walled central district with a palace and mosque, surrounded by suburbs. The city changed a lot over time, and now it's mostly buried under modern Baghdad, but there are a few buildings left from the late Caliphate. It's important to keep in mind that there were two different periods of florescence in Baghdad, first under the early Abbasids (750-950) and then after the decline of the Seljuks to the Mongol conquest (1160-1260 AD). What survives today is from the latter period and later.
Pic related is a restored 'palace' (probably actually a madrasah) from about 1200 AD.
>>385728
The heavily restored Mustansiriya Madrasah, from 1233 AD.
>>385733
One of the remaining gates from the outer city. The city was surrounded by a moat, which this gate was in the middle of, connected by two bridges to the city and outside.
>>385739
Part of the city walls, from 1221 AD, destroyed in WW1.
>>385742
A contemporary tomb near Baghdad.
>>385747
We can also get an idea of what it looked like by looking at contemporary miniatures.
>>385754
The fall of Baghdad, from the early 14th century, showing the double moat and walls.
>>385765
A similar looking bridge to the one depicted in the manuscript in Ottoman Baghdad, 1909.
What I've posted so far was all post-Seljuk architecture which was very different to the earlier Abbasid architecture. Nothing survives from this early period in Baghdad. Instead we have something even better; the ruins of Samarra. Samarra was the alternate capital to the Abbasids, occupied briefly between 836 and 889 AD, after which it was abandoned and left well preserved so we know exactly what it looked like.
It's a huge site sprawling across 40 kilometers along the Tigris, filled with palaces, military buildings, mosques, and race courses.
This is the closest you'll get to early Abbasid Baghdad.
>>385791
A plan of the whole city.
>>385801
The Abu Dulaf Mosque.
>>385803
The Great Mosque.
>>385806
The remains of the Caliphal palace.
>>385808
A reconstruction.
>>385811
They're pretty weird designs, not used outside of Samarra as far as I know. They might be derived from smaller Sassanid structures.
>>385824
Another palace.
>>385830
An unfinished round city like that at Baghdad. It predates the rest of Samarra.
>>385833
Interiors in Samarra were decorated with stucco.
>>385839
>>385841
>>385846
A fortress on the outskirts of the city.
>>385851
And after restoration/reconstruction.
>>385854
thats the AOE2 Saracen wonders isnt it?
>>385858
That's pretty much everything.
Also here's a reconstruction of Baghdad's round city I forgot I had, but I don't know if it's accurate. The architecture looks about right at least.
I've always been particularly interested in pre-Islamic Arab and Middle Eastern studies, anyone have any good images for that?
>>385859
Yeah.
>>385870
Is there anything specific you want me to post? I don't know much about pre-Islamic Arabs, but I have stuff from other cultures Mesopotamia and the Near East. Here's a pre-Islamic Yemeni temple.
>>385865
thank you for sharing these pictures anon.
were those domes inside the circles all mosques?
>>385885
Anything from Damascus to the Arab peninsula and Iran. Im really interested in that region for some reason.
>>386037
It looks like it, but I'm not sure.
>>386047
I want to get to sleep, so I'll just post a few Neo-Assyrian things, since those guys were cool as hell.
>>386082
>>386085
>>386088
>>386091
>>386096
>>386099
>>386105
All of that was from Nimrud. The rest I'll post are from Dur-Sharrukin (aka Khorsabad).
Both sites were destroyed by ISIS.
>>386115
>>386118
>>386120
>>386122
>>386126
>>386130
>>386133
>>386137
>>386082
Thank you so much, I love the reconstructions your posting as well. Anything from Palmyra or more from Yemen?
>>386139
>>386145
I have a few more reconstruction from Yemen. This one's a pre-Islamic palace (I couldn't find a bigger picture),
>>386152
A Sabaean temple.
>>386154
>>386157
>>386158
>>386160
>>386162
>>386167
>>386169
>>386174
That's about everything from Yemen. I'm afraid I don't have much from Palmyra.
>>386152
You've got some awesome pics. I find this to be such an underreseached area, even though it was such a huge topic of interest in the 19th and 20th centuries.
It sucks too, I was stationed in that region during the war and never got to see any of these incredible relics. Hopefully it'll calm down long enough one of these days that I can go over and see it.
>>386176
>>386181
Yeah, I don't know much about the region myself but it does seem a lot more interesting than it gets credit for. Usually when people talk about pre-Islamic Arabia they mention stuff like Petra but completely ignore the south.
Anyway, that's just about everything for now. I need to get some sleep.
>>386115
>both sites were destroyed by ISIS
