Architectural Site and Imagined Landscape: The Foundation Lore and Perpetuated Mythology of the Round City of Baghdad
Samantha Oleschuk
Appalachian State University
Keywords: Abbasid empire, Islamic architecture, Islam and art, Islamic literature, mythology
Abstract
The eighth-century Abbasid capital, the Round City of Baghdad, existed in its perfect, circular form for a short period of time. However, even after its ruin, its physical shape and the reasons for its establishment were vehemently remembered in a manner unrivaled in the dense history of Islamic cities; this round city became storied. While the intertwined legends of the city’s site, foundation, and founding caliph established (and perhaps exaggerated) through historical descriptions and stories enable architectural reconstructions, this foundation lore opened a realm of continued glorifications, reflections, and lamentations of the early Abbasid capital in literature succeeding its construction and ruin. Research and writing by scholars across disciplines including history, literature, and art and architecture history delve into the city’s foundation and its mythology as separate entities. Diverging from this dichotomy, this research draws a connection between the legends of its foundation and its continued mythology to suggest that the Round City of Baghdad must be studied simultaneously as an architectural site and an imagined landscape.
