Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate: From Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources

The topography of mediaeval Baghdad is worked out by means of the Ibn Serapion manuscript, which dates from about A.D. 900. By combining the network of water systems described in the manuscript with the radiating highroads, it has been possible for the author to plot out the various quarters of older Baghdad and draw the plan of the great metropolis of the Abbasid Caliphs.