Samarra, Also Surra Man Ra'a, Samarra

City

CityAlso Surra Man Ra'a, Samarra

Samarraسامراء

The Abbasid capital of the 800s, famous for its spiral minaret.

The caliph al-Mu'tasim built Samarra in 836 as a new capital away from crowded Baghdad. For half a century it spread for miles along the Tigris; its Great Mosque, finished in 852 with the spiral Malwiya minaret, was then the largest in the world. The caliphs went back to Baghdad in 892.

What happened here?

Who else is linked?

Abbasid Caliphate

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People named in the Quran and the hadith, the Prophet's ﷺ family and Companions, scholars, rulers, the nations of the Quran, the world's empires and the places where it all happened. Where scholars differ, each entry says so.

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