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Historical Period

The founding of Baghdad, the House of Wisdom, and the Mongol catastrophe.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

Abbasid Baghdad · AD 762-1258
The Islamic Golden Age

Abbasid Baghdad & the Golden Age

The Abbasid caliphs built a new capital on the Tigris — Baghdad, the round City of Peace — and made it the largest and richest city on earth. In its House of Wisdom scholars translated the learning of Greece, Persia, and India and pushed it further, giving the world algebra, advances in medicine and astronomy, and the tales of the Thousand and One Nights. Then, after five centuries, the Mongols came. Slide across the golden age of Baghdad.

762 AD
Abbasid Caliphate
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762 AD

Abbasid Caliphate
  • Political

    Al-Mansur founds Baghdad

    The caliph al-Mansur builds a perfectly round new capital on the Tigris, the 'City of Peace.'

10 milestones

Meanwhile

Around 762 AD

Full Chronicle

Abbasid Baghdad & the Golden Age

The Abbasid caliphs built a new capital on the Tigris — Baghdad, the round City of Peace — and made it the largest and richest city on earth. In its House of Wisdom scholars translated the learning of Greece, Persia, and India and pushed it further, giving the world algebra, advances in medicine and astronomy, and the tales of the Thousand and One Nights. Then, after five centuries, the Mongols came. Slide across the golden age of Baghdad.

  1. Abbasid Caliphate

    • Al-Mansur founds Baghdad

      The caliph al-Mansur builds a perfectly round new capital on the Tigris, the 'City of Peace.'

  2. Abbasid Caliphate

    • Harun al-Rashid

      Under Harun al-Rashid the caliphate reaches its height of wealth and splendour, remembered in the Thousand and One Nights.

  3. Abbasid Caliphate

    • Al-Ma'mun and the House of Wisdom

      The caliph al-Ma'mun makes Baghdad's House of Wisdom the greatest centre of learning in the world.

  4. Abbasid Caliphate

    • Al-Khwarizmi and the birth of algebra

      The scholar al-Khwarizmi, working in Baghdad, writes the founding book of algebra and popularizes the decimal numerals.

  5. Abbasid Caliphate

    • The caliphs move to Samarra

      Al-Mu'tasim builds a vast new capital at Samarra to house his Turkish slave-soldiers, crowned by a spiral minaret.

  6. Anarchy at Samarra

    • The anarchy at Samarra

      The Turkish guard turns on its masters, making and murdering caliphs, and Abbasid power begins to crumble.

  7. Abbasid Caliphate

    • The scholars of Baghdad

      The court returns to Baghdad, which remains the beating heart of Islamic scholarship, law, and literature.

  8. Buyid Domination

    • The Buyids take Baghdad

      The Shia Buyid amirs seize Baghdad and reduce the caliph to a figurehead, keeping him only for his prestige.

  9. Seljuk Domination

    • The Seljuk Turks enter Baghdad

      The Sunni Seljuk sultan Tughril takes Baghdad, restoring Sunni power and founding the great Nizamiyya college.

  10. Mongol Conquest

    • The Mongol sack of Baghdad

      Hulagu Khan storms Baghdad, kills the last Abbasid caliph, and ends five centuries of the caliphate.