MRP/Dissertation Winner: The Ascent of Abbasid Urbanism: Factors of Urban Development in Early Medieval Iraq
HIST 4791, Baghdad in the Middle Ages, 762-1300. CD: Thabit Abdullah.
Abstract
The Abbasid Caliphate (8th-13th Centuries) was a major Near Eastern empire during the prime period of Muslim influence and expansion and was centred on the new capital of Baghdad in Iraq. In this submission, the author has surveyed a wide field of literature on the growth and development of cities in Iraq during the early Caliphate and combined this with their own primary source research. The result is a superior synthesis of a scholarly field, one that indicates that no one explanation or set of factors can explain the rapid growth of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities in the 8th and 9th centuries of the Common Era.
As it progresses then, the paper expertly explores the primary and secondary sources of the period, dealing with each factor in turn. The climate and geography, advances in farm yields, demographic and political considerations, changes in property relations and wages, and government policies/investment each contributed in their own measure to the rapid growth of the new city of Baghdad (with some population estimates well into mid-six figures a mere 40 years after its founding). In each of these aspects, the author of “The Ascent of Abbasid Urbanism” carefully marshals their evidence, establishes cross-linking/reinforcing factors (such as the presence of increased money supply to pay for this growth, or an increase in rental units corresponding the rural-urban migration patterns), and builds a completely convincing but multifaceted case explaining what was arguably the highest urbanization rate (20%) of any region in the pre-industrial world.
Particularly notable for a work of more than sixty pages, this article length submission is exceptionally well-organized and highly readable example of the History discipline. It exemplifies the way the historian gathers details to make a case, resisting the temptation to rest on easily found sources or simple explanations. Evidence is smoothly introduced and analyzed, while links between critical points are usefully extended through the entire paper. All this results in a persuasive portrait of a city and of a culture making the most of a golden age.
