Editing Baghdad (section)

==Name==
The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed.<ref name=EI2 /> The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows that the site of Baghdad was occupied by various peoples long before the Arab conquest of [[Mesopotamia]] in 637 CE, and several ancient empires had capitals located in the surrounding area.<ref>{{cite web |title=Baghdad, Foundation and early growth |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Baghdad |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151009070155/https://www.britannica.com/place/Baghdad |archive-date=9 October 2015 |access-date=21 October 2015 |website=Encyclopædia Britannica |quote=[...] the site located between present-day Al-Kāẓimiyyah and Al-Karkh and occupied by a Persian village called Baghdad, was selected by al-Manṣūr, the second caliph of the Abbāsid dynasty, for his capital.}}</ref>

Arab authors, realizing the pre-Islamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in [[Middle Persian]].<ref name=EI2>{{Cite encyclopedia |author=Duri, A.A. |title=Bag̲h̲dād |year=2012 |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Islam |edition=2nd |publisher=Brill |editor=P. Bearman |editor2=Th. Bianquis |editor3=C.E. Bosworth |editor4=E. van Donzel |editor5=W.P. Heinrichs |doi=10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0084}}</ref> They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God".<ref name=EI2/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Everett-Heath |first=John |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001/acref-9780191882913;jsessionid=7E75D9FF952E16EB73A7CFDF54E367A4 |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Place Names |date=24 October 2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-188291-3 |language=en-US |doi=10.1093/acref/9780191882913.001.0001}}</ref> Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology,<ref name=EI2/> which views the word as a Persian compound of ''bagh'' ([[File:baghpahlavi.png|25px]]) "god" and ''dād'' ([[File:dadpahlavi.png|30px]]) "given".<ref>Mackenzie, D. (1971). A concise Pahlavi Dictionary (p. 23, 16).</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/baghdad-iranian-connection-1-pr-Mongol |title=BAGHDAD i. Before the Mongol Invasion – Encyclopædia Iranica |publisher=Iranicaonline.org |access-date=16 December 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171117020537/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/baghdad-iranian-connection-1-pr-Mongol |archive-date=17 November 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> In [[Old Persian]] the first element can be traced to ''boghu'' and is related to [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Iranian]] ''bhag'' and [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] ''bog'' "god."<ref name=EI2 /><ref name="Strange pg 10">Guy Le Strange, "Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic and Persian", pg 10</ref> A similar term in Middle Persian is the name ''Mithradāt'' (''[[Mehrdad]]'' in [[New Persian]]), known in English by its borrowed Hellenistic form ''Mithridates'', meaning "Given by [[Mithra]]" (''dāt'' is the more archaic form of ''dād'', related to Sanskrit ''dāt'', Latin ''dat'' and English ''donor''),<ref name=EI2 /> ultimately borrowed from Persian ''Mehrdad''. There are a number of other locations whose names are compounds of the Middle Persian word ''bagh'', including [[Baghlan]] and [[Bagram]] in Afghanistan, [[Baghshan]] in Iran itself,<ref>Joneidi, F. (2007). متن‌های پهلوی. In Pahlavi Script and Language (Arsacid and Sassanid) نامه پهلوانی: آموزش خط و زبان پهلوی اشکانی و ساسانی (second ed., p. 109). Tehran: Balkh (نشر بلخ).</ref> and [[Baghdati]] in [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], which likely share the same etymological Iranic origins.<ref>{{cite news |title=Persimmons surviving winter in Bagdati, Georgia |url=http://www.georgianjournal.ge/image-page.html?view=item&id=300 |access-date=22 September 2016 |agency=Georgian Journal |date=22 February 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160923104427/http://www.georgianjournal.ge/image-page.html?view=item&id=300 |archive-date=23 September 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="books.google.nl">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5U3AAAAIAAJ&q=baghdad+aramaic+christian+villages&pg=PA564 |title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936 |publisher=BRILL |year=1987 |isbn=978-90-04-08265-6 |access-date=4 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204231802/https://books.google.com/books?id=p5U3AAAAIAAJ&q=baghdad+aramaic+christian+villages&pg=PA564 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="BRILL1987">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p5U3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA564 |title=E.J. Brill's First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913-1936 |date=1987 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-08265-6 |pages=564– |oclc=1025754805 |access-date=19 October 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004095341/https://books.google.com/books?id=p5U3AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA564 |archive-date=4 October 2020 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Other authors have suggested older origins for the name, in particular the name ''Bagdadu'' or ''Hudadu'' that existed in [[Akkadian language|Old Babylonian]] (spelled with a sign that can represent both ''bag'' and ''hu''), and the [[Jewish Babylonian Aramaic]] name of a place called ''Baghdatha'' ({{lang|tmr|בגדתא}}).<ref name=EI2 /><ref>{{cite book |editor1=John Block Friedman |editor2=Kristen Mossler Figg |date=4 July 2013 |title=Trade, Travel, and Exploration in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia |publisher=[[Routledge]] |pages= |isbn=978-1-135-59094-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OmCfNI_SxAC |access-date=23 July 2022 |archive-date=28 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200128003749/https://books.google.com/books?id=-OmCfNI_SxAC |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Brinkmann J.a. |date=1968 |title=Political history of Post-Kassite Babylonia (1158-722 b. C.) (A) |publisher=Pontificio Istituto Biblico |pages= |isbn=978-88-7653-243-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iykVSxTD7usC |access-date=23 July 2022 |archive-date=23 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723204246/https://books.google.com/books?id=iykVSxTD7usC |url-status=live }}</ref> Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations.<ref name=EI2/>

Another view, suggested by Christophe Wall-Romana, is that name of "Baghdad" is derived from "[[Akkad (city)|Akkad]]", as the cuneiform logogram for Akkad ({{lang|akk|𒀀𒂵𒉈𒆠}}) is pronounced "''a-ga-dè''<sup>KI</sup>" ("Agade") and its resemblance to "Baghdad" is compelling.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wall-Romana |first=Christophe |date=1990 |title=An Areal Location of Agade |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/546244 |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=205–245, 244 |doi=10.1086/373442 |jstor=546244 |s2cid=161165836 |issn=0022-2968}}</ref><ref name=":25">{{Cite book |last=Sallaberger |first=Walther |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43521617 |title=Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit |date=1999 |publisher=Universitätsverlag |others=Aage Westenholz |isbn=978-3-7278-1210-1 |location=Freiburg, Schweiz |page=245 |oclc=43521617}}</ref> It is argued that, throughout all the various spellings of the city's name, whether ''Baghdad'' [بغداد], ''Baghdadh'' [بغداذ], ''Baghdan'' [بغدان], ''Maghdad'' [مغداد], ''Maghdadh'' [مغداذ], or ''Maghdan'' [مغدان], the only phonetically definite segment of the name appears to be ''Aghda'' [ىَغْدَا], which could be equated with the pronunciation of the name Agade.<ref name=":25" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Le Strange |first=Guy |title=Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate from Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources |url=https://archive.org/details/BaghdadDuringTheAbbasidCaliphateFromContemporaryArabicAndPersian/page/n49/mode/2up |website=Internet Archive |pages=10–11}}</ref>

When the Abbasid caliph [[al-Mansur]] founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name "City of peace" ({{langx|ar|مدینة السلام|links=no|translit=Madīnat as-Salām}}), which now refers to the [[Round City of Baghdad]] proper. By the 11th century, ''Baghdad'' became almost the exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis.

Christophe Wall-Romana has suggested that al-Mansur's choice to found his "new city" at Baghdad because of its strategic location was the same criteria which influenced [[Sargon of Akkad|Sargon]]'s choice to found the original city of [[Akkad (city)|Akkad]] in the exact same location.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wall-Romana |first=Christophe |date=1990 |title=An Areal Location of Agade |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/546244 |journal=Journal of Near Eastern Studies |volume=49 |issue=3 |pages=234–238, 244–245 |doi=10.1086/373442 |jstor=546244 |s2cid=161165836 |issn=0022-2968}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Sallaberger |first=Walther |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/43521617 |title=Akkade-Zeit und Ur III-Zeit |date=1999 |publisher=Universitätsverlag |others=Aage Westenholz |isbn=978-3-7278-1210-1 |location=Freiburg, Schweiz |pages=32 |oclc=43521617}}</ref>