Phyllis Allen, age 11, of Brownsville, Tex., for her question:
WHERE IS BAGHDAD?
Baghdad is one of the largest cities of the Middle East. It is the capital of Iraq and it lies on both banks of the Tigris River, about 335 miles northwest of the Persian Gulf.
People have lived in what is now the Baghdad area since about 4000 B.C. This area was part of ancient Babylonia. From the 500s B.C. until the A.D. 600s, the area was controlled by the Persians, Greeks and finally the Romans.
Baghdad was a small village in 752 when Abu Jafur al Mansur established the headquarters of the Arab empire nearby. A1 Mansur was the political and religious leader of the empire which extended from western North Africa to western China. In about 50 years, by 800, Baghdad had more than a million people and was a world center of education.
From the 800s to the 1200s, the empire gradually lost pcwer and wealth. In 1258, Mongols from Central Asia ended the empire and almost destroyed Baghdad.
Mongols, Persians or Turks controlled Baghdad until 1638 when the city became part of the Ottoman Empire. Wars, fires and floods repeatedly damaged Baghdad and by 1700 it had a population of only about 15,000 people.
During World War I British troops captured what is now Iraq from the Ottoman Turks. The British helped establish a petroleum industry in the area and in 1932, Iraq became an independent nation with Baghdad as its capital.
Today Baghdad has a population that is getting close to 2 million. It is a center of culture, manufacturing, trade and transportation. The city covers about 105 square miles on a fertile plain that is Iraq’s agricultural heartland. In 1900 the city was only about five square miles. This area now forms the central part of the big city.
Most of the people in Baghdad today are Muslim Arabs. Jews, Christian Arabs and Muslim Iranians and Kurds make up minority groups in the city.
Many of Baghdad’s people share houses with at least three generations of their family. Thousands of the poorest people live in public housing projects on the outskirts of the city.
But there are many fine residential areas in Baghdad where the wealthy and middle income families have brick homes that are surrounded by gardens and high walls.
The Iraqi government is Baghdad’s leading employer. The government administers both the nation’s political affairs and also owns the country’s chief industries.
About 70 percent of the nation’s industrial workers live in Baghdad.
Petroleum refining ranks as Baghdad’s chief industrial activity. Other products of the city include cement and textiles. Construction and trade also provide many jobs.
Baghdad is the home of the University of Baghdad and al Hikman and al Mustansariyah universities. The Iraq Museum in the city has many important treasures that date from prehistoric times to the 1600s.