This presentation has been created to give background information on 10th Century Baghdad and the story of Scheherazade. Please note, it has not been possible to find authentic pictures from the period from every slide and therefore some of the images are ones from other places and times. They have been used to give an impression, and should not be treated as historically accurate.

BAGHDAD C.900

Commissioned by Caliph Al-Mansur, the city was built in four years between 764-768 by over 100,000 engineers, surveyors, artists and construction workers from all over the known world

It was known as the round city.

Unlike Greek or Roman cities, which were designed as squares or rectangles

Within the city there were many parks, gardens, villas, and promenades.

In the centre of the city lay the mosque and the headquarters for city guards.

The city was surrounded by a 30m high wall - 44m thick at the bottom and 12m thick at the top - there were four gates.

Each gate had double doors that were made of iron; the doors were so heavy it took several men to open and close them.

There was a second wall, 50m thick, it had towers and rounded merlons. Beyond the outer wall was a water-filled moat.

Baghdad became a hub of learning and commerce. Scholars visited its great library, The House of Wisdom, from all over the world.

By 900, Baghdad was the biggest city in the world, with between 1.2 and 2 million inhabitants.

The House of Wisdom had hundreds of thousands of books.

But the greatest book of all was… ‘One Thousand and One Nights’.

1001 NIGHTS

This book was a collection of the finest tales in Arabia. Written over many hundreds of years they told wonderful stories of giants, and genies, princesses, and heroes, monsters and magic.

SCHEHERAZADE

But the greatest story of all the story of stories - was the one called Scheherazade.

SCHEHERAZADE

The story goes that Shahryar, the king, would marry a new girl from the city every day… and at the end of every night he would have his new wife beheaded.

SCHEHERAZADE

This was done in anger, having found out that his first wife had betrayed him. He did the same thing for 1,000 nights, until the daughter of one of his ministers, Scheherazade, volunteered to marry the king herself.

SCHEHERAZADE

Scheherazade had spent many, many days learning off by heart all the stories she could find.

So, when the king came to visit her she began to tell him one of her stories…

SCHEHERAZADE

She kept the story going all night and the King sat and listened in awe.

As the sun came up, and before the story was over, Scheherazade stopped. The King begged her to continue, but Scheherazade said it was late and she was too tired. If he wanted to hear the end of the story the King would have to keep her alive and come back the next night.

SCHEHERAZADE

In this way Scheherazade kept herself alive night after night knowing the King would never have her killed… so long as she had more stories to tell.