

The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed. However, terrorist attacks are rare and have been declining since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq in 2017. During this period, Baghdad had one of the highest rates of terrorist attacks in the world. The city has faced severe infrastructural damage due to the Iraq War, which began with the United States-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and lasted until 2011, and the subsequent insurgency and renewed war that lasted until 2017, resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts. Compared to its large population, it has a small area at just 673 square kilometers (260 sq mi). With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1932, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture, with a population variously estimated at 6 or over 7 million. The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as a multiethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning".īaghdad was the largest city in the world for much of the Abbasid era during the Islamic Golden Age, peaking at a population of more than a million. Within a short time, the city evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. In 762 CE, Baghdad was chosen as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, and became its most notable major development project. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon.


info), Kurdish: بەغدا) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo.
