Sāmarrāʾ

Sāmarrāʾ, town, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn muḥāfaẓah (governorate), central Iraq. Located on the Tigris River, it is the site of a prehistoric settlement of the 5th millennium bce. The town was founded between the 3rd and 7th centuries ce. In 836, when the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim was pressured to leave Baghdad, he made Sāmarrāʾ his new capital. He built a palace and gardens, and, under his successors, the town grew until it stretched along the Tigris for 20 miles (32 km). In 892 the caliph al-Muʿtamid transferred the capital back to Baghdad, causing the subsequent decline of Sāmarrāʾ. By 1300 most of the town was in ruins; it has since revived.

Sāmarrāʾ is a pilgrimage center for Shiʿi Muslims. The shrine to ʿAli al-Ḥādī and Ḥasan al-ʿAskarī, the 11th and 12th imams, is one of the holiest of Twelver Shiʿism. It was built in the 9th century, when Sāmarrāʾ was the seat of the Abbasid caliphate, and underwent a number of renovations, including the addition of a gilded dome in 1905 (which lent it the appellation “the Golden Mosque”). The Great Mosque of Sāmarrāʾ and the nearby Abū Dulaf mosque, both now in ruins, were also built in the 9th century. Al-Malwiyyah, a spiral minaret that is a major tourist attraction, was slightly damaged in a 2005 bombing. In 2006, amid violence between Shiʿi and Sunni Muslims, the Golden Mosque was bombed and suffered extensive damage. In 2007 the archaeological remains in Sāmarrāʾ were designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Pop. (2004 est.) 214,100.