Where We Work ::: Iraq Heritage Program

SAMARRA SITE DESCRIPTION

Cultural Heritage Assessment

1. Physical Description

The city of Samarra is located on the east bank of the Tigris River nearly 80 miles north of Baghdad. The site itself stretches narrowly along the river for 22 miles (35 km.) by 3 miles (5 km). and encompasses an area roughly 57 km2. The river at this stretch is about 2-3 miles wide.

2. Historical Context

The pre-Islamic history of Samarra is slight as the site was a minor settlement. There is evidence of small late Neolithic, possibly Assyrian, and Sassanian settlements, the last of which continued and was incorporated within the Islamic city. The significance of Samarra is as a major Islamic urban conglomerate city. It was founded in 836 under the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Mu'tasim as a new capital city, a title formerly held at Baghdad. One of the reasons posited for this shift was that the 'Abbasid caliphs began to use Turkic troops with increasing frequency; a military strategy that was not favored by the people of Baghdad. Under the various successive caliphs Samarra was divided into separate quarters that grew and shifted in their central focus. The city as a capital lasted only until either 883 (47 years) or 896 (56 years) with the death of the caliph Mu'tamid. Al-Mu'tadid moved the capital back to Baghdad. By the tenth century, Samarra had lost its importance, as evidenced by its lack of prominence in medieval maps. A shift in the Tigris, noted as early as the 13th century, covered some of the palatial complexes immediately along the east bank. In its heyday in the mid ninth century, the population of Samarra would have been around 1 million, easily larger than any city in Europe would reach for quite some time. The city was formally called Surra Man Ra'a ("he who sees it is delighted") and subsequently shortened to Samarra, according to the Islamic historian Yaqut . Samarra was associated with Shi'a figures of some religious significance. The mausoleum of Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, the 10th and 11th Shi'a Imams (respectively) and the shrine of Muhammad al-Mahdi, the 'hidden Imam" or twelfth and final Imam made the site a major pilgrimage center for Shi'a Muslims.

3. Relevant Historical Themes

The archaeological potential of Samarra is incredibly vast. As a capital city of the 'Abbasid period occupied by about fifty years, the site offers a window into early medieval Islamic court life. Furthermore, as the Quickbird satellite images show, much of the city is still visible down to the scale of individual rooms. The site of Samarra is significant in that it has not been diminished due to loss in its condition or damage to its integrity. Neither has it been altered much. The nature of the segmented city, unique with respect to other archaeological sites, is such that new building within the city was usually done in a new area and did little to disturb the pre-existing palaces and other compounds. The context of Samarra remains virtually intact, as well. Only a very small portion of the city has been excavated; included are key buildings emblematic of Early Islamic architecture, the details of which will be discussed below. The modern (and medieval town) of Samarra has grown in the center of the site. The Shi'a connection with the burial places of the tenth and eleventh imams forges a strong connection with Samarra not only as the seat of the caliphate (and by extension the Muslim faith in Sunni orthodox tradition) but a pilgrimage site for Shi'a Muslims as well.

4. History of Excavation

Samarra was first excavated by Herzfeld and Sarre (Berlin) from 1911 - 1913, following this initial survey of 1903. Although the planning was extensive, the excavations were hurried, because of the imminence of World War I. Six final reports were published in 1923, and three more on the ceramics, wall paintings, and glass came out several years after. The final architectural volume was only published recently by Leisten. In 1948, a history of Samarra was published although 2 volumes on the architecture went missing. The Iraq government excavated from 1936-1939 and A. Sousa did a study of the irrigation systems. G.C. Miles, a numismatist, published an analysis of Samarra as the caliphate until 953. Robert McC. Adams and T.J. Wilkinson, more recently worked on the surrounding landscape, canal and irrigation systems. Most recently, Alistair Northedge, based on Herzfeld's materials and survey, aerial photography, and his own ground surveying from 1983-1989, has produced a volume of meticulously detailed maps of the site and all its buildings, encompassing a total of roughly 70 km of archaeological features still visible.

5. Previous/Current Use of the Site
The site of Samarra is of international, state and local significance. As arguably the largest archaeological site in Iraq, yielding much about its own Islamic heritage, Samarra is of prime importance. Its local significance stems mainly from its Shi'a associations and function as a pilgrimage site. To restate: Samarra is the sum of its parts. The significance of the site of Samarra is seen through the importance and uniqueness of its individual archaeological and architectural elements. Overall, the site is significant because it occupies a single period of history, the Early Islamic Period, as the capital of the 'Abbasid caliphate. Within that, its segmented nature of growth as a city creates politically and chronologically discrete windows of its various areas. It was an administrative center and military garrison, housing, perhaps for the first time, large non-Arab Turkic armies in many orthogonally planned barracks. Furthermore, the site's incredible preservation yields a vast amount of potential archaeological information. As such, the site's cultural heritage value and significance are "exceptional", the highest on a five point scale for possessing elements that are rare or outstanding and virtually unaltered.

Presently, the Medieval and modern city of Samarra occupies a small area amidst the larger Early Islamic site. The majority of the site is visible from air and satellite imagery and is relatively intact. Each year, however, urban development and sprawl, as well as, agricultural cultivation encroach on more of the site. As a tourist destination, Samarra has been one of the key sites in Iraq. Although most tourists climb the spiral minaret, they do not take full advantage of the site's monuments. Reconstruction of the main mosque, below the minaret, and parts of the jawsaq al-khaqani, and the Abu Dulaf mosque and the second, smaller spiral minaret at the northern end of the city, on the eastern bank, as well as the reconstructed palaces and tombs on the opposite bank of the Tigris, could engage visitors for a much longer time. Much more could be made of the race courses, which are visible from the air. Muslim pilgrims, visiting the Mosque of the 12th Imam, constitute another kind of potential tourist at the site. A complete system of British WWI trenches presents an opportunity for a special kind of tourist - the military historian or amateur. Finally, the adjacent Tharthar reservoir holds much potential for tourist development.

Samarra was a major tourist site from the 1920s onwards, and there was a small museum in addition to the Antiquities headquarters, but the museum has not been functioning for years. Because Samarra was an easy day-trrp from Baghdad, or could be viewed briefly by tourists going to Mosul, there was little justification for a local tourist hotel, but if the site were to be coordinated with the Tharthar lake resorts, tourists might spend more time in the area.

6. Cultural, Social, and Community Significance

Samarra is the sum of its parts. The cultural, social, and community significance of the site of Samarra is seen through the importance and uniqueness of its individual archaeological and architectural elements. Overall, the site is significant because it occupies a single period of history, the Early Islamic Period. Within that, its segmented nature of growth as a city creates politically and chronologically discrete windows on to its various areas. Furthermore, the site's incredible preservation yields a vast amount of potential archaeological information. Overall the site's criteria for significance are: 1) the site is important in the course or pattern of Mesopotamia's cultural/natural history as it has evidence of significant human activity and is associated with a specific historic phase; 2) the site has potential to yield archaeological/scientific information important to cultural/natural history as it is an important benchmark or reference site and provides evidence of past human cultures unavailable elsewhere; and 3) the site demonstrates important characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places as it is a fine example of its type and displays principal characteristics of Early Islamic architecture and urban planning, design, and technique.

The individual elements that comprise Samarra are as follows. These building complexes or areas are all strongly associated with a specific event, person, or group of people important to the cultural history of Samarra.

a. Qadisiya. In 796, before the founding of Samarra, a settlement was established by Harun al-Rashid and his sons in the southern portion of the site along the river. This was the complex of Qadisiya, a unique octagonal structure and the core of an intended urban center that was never built.

b. Jawsaq al-Khaqani. In 833. Mu'tasim established the caliphal palace (jawsaq al-khaqani) along with a barracks area for the Turkish troops. The palace, built on the river on the site of a monastery, was designed with columns and marble from Egypt and adorned with the gates of the Byzantine city of Amorium (in present day Turkey). The complex with large yards for horse exercises, three race courses that are unique in the Islamic world, subterranean complexes for hot weather, pools, and residential areas, was decorated with fine decorative designs of vegetation and geometric forms on stucco. Many of the buildings have been excavated and restored by the Iraq Directorate of Antiquities, and before them, by the German Samarra Expedition in 1913. The throne room was decorated with painted fresco, especially significant in that the preserved decoration shows Byzantine/Coptic influences combined with new forms and subjects in Early Islamic painting.   Furthermore, the adjacent barracks for Turkish troops is also a unique architectural feature in the archaeological record, attested historically, and incredibly significant as many view the inclusion of Turkish troops into the Muslim armies as a major turning point in Islamic history. The barracks provide material evidence for the pivotal moment when the centralized caliphal Early Islamic period collapsed and gave way to the fragmented decentralized Turkish influenced dynasties of the Middle Islamic period.

c. Mutawakkiliya. In 859, the Mutawakkiliya was built in the north in a previously unsettled area and was a new central focus to the city. A separate mosque (the Abu Dulaf mosque) with a spiral minaret copied from the Great Mosque, as well as markets, state offices, and Turkic barracks were all built in this new area. The new development was short-lived as al-Mutawakkil was murdered in 861 in his own palace and subsequently the population moved and the city was abandoned.

d. Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya. Around 875, the Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya was built on the west bank of the river. It is an octagonal domed structure. In the process of restoration by the Iraq Directorate of Antiquities in the 1970s, excavations revealed an open outer platform with four ramps leading up to the central ambulatory and dome. Three burials were found in the center. There are no inscriptions but graffiti with eschtalogical/funerary content. It was originally thought to be a mausoleum of the three caliphs al-Muntasir, al-Mu'tass, and al-Muhtadi based on textual sources that indicated they were buried together. Cresswell posits that it was the first Muslim funerary structure ever built.

The following building is strongly associated with a specific event, person, or group of people important to cultural history, and it is strongly associated with a community for social or spiritual reasons.

e. According to Shari'a religious history, the tenth Imam 'Ali al-Hadi (d. 868) and the eleventh Imam al-Hasan al-'Askari (d. 874) lived and were buried in a house adjacent to the mosque of al-Mu'tasim. The twelfth imam who went into occultation (the Hidden Imam) vanished in a nearby cleft in 874 and is commemorated by the Sardab al-Mahdi. A tomb/double shrine was erected in 944 by the Hamdanids and continuously renovated by the Buyids and others until the present. Today, the shrine's appearance is attributed to the most recent significant renovations by the Iranian Qajar ruler Nasir al-Din Shah in 1868-9. Adorned with a gold dome, it is known as the Tomb of the Two Imams, the Marqad al-Imamayn. Because of the shrine and its associations, Samarra has been a place of pilgrimage since the 10th century.

7. Aesthetic Significance
The aesthetic significance of Samarra can also be broken down into some of its elements. These features are standing architectural structures on the ground today. These elements show creative/technical achievement and/or uncommon, rare, or endangered aspects of the cultural history of Samarra.

a. Mosque of al-Mutawakkil. In 847, al-Mutawakkil enlarged the city significantly, making a continuous urban spread for 20 miles. The mosque was the largest of its time, rivaling even the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. The mosque's gigantic spiral minaret (al-malwiya) is peerless in the Islamic world. It consists of an external ramp and each turn takes a full circle as it ascends the tower. The only influences known might come from the site of Firuzabad, a Sassanian city in Iran with a central tower/fire temple in the city, and possibly a Chinese influence. It continued in use until the end of the 11th century.

b. Samarran bayt. The residences of Samarra have come to be known as a type around the Islamic Near East, the "Samarran bayt". This consists of three rooms (a large central iwan and two side chambers) looking onto a porch and a courtyard. The walls were all decorated with stucco, frescoes, cupboards, and niches, at times creating a horror vacui. Unfortunately very few were excavated by Herzfeld, and mainly accidentally due to the fact that the stucco began to appear just below the surface. One large group, orthogonally planned, is at al-Quraina, 750 meters SW of the modern city. These buildings add significantly to domestic architecture in the Islamic world, which is relatively unknown by allowing a glimpse into residential housing in Islamic times.

c. Balkuwara. In 849-889, the Balkuwara to the south near the Octagon was constructed as an urban complex in the form of a large square with broad streets and a symmetrical plan. The layout is part of a tradition of Early Islamic architecture seen in the 'desert palaces' such as Mshatta and Ukhaidir, that are based on Hippodamian classical city plans.

d. Qadisiya. See section 6.a
e. Jawsaq al-Khaqani. See section 6.b
f. Qubbat al-Sulaibiyya. See section 6.d

8. Potential for Future Research

The site of Samarra is significant in that it has not been diminished due to loss in its condition or damage to its integrity during the centuries. Neither has it been altered much. The nature of the segmented city, unique with respect to other archaeological sites, is such that new building within the city was usually done in a new area and did little to disturb the pre-existing palaces and other compounds. The context of Samarra remains virtually intact, as well. This high level of integrity combined with the significance of what has already been found indicates an exceptional potential for future research at Samarra. Research would be of a type that would be of enormous and unique value to archaeologists, historians, and art historians for decades.

9. Assessment of Integrity and Damage

In the 13th century, the course of the Tigris shifted towards the east and flooded parts of the city that were nearest the river. These included the eastern approach (Bab al-Ahma) to the palace of Mu'tasim, the Jawsaq al-Khaqani and the majority of buildings along a strip of the river plain just east of the course north and south of the palace. In the 1950's, a dam was built on the Tigris for the purposes of diverting the spring flood waters down the Wadi Tharthar and prevent flooding downstream in Baghdad. The subsequent lake that formed caused the farming communities on the flood plain to relocate to the higher steppe in the ruins of Samarra and enlarged the medieval/modern town of Samarra. Further damage to the Jawsaq al-Khaqani and other parts of the main area of the site were caused by British trenches excavated in WWI.

There are two significant threats to the archaeological sprawl that composes Samarra. First, increasing intensification of agricultural threatens to overtake large parts of the site. At present, the agricultural limits abut features such as numerous palace and the unique preserved racetrack lines. Second, settlement from the modern town has overtaken the earliest areas of occupation and continues to threaten the remains of the site. The expansion of the modern town, including industrial developments and modern roads have almost surrounded the Great Mosque of al-Mutawakkil and spread mainly to the south of the modern town obscuring much of the ruins there. In the 1970s, a agreement was made between the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage and municipal and state bodies, effectively surrendering some parts of the site while preserving others. It is not clear now if those guidelines are being kept in the post-2003 situation. Agriculture is being carried out, with modern machinery including deep plows, to the north, on the western margins of the city near the Nahrawan canal, south of the Mutawakkiliya, and just NW of the Jawsaq al-Khaqani along the river; to the west, covering most of the racecourses; and to the south, cutting a large swath of cultivated land just south of the furthest developments of the modern town of Samarra, and further south along the river in the pre-Islamic Sassasanian al-Matira district. The agriculture has obliterated many buildings visible in earlier aerial photography and satellite imagery.

At present, the current Iraq-US war and modern expansion and development pose two additional major threats to the site. The minaret of the Great Mosque of Mutawakkil (al-Malwiya) was damaged by missile fire on US troops who were using it as an observation post (The Art Newspaper, March 2005, p. 7). At present, the US military is constructing a large berm or temporary embankment around the modern city begun on or around September 19, 2005. The berm is created by bulldozing earth into a giant embankment and is now complete on the north and east sides of the city. It has already caused considerable damage, moving through the archaeological ruins just north of the palace of Sur Isa and cutting through the Cloverleaf Racecourse. (Harris, Lucian, The Art Newspaper, November 15, 2005). It is expected more damage will continue as the berm makes its way around the city. Similar berms built at Tell 'Afar and Mosul, have sparked military offensives. Professor Alistair Northedge is concerned that new military provocations, whether US or Iraqi insurgents, might threaten not only the archaeological site but the Shi'a tomb, the Marqad al-Imamayn.

The recognized international expert on the site is Dr. Alistair Northedge.

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