Sāmarrā is a city in Iraq. It stands on the east bank of the Tigris in the Salah ad-Din Governorate, 125 kilometers (78 mi) north of Baghdad and, in 2003, had an estimated population of 348,700. Medieval Islamic writers believed that the name “Samarra” is derived from the Arabic phrase “Sarra man ra’a”, which translates to “A joy for all who see”. Later when the city declined the name changed to “Sa’a man ra’a”, which translates to “A sadness for all who see”. Eventually the two names merged to its current form Samarra’. In 2007, UNESCO named Samarra one of its World Heritage Sites.
The capital of the Caliphate was moved from Baghdad to the new city of Samarra later that year by Caliph Al-Mu’tasim. During this time the original pre-Islamic settlement was replaced with a new city established in 833. Samara would remain the capital of the Muslim world until 892 when it was returned to Baghdad by al-Mu’tamid. Al-Mu’tasim’s successor, al-Wathiq, developed Samara into a commercial city, and it was further developed under Caliph al-Mutawakkil. The latter sponsored the construction of the Great Mosque of Samarra with its spiral minaret or malwiyah, built in 847. He also laid out parks and a palace for his son al-Mu’tazz.
The city is also home to the al-Askari Mosque, containing the mausoleums of the Ali al-Hadi and Hasan al-Askari, the tenth and eleventh Shia Imams, respectively, as well as the shrine of Muhammad al-Mahdi, known as the “”Hidden Imam””, who is the twelfth and final Imam of the Shia of the Ja’farī Madhhab. This has made it an important pilgrimage centre for Ja’farī Shia Muslims. In addition, Hakimah Khatun and Narjis Khatun, female relatives of the Prophet Mohammed and the Shia Imams, held in high esteem by Shia and Sunni Muslims, are buried there, making this mosque one of the most significant sites of worship for Shia and a venerated location for Sunni Muslims.
The metaphor of “”Having an appointment in Samarra””, signifying death, is a rare literary reference to a short story of unknown origin transcribed by W. Somerset Maugham. The story was titled ‘The Appointment in Samarra’, and subsequently formed the germ of the novel Appointment in Samarra by John O’Hara. The original story was re-told in verse by F. L. Lucas in his poem ‘The Destined Hour’ in From Many Times and Lands (1953).

HistoryEdit

The remains of ancient Samarra were first excavated between 1911 and 1914 by the German Archaeologist Ernst Herzfeld. Since 1946, the notebooks, letters, unpublished excavation reports and photographs have been in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. Though the present archaeological site covered by mudbrick ruins is vast, the site of Samarra was only lightly occupied in ancient times, apart from the Chalcolithic Samarran Culture (ca 5500–4800 BC) identified at the rich site of Tell Sawwan, where evidence of irrigation—including flax— establishes the presence of a prosperous settled culture with a highly organized social structure.

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