Page 37 - A History of the World in 25 Cities

Children in Golden Age Baghdad got a good education. Well, half of them did, at least. Boys were taught to a higher standard than girls, because it was expected that girls would stay at home doing domestic work when they were grown up. Most boys went to school at their local mosque, but if you had very rich parents, they might hire a private tutor to teach you at home. Pupils wrote in Arabic with ink made from soot.
The River Tigris gave the people of Baghdad access to lots of fresh water. Water wasn’t only needed for drinking. It was also very important in growing food. The city’s engineers built high-banked canals to carry water from the river to where the crops were grown in the fertile soil of the floodplain. The canals could act as defences too, making the city harder to invade. River water was also channelled into the city’s flower gardens, where it flowed through fountains and beautiful pools.
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If you lived in Baghdad during the Golden Age, you probably had a pretty good diet. Advances in water management and farming meant that more
food could be grown easily in and around the city. Residents enjoyed dried dates, honey, milk, figs, grapes, bread, and meat from sheep and goats. Food
was also imported from faraway places, such as spices from India and fruits from Africa.
Population of Population of 7 Baghdad in the 800s: Baghdad today:
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