Baghdad | |
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State | Baghdad Governorate |
Country | Iraq |
Capital | |
Population | 7216040 |
Baghdad (; Arabic: بَغْدَاد [baɣˈdaːd] (listen)) is the capital of Iraq and one of the largest cities in the Arab world. Located along the Tigris, near the ruins of the Akkadian city of Babylon and the ancient Iranian capital of Ctesiphon, Baghdad was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center of the Muslim world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom, as well as hosting a multiethnic and multireligious environment, garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Centre of Learning".
Baghdad 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. 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.
Casablanca | |
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State | |
Country | |
Capital | |
Population | 0 |
Casablanca (Arabic: الدار البيضاء, romanized: ad-dār al-bayḍāʾ; Berber languages: ⴰⵏⴼⴰ, romanized: anfa) is the largest city of Morocco. Located in the central-western part of Morocco bordering the Atlantic Ocean, it is the largest city in the Maghreb region and the eighth-largest in the Arab world. Casablanca is Morocco's chief port and one of the largest financial centers in Africa. According to the 2019 population estimate, the city has a population of about 3.71 million in the urban area and over 4.27 million in the Greater Casablanca. Casablanca is considered the economic and business center of Morocco, although the national political capital is Rabat.