| All traces of this mosque have disappeared. However, descriptions of the mosque exist. In 754, al-Mansur became the Abbasid Caliph, succeeding his brother Saffah as ruler. By 762 he commissioned the construction of a new eastern capital, choosing Baghdad as his site. The new circular city was designed with ash drawings onto the ground for al-Mansur to view prior to construction, which began that same year. By its completion in 767 the Round City measured 2000 meters in diameter. It featured four main gates equally distant from each other: the southwest gate was the Kufa Gate; the southeast was Basra; the Khurasan Gate extended to the northeast and the Damascus Gate to the northwest. The walls were constructed out of mud brick with reed supports, while the domes and vaults were composed of baked brick. The main mosque of the city (see diagram above) was about 100 meters by 200 meters with columns used to support the ceiling around the edges of the mosque. There was no mihrab, so one wall was used as the qibla wall. This mosque clearly pointed to Mecca as did all Abbasid mosques from now on. |
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