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The Abbasid Golden Age How Baghdad Became the Richest City in the World#financialhistorian#ytshorts




While much of the world was fragmented and poor, one city quietly became the richest on Earth.

In this episode of The Financial Historian, we explore the Abbasid Golden Age and the rise of Baghdad as the most powerful economic and intellectual hub of its time.

This is not a story about religion or legend — it’s a story about systems. How deliberate urban design, global trade networks, financial innovation, and investment in knowledge turned Baghdad into a magnet for wealth centuries before modern capitalism.

By understanding how this city was built — and why it eventually fractured — we uncover timeless lessons about money, power, and what real prosperity actually depends on.

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Key Facts & Insights

• Baghdad was founded in 762 CE as a purpose-built capital designed to manage trade, administration, and finance at scale.
• The Abbasid Caliphate connected Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Indian Ocean, creating one of history’s first truly global economies.
• Advanced financial tools — including credit, bills of exchange, and contract enforcement — allowed capital to move without physical gold.
• Wealth circulated through infrastructure, markets, and institutions instead of being locked into land or conquest alone.
• Knowledge was treated as an economic asset, with state-sponsored translation, research, and salaried scholars increasing productivity.
• Baghdad’s scale, specialization, and urban complexity surpassed any Western city of the same era.
• The city’s decline was structural: fragmentation of governance and coordination weakened the system before external shocks arrived.
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#FinancialHistory #EconomicHistory #AbbasidCaliphate #Baghdad #AncientEconomies #EconomicSystemsEconomicSystems #RealWealthRealWealth #FinancialHistorian #thefinancialhistorian

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Further Reading

• When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World by Hugh Kennedy — A clear, authoritative account of how the Abbasid system functioned politically, economically, and administratively at its peak.
• The House of Wisdom by Jim Al-Khalili — Explores how translation, science, and scholarship became engines of economic and institutional power in Abbasid Baghdad.
• Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance by George Saliba — A deeper look at how Abbasid-era knowledge systems shaped global development and later European economic growth.

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