G. Le Strange 
Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate [PDF ebook] 
From Contemporary Arabic and Persian Sources

The history of Baghdad as a metropolis coincides with the history of the rise and fall of the Abbasid Caliphs. In this volume, first published in 1900 and written by a recognized authority in the field, the history of the city and of the Abbasid dynasty are closely interwoven so that, from a scholarly blending of contemporary records and discursive narrative, an accurate picture emerges of the state and society within the capital of the Muslim world during the period from the eighth to the thirteenth centuries.