This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad


00:02:34 1 Etymology
00:05:21 2 History
00:05:30 2.1 Foundation
00:10:59 2.2 Surrounding walls
00:12:22 2.2.1 Golden Gate Palace
00:13:53 2.2.2 Abbasids and the round city
00:15:07 2.3 Center of learning (8th to 13th centuries)
00:18:29 2.3.1 End of the Abbasids in Baghdad
00:24:39 2.4 Ottoman era (16th to 19th centuries)
00:26:16 2.5 20th and 21st centuries
00:30:29 3 Main sights
00:31:10 3.1 Mutanabbi Street
00:31:55 3.2 Baghdad Zoo
00:32:59 3.3 Grand Festivities Square
00:33:31 3.4 Al-Shaheed Monument
00:34:35 3.5 Qushla
00:35:40 3.6 Masjid of the Kadhimain
00:36:21 3.7 Masjid of Abu Hanifah
00:36:55 3.8 Firdos Square
00:37:34 4 Administrative divisions
00:42:38 5 Geography
00:43:18 5.1 Climate
00:45:58 6 Demographics
00:47:47 7 Economy
00:48:25 7.1 Reconstruction efforts
00:51:07 7.2 Retail
00:51:30 7.3 Housing
00:52:11 7.4 Education
00:53:06 7.5 Universities
00:53:35 8 Culture
00:54:57 8.1 Institutions
00:57:07 8.2 Destruction of cultural heritage
00:57:40 9 Sport
00:58:40 10 Major streets
01:00:58 11 Twin towns/Sister cities
01:01:15 12 See also



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SUMMARY
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Baghdad (; Arabic: بغداد‎ [baɣˈdaːd] (listen)) is the capital of Iraq. The population of Baghdad, as of 2016, is approximately 8,765,000, making it the largest city in Iraq, the second largest city in the Arab world (after Cairo, Egypt), and the second largest city in Western Asia (after Tehran, Iran).
Located along the Tigris River, the city was founded in the 8th century and became the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate. Within a short time of its inception, Baghdad evolved into a significant cultural, commercial, and intellectual center for the Islamic world. This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions (e.g., House of Wisdom), garnered the city a worldwide reputation as the "Centre of Learning".
Baghdad was the largest city of the Middle Ages for much of the Abbasid era, 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. With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state (formerly the British Mandate of Mesopotamia) in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arab culture.
In contemporary times, the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and the subsequent Iraq War that lasted until December 2011. In recent years, the city has been frequently subjected to insurgency attacks. The war had resulted in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts as well. As of 2012, Baghdad was listed as one of the least hospitable places in the world to live, and was ranked by Mercer as the worst of 221 major cities as measured by quality-of-life.