The Archaeological Atlas of Samarra sets out to map and catalogue the site and buildings of the Abbasid capital at Samarra in the period 836 to 892 AD, preserved as they were until the middle years of the 20th century. Site maps and catalogues are provided of all the approximately 5819 building and site units identified. This is the first time that it has been possible to catalogue nearly all the buildings of one of the world’s largest ancient cities, from the caliph palaces to the smallest hovels.

Alastair Northedge is Professor of Islamic Art and Archaeology at Université de Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne). He has worked in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and conducted projects at Amman in Jordan, Ana in Iraq, and Misriyan in Turkmenistan, in addition to Samarra. He is the author of Studies on Roman and Islamic Amman, and joint author of Excavations at Ana.

Dr Derek Kennet is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at Durham University where he has been since 1998. His research area includes the later pre-Islamic to Islamic periods of Iraq, the Gulf and the western Indian Ocean. He has conducted fieldwork in Iran, India, Kuwait, the UAE and Oman.

Published by: The British Institute for the Study of Iraq with support from the Fondation Max van Berchem