Gadara, located some 120 km northwest of Amman (Photo courtesy of ACOR) AMMAN — The Abbasid presence at Gadara (modern Umm Qais) was mentioned in the works of Arab mediaeval geographers and scholars.

More than a millennium ago merchant-informants and officials at the service of the Abbasid caliph, from Baghdad or Basra, put to paper eyewitness accounts of North Europeans (Vikings), Indians ...

Courtyard of Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo, Egypt. It was built in AD876 during the Abbasid dynasty. Muhammad later moved to the city of Medina and built a mosque (Islamic place of worship).