Samarra in Arabic Writings

Samarra’, the center of Salahuddin province, is a religious city of Iraq in which Imam Hadi (a.s) and Imam Hasan Askari (a.s) have been entombed. This city had great population and importance in the era of Abbasid Caliphate while it had been considered politically as the capital city of Abbasid government. Due to the presence of the shrine of Imamayn Askariyain (a.s) and the Sardab e Ghaybat (cellar of disappearance), great incidents have been occurred in this city throughout the history whereas this city was always the hub of attention of Muslim scholars due to the graves, life and teaching places of the great Maraje’-e-Taqleed in this city, like Mirza Sherazi; who gave the Fatwa of forbiddance of tobacco and who was the father of public uprising in 1920 against the colonialism of England and due to the geographical presence of Samarra` however from past to now, there are important information present in the Islamic writings especially in Arabic texts about this city which can be the guide for researchers.
This article has grouped the Arabic texts which are written about Samarra’ or which contain some kind of information about this city in four sections; the history books, journals, geography books and the travelogues, whereas it presents this along with important matters from some of these texts to the researchers.