Baghdad is the capital of Iraq and with an estimated population between 7 and 7.5 million, the largest city in Iraq and the second largest city in the Arab World (after Cairo, Egypt).

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 housing several key academic institutions (e.g. House of Wisdom). Throughout the High Middle Ages, Baghdad was considered to be the largest city in the world. After a Mongol invasion in 1258, the city entered a long period of decline due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires.

With the recognition of Iraq as an independent state in 1938, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as a significant center of Arabic culture. In contemporary times the city has often faced severe infrastructural damage, most recently due to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent state of war that lasted until 2010.