Baghdad During the Abbasid Caliphate was first published in 1900 and is, according to the author, the first attempt at a complete history and topographic outline of the city of Baghdad during the reign of the Abbasids, who ruled from 750 to 1258 A.D. In addition to including a chronological timetable, this work contains the history of the foundation of Baghdad, the building of the canals, gates, roads, trenches, quarters, and palaces (all in great detail), and descriptions of the early, middle, and late periods of the Abbasid Caliphate. This work is ideal for scholars of ancient world and Middle East history, especially those interested in early studies of Islam.GUY LE STRANGE (1854-1933) was born in Hunstanton, Norfolk, England, as the youngest son of Henry L'Estrange Styleman. He studied Arabic and Persian at the College de France in Paris, after which he spent many years traveling and living abroad in Persia, Florence, and Palestine. He settled in Cambridge in 1907, where he contributed to The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, of which he was a member until his death. Le Strange was the editor and translator of several well-known books on the Middle East and Islam, establishing him as one of the most recognized historical geographers of medieval Islam to write in English.