Question

Which best describes the reason the Abbasid dynasty decided to build the city of Baghdad in its present location?
a.The area was strategically chosen to benefit the most from international commerce.

b. The area was of specific religious importance to Muslims at that time.

c.The loss of Spain forced Muslims to find a location far from Europe and possible conflict.

d.The site was chosen in an effort to curry favor with Muslim clerics.

Answer 1

The answer here that makes the most sense would probably be (A). Under the Abbasids, Baghdad became a linchpin between East and West. Its location on the Tigris river and along the major trading routes made it a wealthy city in both commerce and the exchange of cultures and information.

The other answers are a little shaky - (B) wasn't true because a religious reason was not why the capital was moved to Baghdad. The loss of Spain to the Umayyad dynasty wasn't an answer, either, so (C) doesn't make much sense especially when it was the Abbasids that overthrew the Umayyads in the first place. (D) was also not much of a reason as it wasn't so much done to curry favor from Muslim clerics, but to make it seem that the new empire was not ruled only by Arab peoples. By the time the Abbasids came to power, a huge number of non-Arabs converted to Islam, so the move from Damascus to Baghdad can also be seen as a political one.