A 17th-century Circassian Village in the Shape of al-Mansur’s Bagdad

A drawing made by the French traveller Jean Baptiste Tavernier during his journey in the Levant in 1632 illustrates a round Circassian village that, in terms of its shape as well as other important devices, shows features already recognisable in the presumed plan of the 9th-century Baġdād. Although the size and functions of the two sites are so different a sort of continuity of a model can be observed, also probably under the weight of magic and religious rituals.