Baghdad
Bab al-Talism, first called Bab al-Halba, was one of the gates of the wall that the Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir began around eastern Baghdad, completed in…
Bab al-Talism, first called Bab al-Halba, was one of the gates of the wall that the Abbasid caliph al-Mustazhir began around eastern Baghdad, completed in 1123. The caliph al-Nasir li-Din Allah rebuilt it in 1221 with a great tower and an inscription, above a famous relief of a seated figure holding two dragons, from which it later took the name Talisman Gate. The gate stood for almost eight centuries until the departing Ottoman garrison blew it up on 11 March 1917. Its remains survive beside the Muhammad al-Qasim highway in Rusafa, and together with Bab al-Wastani, a short way to the north, they are all that is left of the gates of Abbasid Baghdad.