Sāmarrā (سامراء) is a town of Iraq. It is located on bank is Tigre in the province of Salah AD DIN, to 125 km in the north of Baghdad and, in 2002, its population counted 201.700 inhabitants.

Sāmarrā was formerly one of the more big cities of Mésopotamie. The city pre ic Islam was replaced by a new city in 833 by the Abbasid caliph Al-Mutasim. It becomes then the capital of the world Musulman. During the reign of its successor Al-Wathiq and more under that of the caliph Al-Mutawakkil, Sāmarrā is transformed into a commercial city. This last was guaranteeing construction of the Grande Mosque of Sāmarrā in 847 with its Minaret in spiral, single in its kind. It also designs parks and a palate for his son Al-Driven `tazz. Under the reign of Al-Driven `tazz, the Abbasid capital is replaced by Baghdad and Sāmarrā then knows a prolonged decline, which accelerates after the 13th century when the course of the Tiger changes.

In 944 was built the Mosquée of Gold, another name of the mausoleum of Ali Al-Hadi and Hassan Al-Askari, respectively the tenth and the eleventh Shiite Imams, just like the mounting of Muhammad Al-Mahdi, known as the “hidden Imam”, which was it twelfth and last Shiite Imam. Of this Sāmarrā fact became an important place of pilgrimage for the Shiite Moslems.

During the 20th century, Sāmarrā gains in importance when a lake is created close to the city thanks to a stopping on the river which is built with an aim of putting an end to the frequent floods of Baghdad. Many inhabitants were moved during the construction of the stopping, which strongly increased the population of Sāmarrā.

Following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Sāmarrā becomes the object of many attacks between communities sunnites and Shiites. The dome of the Gold Mosque is destroyed by a first attack on February 22nd, 2006, and another attack strikes its two minarets on June 13rd, 2007.

Simple: Samarra