The city of Samarra’ in Iraq, about 125 miles upriver from Baghdad, was founded in 836 A.D. by the caliph al-Mu^ctasim (r. 836–42) to accommodate his unruly Turkic soldiers, who had made life impossible in the capital city of Baghdad. Samarra’ was the second and temporary capital of the ^cAbbasid caliphs until near the end of the ninth century.

These doors illustrate one variety of the so-called beveled style—a symmetrical abstract floral motif—and were probably originally painted and highlighted with gilding. The doors are said to have been found at Takrit, but probably came from Samarra’.

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