The Faculty of Archeology holds an international scientific seminar

Under the supervision and direction of the respected Dean Prof. Dr. Abed Barak Al-Ansari, the Department of Islamic Archeology held the international scientific seminar on Tuesday 1-9-2020 by Dr. Alastair Northridge, the first professor at the University of Paris in France, and the seminar was under the name: (Sports In the Abbasid Samarra, “Horse Racing and Polo”), at exactly nine o’clock in the evening, the seminar was attended by many faculty from different universities.
This seminar aimed to highlight the types of sports activities in the Abbasid era.
The seminar dealt with seven aspects. The first aspect dealt with sports in Samarra during the Abbasid era, while the second aspect dealt with horse racing, while the third aspect was devoted to studying horse racing circuits (names, places, and locations), while the fourth aspect dealt with historical evidence of the interest of the caliphs In the Umayyad and Abbasid era in horse racing, while the fifth aspect was devoted to clarifying the winning horses and their names, while the sixth aspect dealt with the sport of ball and pole, while the seventh aspect dealt with the researcher in the zoo (Al-Hir) and the seminar included a detailed explanation of the locations of the race tracks and a presentation supported by pictures.
Ancient sports in Samarra. There were three types of sport practiced in Samarra during the caliphate era:
1. Horse racing.
2. Polo and Shujan in Persian.
3. Fishing in designated reserves called Hayr.
4. Wrestling, but we have very little archaeological evidence for that.

Guide horse racing is four tracks, the oldest of which in the North is probably the oldest.
Race numbered number 4
Racetrack 4

From aerial photography, it can be seen that there is a second lane similar to the one that roughly parallels the Grand Avenue in El Mutawakkiliya. This track is 104 m. It is wide and marked like previous courses by low ridges on either side. Its southern end is on the northern side of the Murray River, which is a Rasasi flood drain that marks the southern boundary of the northern Kharab Field. For a distance of 2340 m, the mainline runs parallel to the Turkish Camps Road, but it is covered by its buildings. The main network of Camp Al-Karkh is located to the west of the path. Then there is an area in which the path is located, which is only lightly constructed, and then the street network resumes east.
The path curves to the west roughly parallel to, but gently converges with the northern section of the Grand Avenue for a distance of 4,080 m; Then it turns a slight eastward bend of 1,200 meters, much of which is untraceable. Other remains can be traced back to the north for a distance of 2,160 m. To a site of about 900 AD. East Abu Delf Mosque, once again gently converging with Grand Avenue. The trackable length is 9,780 m, but this was not necessarily the original length of the track.
The continuous extension of the al-Karkh assembly is the most plausible explanation for why the path is located at its southern end in a space within the camp, which is the space that was subsequently constructed.
These relationships provide evidence that this path was established after the beginning of the construction of the Turkish camps in 221/836, but before the construction of the Mutawakkilites in the year 245/859, before that time it was abandoned.
Racing tracks near the House of Caliphate
The first course: Tal Al-Allaq course
The first racecourse is divided into three components: (1) a track in the form of a canopy, (2) the artificial alaq hill, and (3) a triangular fence built on the north of the school.
(1) The stadium: On the southern side of Tell Al-Allaq, a walled path runs and returns inward an open umbrella-like shape in a southern direction parallel to the urban area in the Abbasid city. The track is 80 m. It is broad and features low hills that are remnants of the low walls of the raft. Originally, these walls could not be more than one meter high and may have been lower. It wouldn’t have been easy to see any race if the wall had been higher. 1 The track stretches 4,950m. To the south. The curve in the south end is located to the east of the medieval city; The western part of the curve and the southern part of the straight west have completely disappeared.
If one reconstructs the disappeared section as symmetric and takes the midline as the basis for measurement, the total length is approximately 10,577 m (2) Tal Al-Alaq: Tel Al-Alaq (translated by Provender Hill) is a prominent artificial mound, conical in shape, standing 21.6 m. Over the surrounding plain, with a flat top of 32 m. Next to. In 1913 Herzfeld excavated a marquee at the top of the hill and found remains of stucco and wall paintings. However, there are no remains of excavated structures that can be seen at the summit today. At the base, there is around the moat, which today ranges from 25 to 40 meters. Wide and 8 m. deep. It seems likely that the circular space was simply intended to keep the crowd in place at some distance from the caliph seated in his hilltop wing.