Baghdad is overdeveloped!

[Atlantians]

Baghdad was utterly devastated by Hulegu Khan in 1258 and again sacked in 1401 by Tamerlane.

This left Baghdad a shattered and depopulated wreck.

In 1258, Baghdad went from between 1.5 million and 2 million inhabitants (huge even by today's standards) to less than 150,000.

Spoiler

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad

"On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu, a grandson of Chingiz Khan (Genghis Khan), during the siege of Baghdad.[46] Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting. The Mongols massacred most of the city's inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim, and destroyed large sections of the city. The canals and dykes forming the city's irrigation system were also destroyed. The sack of Baghdad put an end to the Abbasid Caliphate, a blow from which the Islamic civilization never fully recovered.

At this point, Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate, a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, ruling from Iran. In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur ("Tamerlane").[47] When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his soldiers bring back two severed human heads.[48] It became a provincial capital controlled by the Mongol Jalayirid (1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–1469), Turkic Ak Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties."

Baghdad and the surrounding area needs a serious development reduction and should not be considered farmland but maybe drylands.

 

[birincikalite]

It's there to represent it's future development because you can find many more provinces like that.

 

[Chamboozer]

I forget what Baghdad's values were, but I also remember thinking they were a bit too high. Significantly, after the establishment of the Il-khans in Iran, Baghdad ceased to be a major center of inter-regional trade as the east-west routes shifted north to Tabriz and Trebizond. Basra should be a bit richer to compensate.

 

[n00bypl4y3r]

I don't know, even today the region is fairly green. I think it's fine as farmlands.

I'm not entirely sure about development levels though.

 

[Trin Tragula]

Even if the area as a whole was a shadow of its former self the stats aren't that fantastic IMO.
Development is more than just the capital city and the Baghdad province houses more than just Baghdad (and even so "less than 150 000" is still likely more than the vast majority of the cities in the world in 1444, even if its not top 10).
In general unless the province is really tiny you can expect development to cover more than just urban population (and for some very recently sacked places that would often recover quickly such as Delhi development is tilted a bit to the higher side to account for that). Terrain in the game is also something considered much more stable than something that would change because a place was sacked.

 

[Chamboozer]

Even if the area as a whole was a shadow of its former self the stats aren't that fantastic.
Development is more than just the capital city and the Baghdad province houses more than just Baghdad (and even so "less than 150 000" is still likely more than the vast majority of the cities in the world in 1444, even if its not top 10 anymore).
In general unless the province is really tiny you can expect development to cover more than just urban population (and for some very recently sacked places that would often recover quickly such as Delhi development is tilted a bit to the higher side to account for that). Terrain in the game is also something considered much more stable than something that would change because a place was sacked.

Lower Iraq is rather unique though. Its fields were watered by irregular flooding from the Tigris and Euphrates which required sophisticated irrigation systems to properly take advantage of. In Sassanian and Abbasid times these were maintained through a great deal of state investment, creating the famous Sawad which was the source of Abbasid wealth. In the chaos following the Mongol conquest, Il-khanid collapse, and Timurid invasion, this sophisticated irrigation system is generally though of as having decayed away. It's thus not the sort of wealth which could restore itself naturally over time. Add to that the fact that the lively inter-regional trade which had contributed to Baghdad's revenues shifted away in the centuries after the Mongol conquest, and the province can be said to have been in quite a sorry state. By the time the Ottomans took it over, it was little more than a provincial center and was looked upon as a relatively unimportant region during the centuries of Ottoman rule.

I forget what the values were, but I'd say that it certainly shouldn't be rich. Definitely less than Aleppo and Damascus.