Al-Mada'in city

Al-Mada'in, ‘the cities’ the Arabic translation of the Aramaic Mahoze or Madinatha referring to the Sasanid metropolis on the Tigris about 20 miles southeast of Baghdad where several adjacent cities connected by a floating bridge stretched along both banks of the river.

It had once been the capital of the Persian Empire. It was five settlements that in the tenth century existed amid the ruins of the former town capitals of Persia, Ctesiphon and Seleucia. Actually, the city was a complex of seven cities.

Seleucia was probably an ancient site modernized by Seleucus, Alexander’s general, is situated on the western side of the river Tigris.

Ctesiphon was most probably a Parthian foundation, becoming their capital when the conquered the Seleucids in 129 BC.

On the west bank stood the round, walled city of Veh-Ardashir founded by Ardashir I in 230 AD and called Behrasir by the Arabs Mahoza by Jews and Kokhe buy Christians.

Mahoza, as is well known, was an important center of Babylonian Jews in the Persian period, as shown by many Talmudic sources.
Al-Mada'in city