Samarra

When the Tigris shifted eastward in the 12th and 13th centuries, the road between Baghdad and Mosul moved to the western bank and Samarra was left off the main route. What remained was the shrine, which later patrons such as the Jalayirid sultans and the Safavid shahs went on adorning. Centuries later the town found itself at the centre of events again. In 1733 Nader's Persian army, besieging Baghdad, met the Ottoman relief force of Topal Osman Pasha on the plain nearby, and after some nine hours of fighting the Persians withdrew, having lost about half their men and all their artillery. The siege of Baghdad was lifted, and it was the only pitched battle Nader ever lost.