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samarra

 - 3 dictionary results

Sa⋅mar⋅ra

  [suh-mahr-uh]
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–noun
a town in central Iraq, on the Tigris: seat of the early Abassid caliphs.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Sa·mar·ra   (sə-mär'ə)   
A city of north-central Iraq on the Tigris River north-northwest of Baghdad. It was the capital of the Arabic Abbassid dynasty in the ninth century and is today a pilgrimage center for Shiite Muslims. Population: 158,000.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

Samarra 
city in north-central Iraq; phrase an appointment in Samarra indicating the inevitability of death is from an old Arabic tale (first in Eng. apparently in W. Somerset Maugham's play "Sheppey," 1933), in which a man meets Death one day in the marketplace in Baghdad and flees him to Samarra. When questioned, Death replies, "I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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