Samarra
pronunciation
How to pronounce Samarra in British English:
UK 
How to pronounce Samarra in American English:
US
Word Origin
- Samarra
- city in north-central Iraq; phrase an appointment in Samarra indicating the inevitability of death is from an old Arabic tale (first in English apparently in W. Somerset Maugham's play "Sheppey," 1933), in which a man encounters Death (with a surprised look on his bony face) one day in the marketplace in Baghdad; he flees in terror and by dusk has reached Samarra. Death takes him there, and, when questioned, replies, "I was astonished to see him in Baghdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra."
Example
- 1. After samarra , shia restraint fell away .
- 2. Samarra is located about 110 km north of baghdad , is iraq 's sunni muslim majority religious holy city .
- 3. In the process of clearing buildings , iraqi national guardsmen reportedly arrested 25 insurgents inside a mosque in samarra .
- 4. Police said a suicide bomber drove a car containing a bomb , stormed samarra earlier this month moved to a building emergency response teams and bomb detonated .
- 5. Local residents visit the spiral minaret of the great mosque of samarra , 100 km ( 62 miles ) north of baghdad .