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The courtyard pattern has been advocated to be thermally efficient for the hot-arid climatic zone. This paper investigates one of its environmental strategies: shading. By taking Baghdad as a case study, it presents an experimental study, using LightUp Analytics simulation tool, to determine the impact of courtyard geometry and orientation on its shading. The results showed that they significantly affect the shading level. The most effective parameter is the ratio of courtyard width to height. Depending on the results, this paper suggests a regression equation that can predict the shading level of different courtyard forms throughout the year in Baghdad. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.