Everything about The House Of Wisdom totally explained
The
House of Wisdom (
Arabic:
بيت الحكمة;
Bait al-Hikma) was a library and translation institute in
Abbassid-era
Baghdad,
Iraq. It is considered to have been a major intellectual center of the
Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom acted as a society founded by Abbasid Caliphs Harun al-Rashid and his son al-Ma'mun who reigned from 813-833 CE. Based in Baghdad from the 9th to 13th centuries, many of the most learned Muslim scholars were part of this excellent research and educational institute. In the reign of al-Ma'mun, observatories were set up under, and The House was an unrivalled centre for the study of humanities and for sciences, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry, zoology and geography.Drawing on Persian, Indian and Greek texts - Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, Pythagoras and others - the scholars accumulated a great collection of knowledge in the world, and built on it through their own discoveries.
Baghdad was known as the world's richest city and centre for intellectual development of the time, and was second in size only to Constantinople. The great scholars of the House of Wisdom included Al-Khawarizmi, the "father" of algebra, which takes its name from his book "Kitab al-Jabr"
Origins
In the
Abbasid Empire, scholars translated many foreign works into
Arabic and
Persian , built large libraries, and welcomed scholars persecuted by the
Byzantine Empire . There was also an imperial library in
Ctesiphon (now
Al-Mada'in), and works were also translated at the
Academy of Gundishapur, during the
Islamic conquest of Persia.
In
750, the
Abbasid dynasty replaced the
Umayyad dynasty as head of the Islamic empire, and in
762, the caliph
al-Mansur (reigned 754 - 775) built Baghdad and made it his capital (the previous capital being
Damascus). The Abbasid dynasty had a strong Persian bent, and adopted many practices from the Sassanid empire - among those, that of translating foreign works, except that now works were translated into
Arabic. For this purpose, al-Mansur founded a palace library, modeled after the Sassanid Imperial Library.
The House of Wisdom was originally concerned with translating and preserving Persian works, first from
Pahlavi (Middle Persian), then from
Syriac and eventually
Greek.
Works on
astrology,
mathematics,
agriculture,
medicine, and
philosophy were thus translated.
The
Barmakids were influential in the ensuing movement of restoring and preserving Persian culture. They are also credited with the founding of the first
paper mill in Baghdad. The secret of
papermaking had been obtained from Chinese prisoners taken at the
Battle of Talas (751). Previously, copyists would used
papyrus (which is fragile) or
parchment (which is expensive). The introduction of paper thus facilitated the multiplication of books and libraries.
The concept of the
library catalog was also introduced in the House of Wisdom and other medieval Islamic libraries, where books were organized into specific
genres and categories.
Under Al-Ma'mun
Under the sponsorship of caliph
al-Ma'mun (reigned 813 - 833), it seems that the House of Wisdom took on new functions related to mathematics and astrology. The focus also shifted from Persian to Greek science.
At that time, the library was directed by the poet and astrologer
Sahl ibn-Harun (d. 830); the other scholars associated with the library are
Mohammed ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (780 - 850), the
Banu Musa brothers (
Mohammed Jafar ibn Musa,
Ahmad ibn Musa, and
al-Hasan ibn Musa), and
Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (801 - 873).
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809 - 873) was placed in charge of the translation work by the caliph. The most renowned translator was the
Sabian Thabit ibn Qurra (826 - 901). Translations of this era were superior to earlier ones, however, soon after, the emphasis on translation work declined, as new ideas became more important.
The House of Wisdom flourished under al-Ma'mun's successors
al-Mu'tasim (reign 833 - 842) and
al-Wathiq (reign 842 - 847), but declined under the reign of
al-Mutawakkil (reign 847 - 861), mainly because Ma'mun, Mu'tasim, and Wathiq followed the sect of
Mu'tazili, while al-Mutawakkil followed orthodox
Islam. He wanted to stop the spread of Greek philosophy which was one of the main tools in
Mu'tazili theology.
Destruction
Along with all other libraries in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom was destroyed during the
Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258. It was said that the waters of the
Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river.
The House of Wisdom eventually acquired a reputation as a center of learning, although
universities as we know them didn't exist at that time — transmission of knowledge was done directly from teacher to student, without any institutional surrounding.
Madrasahs only began to develop in the city later on, when
Nizam al-Mulk founded the
Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad.
Other Houses of Wisdom
Some other places have also been called
House of Wisdom:
There is a research institute in Baghdad called Bayt al-Hikma after the Abbasid-era research center. While the complex includes a 13th century madrasa, it isn't the same building as the medieval Bayt al-Hikma. It was damaged during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.Further Information
Get more info on 'House Of Wisdom'.
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