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Long ago, brilliant scholars in this booming city studied geography, astronomy and mathematics-and made advances that are still relevant today. Great minds from many lands gathered at a Baghdad library called the House of Wisdom, one of many centers of learning in an era know as the Islamic Golden Age. The Bab al-Sharji district in the centre of Baghdad derives its name, which means east gate, from the medieval fortifications of the city.
How an Iraqi artist is attempting to restock his country's devastated libraries with blank books - The National
How an Iraqi artist is attempting to restock his country's devastated libraries with blank books.
Posted: Mon, 11 Jan 2021 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Baghdad's House of Wisdom: Uniting East and West to pursue knowledge
Many of the Abbasid caliphs were patrons of learning and enjoyed collecting both ancient and contemporary literature. Although some of the princes of the previous Umayyad dynasty had begun to gather and translate Greek scientific literature, the Abbasids were the first to foster Greek learning on a large scale. Many of these libraries were private collections intended only for the use of the owners and their immediate friends, but the libraries of the caliphs and other officials soon took on a public or a semi-public character.[60] Four great libraries were established in Baghdad during this period. Another was established by Sabur ibn Ardashir in 991 or 993 for the literary men and scholars who frequented his academy.[60] This second library was plundered and burned by the Seljuks only seventy years after it was established. This was a good example of the sort of library built up out of the needs and interests of a literary society.[60] The last two were examples of madrasa or theological college libraries.
Extraordinary Women of the Golden Age
For this purpose, al-Mansur founded a palace library, modeled after the Sassanian Imperial Library, and provided economic and political support to the intellectuals working there. He also invited delegations of scholars from India and other places to share their knowledge of mathematics and astronomy with the new Abbasid court. The House of Wisdom included a society of scientists and academics, a translation department and a library that preserved the knowledge acquired by the Abbasids over the centuries. They also researched and studied alchemy, which was later used to create the structure of modern chemistry. Furthermore, linked to it were also astronomical observatories and other major experimental endeavors. Institutionalized by Al-Ma’mun, the academy encouraged the transcription of Greek philosophical and scientific efforts.
Cures from the East
Many of the victim's bodies were then dragged through the streets of Baghdad.[citation needed]During the 1970s, Baghdad experienced a period of prosperity and growth because of a sharp increase in the price of petroleum, Iraq's main export. New infrastructure including modern sewerage, water, and highway facilities were built during this period. The masterplans of the city (1967, 1973) were delivered by the Polish planning office Miastoprojekt-Kraków, mediated by Polservice.[83] However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed.
European knowledge from Arabick roots
Islamic Golden Age: Advancements in Medicine - IslamiCity
Islamic Golden Age: Advancements in Medicine.
Posted: Fri, 22 Jun 2018 07:00:31 GMT [source]
Islam has it’s terrible followers too, and we cannot afford to be blind to the writings they follow !!! The foundation of Bayt al-Hikmah coincided with the rise of Baghdad as the capital of the Islamic world and the subsequent reception of Persian culture into the Arab court of the Abbasids. The site of Baghdad was chosen by the second Abbasid caliph, al-Manṣūr (reigned 754–775), to replace Damascus, whose status as the Umayyad capital had made it difficult for the new dynasty to fully uproot the one that it had overthrown in 750 ce. But Baghdad, located near the former Sasanian capital of Ctesiphon, was also in the heart of a predominantly Persian populace.
During this time, Sahl ibn Harun, a Persian poet and astrologer, was the chief librarian of the Bayt al-Hikma. Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873) an Arab Nestorian Christian physician and scientist, was the most productive translator producing 116 works for the Arabs. Al-Ma’mun established the House of Wisdom, putting Hunayn ibn Ishaq in charge, who then became the most celebrated translator of Greek texts. As “Sheikh of the translators” he was placed in charge of the translation work by the caliph. Hunayn ibn Ishaq translated the entire collection of Greek medical books, including famous pieces by Galen and Hippocrates.
Often, al-Ma’mun would assign handpicked renowned scholars to perform specific translations of works. An example of such was the selection of the famous scholar Abu Yousuf Ya'qoub Al-Kindi, who had an impressive level of qualifications which included being a physician, philosopher, mathematician, geometer, logician, and astronomer, to be the one in charge of translating of the works of Aristotle. But it was also al-Maʾmūn’s reign that brought about a change in wind for Bayt al-Hikmah, which had hitherto specialized in Persian knowledge. In the final years of his reign, he undertook a dramatic shift in the imperial ideology. He endorsed an Islamic theology that stressed free will and dialectical reasoning (see kalām; Muʿtazilah). In an ironic show of force, al-Maʾmūn engaged in an inquisition (the miḥnah) and persecuted those who would not conform.
The research has dealt with funding sources and the budget that the state caliphs dedicated to the library. The study found out that, the house of wisdom has had a very organized administration and affair management system. In addition, new competing libraries have been influenced by the system of the house of wisdom in Baghdad which resulted in the emergence of newfound libraries in Egypt, Maghreb and Andalusia. The Abbasid library had preserved the knowledge and heritage of the ancient civilizations and it passed them to the west with a remarkable contributions, the latter has utilized some of the Abbasid period unprecedented discoveries to flourish and modernize.
The main means of public transportation are the red double-deck bus (introduced by the British) and the public taxi. Hundreds of thousands of citizens work for the government, directly or indirectly, in the civil service, in government-run educational institutions, and in government-owned industrial and commercial enterprises. However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money flowed into the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad, although they caused relatively little damage and few casualties. Nevertheless, the city remained one of the cultural and commercial hubs of the Islamic world until February 10, 1258, when it was sacked by the Mongols under Hulagu Khan. The Mongols killed most of the city's inhabitants, including the Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta'sim, and destroyed large sections of the city.
Adept at the sciences since his early childhood, he had extensions built for each of the house’s different branches of knowledge, where scholars from around the world came to exchange knowledge. The eighth-century mathematician al-Khwarizmi (who introduced what later came to be known as Arabic numerals), the astronomer Yahya ibn Abi Mansurh, the philosopher al-Kindi, and the mystic al-Hallaj, were all regular patrons of the library. Stories like this make me understand just why the belief system of Islam is considered to be ‘ok’ & not a problem to so many Westerners. This shows that the people of that time – these at least- were not extremists & did not hold to the ferocious writings in the Koran that cause the violence of the likes of ISIS nowadays and in other times & places. The problem is always that of the few who take literally every word spelt out in their religious ‘book’ !!! It still gives us a problem in this age as we try to deal with the kooks who want to blow up everyone who won’t just follow their professed ‘God’ !
After the invasion of Baghdad by the Mongols in (656 AH-1258 AD) they wrecked the library's private and public closets of books, manuscripts, maps, observatories...etc. They burned majority of the collections whilst others were thrown into the Tigris river, some say that the Mongols have built their barns using books instead of clay. The history of libraries is a history of human thought for libraries have been the stronghold of thoughts preserving them and passing them from generation to generation. We can say that among the first centers of human civilization intellect was the library of the Mesopotamian peninsula a saying that has been proved correct by different Cuneiform script writings. Which means that libraries are not founded only in our modern time, but excavations of archaeologists have backed the idea that libraries as ancient as writing for it was a very crucial invention in human history and a factor in ancient civilizations' development. Then in the the 12th century, Toledo in Andalucia (Muslim Spain) became the focus of another huge translation effort – this time from Arabic to latin.
The family of the last Abbasid Caliph Al-Musta’sim, as well as thousands of the city’s inhabitants, were slaughtered, and the extensive collection of books and manuscripts at the House of Wisdom were thrown into the Tigris. It is said that for days afterwards the river ran black with the ink of books and red with the blood of scholars. It was a tragic ending for one of the most advanced, diverse and progressive cities of the age, and an ending from which it would take Baghdad centuries to recover. Following his predecessors, al-Ma’mun would send expeditions of scholars from the House of Wisdom to collect texts from foreign lands. In fact, one of the directors of the House was sent to Constantinople with this purpose.
By the thirteenth century, Baghdad had thirty-six libraries and a 100 book dealers, some of whom were also publishers. The concept of a library catalog dates back to this period; books in these libraries were organized under specific genres and categories. Additionally, each of the translations was annotated by scholars from the field in an effort to explain the sciences to the general public. The Abbasid caliphs’ appetite for knowledge was such that an entire body of classical scientific literature - including works by Aristotle, the Greek physician Galen and the Indian surgeon Sushruta - was translated into Arabic, thanks to the House of Wisdom. Caliph al-Mamun was also himself adept in the branches of knowledge taught at the House of Wisdom, including medicine, philosophy and astrology, and often visited the scholars there to discuss their research.
These helped in bringing people into the city, and around these entrances, markets allowed travelers to trade.[9] The link in trade routes provided goods to the city, which allowed markets to draw people from all over the Middle East. The four straight roads that ran towards the center of the city from the outer gates were lined with vaulted arcades containing merchants' shops and bazaars. Smaller streets ran off these four main arteries, giving access to a series of squares and houses; the limited space between the main wall and the inner wall was due to Mansur's desire to maintain the heart of the city as a royal preserve. There are numerous historic, scientific and artistic museums in Baghdad which include, Iraq Museum, Baghdadi Museum, Natural History Museum and several others. Baghdad has a hot desert climate (Köppen BWh), featuring extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, slightly wet, short winters.
A substantial Persian-speaking population departed for Iran in the 1970s and ’80s under pressure from the Baʿathist regime. There are several Eastern-rite Christian communities, notably the Chaldeans and Assyrians. There was once a vigorous and large Jewish community with ancient roots in Mesopotamia; however, ethnic persecution drove most Jews out of the country beginning in the 1950s, and by the end of the century virtually none remained. Baghdad's location made it ideal for paper production, which lowered the cost of creating books, making them more prevalent and accessible to more people.[11] As more texts began to be produced, a new market for book vendors opened, and libraries and bookstores appeared in the city. The city saw relative revival in the latter part of the 18th century, under Mamluk government. From 1851 to 1852 and from 1861 to 1867, Baghdad was governed, under the Ottoman Empire by Mehmed Namık Pasha.[76] The Nuttall Encyclopedia reports the 1907 population of Baghdad as 185,000.
It is likely that without the Muslim libraries, modern Europe's scientific and intellectual progress would have been remarkably inhibited. Employees in the House of Wisdom in Baghdad were people of higher intellectual abilities, the same was emulated in every public library across the Muslim world. They often had a staff list that reach sometimes hundreds of copyists, illuminators, binders, translators, and authors. Those whom we can consider librarians were not randomly chosen but they usually were scholars, poets, multilingual and writers who on the other side were well paid by caliphs, rulers or nobles.
