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House of Wisdom, Baghdad
The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) was an Abbasid scholarly institution in the capital combining library, translation bureau, astronomical observato…
Timeline
- c. 786–809Baghdad · BaghdadHarun al-Rashid established scholarly salons and a book collection in the palace, engaging Nestorian and Muslim scholars and inaugurating a tradition of systematically collecting and translating foreign texts.
- 813–833House of Wisdom, Baghdad · BaghdadAl-Ma'mun expanded the House of Wisdom into a state-level scholarly institution, with a translation bureau paying by the sheet, an attached observatory for recording solar and lunar eclipses, and translators such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq systematically rendering Aristotle, Galen, and Indian mathematical texts.
- 830–900Baghdad · BaghdadThe House of Wisdom's translations covered philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy; Arabic became the most important scientific language of the era, laying the groundwork for the later reintroduction of knowledge into European scholastic philosophy and the Renaissance.
- 836–1258Baghdad · BaghdadAfter the court moved to Samarra, state scholarly patronage weakened, but private academies and book-collecting traditions in Baghdad continued for centuries, until the Mongol capture of Baghdad brought devastating losses to the House of Wisdom's collections.
Sources
- Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society — Gutas, Dimitri (1998)
- The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization — Lyons, Jonathan (2009)