In 762, the Abbasid caliph Abu Ja’far al-Mansur founded a new round city on the banks of the Tigris and named it Baghdad. Within a few decades it had become the greatest centre of learning in the world. The books of Greek philosophers, Indian mathematicians and Persian astronomers were translated into Arabic there, and new research was built on them. The best-known symbol of this awakening is Bayt al-Hikmah, the “House of Wisdom”.
This article looks at what the House of Wisdom actually was, who the leading scholars of the age were, how the golden age ended, and what we can learn from it today.
The religious roots of the search for knowledge
This movement was not driven only by politics or economics. Muslims had before them the Qur’an’s question:
قُلۡ هَلۡ يَسۡتَوِي ٱلَّذِينَ يَعۡلَمُونَ وَٱلَّذِينَ لَا يَعۡلَمُونَۗ إِنَّمَا يَتَذَكَّرُ أُوْلُواْ ٱلۡأَلۡبَٰبِ
“Say: Are those who know equal to those who do not know? Only people of understanding take heed.”
— Surah az-Zumar 39:9
And the prayer the Qur’an itself teaches: wa qul rabbi zidni ’ilma, “and say: My Lord, increase me in knowledge” (Surah Ta-Ha 20:114). Religious needs such as prayer times, the direction of the qiblah, the lunar calendar, dividing inheritance and calculating zakat also created a demand for astronomy and mathematics.
What was the House of Wisdom?
The House of Wisdom grew out of the royal library of the Abbasid caliphs. Under Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reigned 786–809) the library was known as Khizanat al-Hikmah, the “storehouse of wisdom”. His son, Caliph al-Ma’mun (reigned 813–833), expanded it greatly. He sponsored translation and research, and in 828 established an astronomical observatory in the Shammasiyya district of Baghdad.
An honest note is needed here. Popular books and videos often present the House of Wisdom as a grand university. Dimitri Gutas, a scholar of Arabic at Yale, argued in his 1998 book that the surviving evidence shows it was mainly a library and a government institution, and that the great movement translating Greek works ran widely beyond its walls. It is better to see the House of Wisdom as the symbol of a whole intellectual movement in which caliphs, ministers, patrons and scholars all took part.
The great translation movement
Between the eighth and tenth centuries CE, hundreds of scholarly works were translated into Arabic from Greek, Syriac, Persian (Pahlavi) and Sanskrit. They included Aristotle’s philosophy, Euclid’s geometry, Ptolemy’s astronomy and Galen’s medicine.
The most famous translator of the age was Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809–873), a Nestorian Christian physician known as the “sheikh of the translators”, who translated many of Galen’s medical works into Arabic. Notably, scholars of Christian, Sabian and Zoroastrian background worked alongside Muslims in this movement. Knowledge was not treated as the property of one people.
Paper played a major part too. Papermaking reached the Muslim world through Central Asia, and by the end of the eighth century paper was being made in Baghdad. Books became cheaper and knowledge came within reach of many more people.
Some great scholars of the golden age
Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi (c. 780–c. 850) was a mathematician and astronomer connected with the House of Wisdom under al-Ma’mun. Around 820 he wrote al-Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr wa’l-Muqabala, “The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing”. The English word “algebra” comes from al-jabr in its title. His book on Indian numerals became known in Latin as Algoritmi de numero Indorum, and from that Latin form of his name, Algoritmi, comes the word “algorithm”, the basis of every computer program today. His algebra was translated into Latin by Robert of Chester in Spain in 1145.
Ya’qub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (c. 801–873), called “the philosopher of the Arabs”, played a key part in introducing Aristotle’s philosophy to the Arabic-speaking world and wrote on philosophy, mathematics, medicine and music. His treatise on deciphering coded messages is regarded as the earliest known written description of frequency analysis: counting how often each letter appears in a language.
The Banu Musa, three brothers named Muhammad, Ahmad and Hasan, were active under al-Ma’mun. Their Kitab al-Hiyal (Book of Ingenious Devices) describes around a hundred automatic machines and mechanisms. They also worked on mathematics and geometry and sponsored other scholars.
Thabit ibn Qurra (826–901), a Sabian scholar from Harran, translated works by Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid and Ptolemy and made original contributions to mathematics.
According to historical reports, al-Ma’mun also commissioned his astronomers to measure the earth, and they measured the length of one degree of latitude on the plain of Sinjar in Iraq.
The fall: the catastrophe of 1258
The intellectual life of Baghdad continued for centuries, even as the Abbasid caliphate weakened politically. In February 1258 the Mongol army of Hulagu Khan besieged Baghdad and entered the city on 13 February. The city was devastated, the last Abbasid caliph, al-Musta’sim, was killed, and the libraries were destroyed. It is said that so many books were thrown into the Tigris that its water ran black with ink. Historians regard some such details as literary embellishment, but there is no doubt it was an immense loss to the world of learning.
The legacy of the House of Wisdom
Baghdad was ruined, but the knowledge it had produced survived. It had already reached Cairo, Cordoba, Samarkand and other centres. In the twelfth century, Arabic books were translated into Latin on a large scale in Toledo in Spain, and translators such as Gerard of Cremona carried dozens of works into Europe. The knowledge that Muslims had preserved and advanced helped lay the foundations of the European Renaissance.
Lessons for us today
- Support learning. The House of Wisdom flourished because rulers and patrons spent on knowledge. Today that responsibility belongs to governments and to all of us: libraries, scholarships and research.
- An open mind with a critical eye. Muslims took knowledge from other civilisations, but not blindly; they tested it, corrected it and built on it.
- Knowledge in your own language. Translation made knowledge widely available. The shortage of good scholarly material in Urdu today shows the same work is still needed.
- Protect knowledge. The fall of Baghdad reminds us that knowledge needs unity, strong institutions and copies kept in many places.
Practical lesson
- This week, read a reliable article or book chapter on the life of al-Khwarizmi or al-Kindi.
- Tell your children where the words “algebra” and “algorithm” come from, and encourage one of them to start a small library at home.
- If you know another language, translate one useful article into Urdu and share it.
Sources
- The Qur’an: 39:9, 20:114
- Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ’Abbasid Society (Routledge, 1998)
- Jim Al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance (Penguin, 2011)
- Al-Khwarizmi, al-Kitab al-Mukhtasar fi Hisab al-Jabr wa’l-Muqabala (c. 820)