Table Of Content
As well as collecting books from East and West, they brought together scholars from the corners of the Muslim land to create one of the greatest intellectual academies in history. As one of the world’s biggest and richest cities at the time, Baghdad had wealth that went far beyond money. For more than two centuries, it was home to the House of Wisdom, an academy of knowledge that attracted brains from far and wide. From mathematics and astronomy to zoology, the academy was a major centre of research, thought and debate in Muslim Civilisation. The research paper showed that the Abbasid Dynasty had much to offer for the human civilization of intellectual and scientific progress.
The House of Wisdom: Baghdad’s Intellectual Powerhouse
Baghdad is also home to a number of museums which housed artifacts and relics of ancient civilization; many of these were stolen, and the museums looted, during the widespread chaos immediately after United States forces entered the city. Baghdad is known for its famous Mutanabbi street which is well established for bookselling and has often been referred to as the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community. The annual International Book Fair in Baghdad is well known to the international publishing world as a promising publishing event in the region after years of instability.
City layout
Iraq relies on energy imports from Iran, particularly natural gas for electricity and gasoline for vehicles. Indeed, Iraq loses over $3 billion a year through flared gas that is burnt during oil production and spends a similar amount importing gasoline. Achieving energy independence would reduce Iraq’s dependence on Iran and save Iraq more than $7 billion a year, which the country direly needs to finance its development. Capturing the flaring gas is also critical for protecting the health of Iraqis and the environment. Responding to U.S. pressure, Iraq has brought in international companies to support capturing and utilizing the flared gas and Baghdad projects it will cease needing imports by the end of this year. It includes a variety of historical tourist attractions, traditional neighbourhoods and pockets of oases.
Notable people
All these men are no less worthy of mention in the history of science than Aristotle, Galileo, Newton or Einstein. No physical trace remains of this academy today, so we cannot be sure exactly where it was located or what it looked like. Some historians even argue against exaggerated claims about its scope and purpose and the role of Ma'mūn in setting it up.
Related Publications
As the capital of the modern Republic of Iraq, Baghdad has a metropolitan area estimated at a population of 7,000,000 divided into neighborhoods in nine districts. It is the largest city in Iraq, the second-largest city in the Arab world (after Cairo) and the second-largest city in West Asia (after Tehran). The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called "Risafa" and the Western half known as "Karkh". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of quaternary alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river. A major contribution from the House of Wisdom in Baghdad is the influence it had on other libraries in the Islamic world. It has been recognized as a factor that connected many different people and empires because of its educational and research components.
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The study found out that, the house of wisdom has had a very organized management system especially in collecting and book cataloguing, the library had a great interest in debating and scientific circles in various topics and subjects. In addition, some new competing libraries have been influenced by the system of the house of wisdom in Egypt and Andalusia. It preserved the knowledge and heritage of the ancient civilizations and it contributed with a remarkable and an unprecedented discoveries that the western civilization have utilized to thrive.
Libraries of The Nizamiyyah School were somewhat similar to the House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) for the former had had many facilities to offer for students, including student's scholarships and endowment professorship. The Nizamiyyah School libraries and Cairo libraries were reported to have their own binders, administrators, librarians and even guards, they have shared almost all supported by endowments from governments, caliphs and kings. When the Caliphs have had a huge collection of books and a considerable number of translations, maps, manuscripts, etc. they had to construct an appropriate place for these collections, historians have a consent that the caliphs' most desirable location for the library was the palace itself. From a built-up area of about 4 square miles (10 square km) at the beginning of the 20th century, Baghdad has expanded into a bustling metropolis with suburbs spreading north and south along the river and east and west onto the surrounding plains. For much of the Abbasid era, during the Islamic Golden Age, Baghdad was the largest city in the world. Its population peaked at more than one million people.[3] The city was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires.
Greco-Arabic translation movement
The legacy of the house of wisdom library was wasted and the west did not find except Arabic sources to obtain the heritage of ancient human civilizations. The invasion of the Mongols and the destruction of the library marked the fall of Baghdad and ultimately the collapse of the Abbasid Caliphate that had left the Muslim world in crisis in the years to come. Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥaq al-Kindī[40] was also another historical figure that worked at the House of Wisdom. Al-Kindī is the most famous for being the first person to introduce Aristotle's philosophy to the Arabic people.
Famous People
Al-Ma’mun employed al-Jahith as a personal tutor for his children, but he had to dismiss him because al-Jahith was “Goggled-Eyed”, i.e., he had wide, staring eyes which made him frightening to look at. Al-Jahith was one of the few Muslim scholars who was deeply concerned with biology. He wrote Book of Animals, which discusses the way animals adapt to their surroundings, similarly to Aristotle’s History of Animals.
Tragically, during the 2003 war in Iraq, the Central Library in Baghdad, the House of Islamic Manuscripts (Dar Al-Makhtoutat Al-Islamiya) in Baghdad, and many other university and public libraries in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra were pillaged and burnt down. It would not be an exaggeration to imagine camel caravans loaded with magnificent books and manuscripts criss-crossing the Islamic World on their way to reach the magnificent Libraries of Bayt or Dar A-Hikma in Baghdad, Dar Al-Hikma in Cairo or the Great Library of Cordoba. Some of the historians have given Al-Ma’moun the title of “The Master of Arabic Civilisation” (Ustad Al-Hadhara Al-Arabiya) because of what he had left behind of useful scientific knowledge and cultural heritage. (MJ & AS, p. 133 quoting Rifa’I, vol. 1, p. 375 etc.) His achievements had great impact in introducing civility, civilisation, culture and heritage to the Arabs (and of course to the Muslims as a whole as well).
In Basra for example, the library held more than 15,000 books which included ancient works that were translated into Arabic. The successful knowledge transfer and the creation of a centre of learning in Baghdad was echoed in many other cities across Muslim Civilisation. In Cairo a Dar al-Hikma was built in 1005 by Caliph Al-Hakim and lasted for 165 years. Other cities in the eastern provinces of the Muslim world also established House of Science (Dar al-‘Ilm), or more accurately Houses of Knowledge, in the 9th and 10th centuries to emulate that of Baghdad.
It was the centre for Islamic (if not the world) culture and civilisation, as well as the headquarters for the Arts, Sciences and Letters. It was crowded with Scientists, Physicians, philosophers, Mathematicians, Astronomers, Men of Letters, Poets, Writers, Translators, Scribes, and Professionals in the various arts and crafts, etc. It is important to put the House of Wisdom in the Context of the city of Baghdad as the Capital of the Islamic World during its Golden Age. Baghdad played a major part in the propagation and spread of knowledge in the Arts and in the Sciences and in the development of their material wealth. Al-Ma’moun took after his father Al-Rashid in establishing many higher institutes, observatories, and factories for textiles.
