House of Wisdom

This article is about the medieval Abbasid Library, Bagh- was the largest repository of books in the world.[3]
dad. For the ancient Fatimid university, see Dar al- It was destroyed in the sack of the city following the MonHikmah.
gol Siege of Baghdad (1258).
The House of Wisdom (Arabic: ; Bayt al-

1 History
1.1 Foundation and origins

Scholars at an Abbasid library. Maqamat of al-Hariri Illustration by Yahy al-Wasiti, Baghdad 1237

The earliest scientic manuscripts originated in the Abbasid Era.

The preservation and development of human knowledge

was a cherished tradition of the Eastern Christians and
Persian Zoroastrians.[4] During the 4th through the 7th
centuries, scholarly work in the Greek and Syriac languages was either newly initiated, or carried on from the
Hellenistic period. Centers of learning and of transmission of classical wisdom included colleges such as the
School of Nisibis and later the School of Edessa, and
the renowned hospital and medical academy of Jundishapur; libraries included the Library of Alexandria and the
Imperial Library of Constantinople; and other centers
of translation and learning functioned at Merv, Salonika,
Nishapur and Ctesiphon situated just south of what was
later to become Baghdad.[5][6]

Hikma) was a major intellectual center during the Islamic

Golden Age. The House of Wisdom was founded by
Caliph Harun al-Rashid (reigned 786809) and culminated under his son al-Ma'mun (reigned 813833) who
is credited with its formal institution. Al-Ma'mun is also
credited with bringing many well-known scholars to share
information, ideas, and culture in the House of Wisdom.
Based in Baghdad from the 9th to 13th centuries, many
learned scholars including those of Persian or Christian
background[1] were part of this research and educational
institute. Besides translating books into Arabic and preserving them, scholars associated with the House of Wisdom also made many remarkable original contributions
to diverse elds.[2][3]

Thus when the Arab Muslims invaded these lands, they

discovered a wealth of knowledge, wisdom and culture. The Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I gathered a
collection of books in Damascus that were already referred by the name Bayt al-Hikma[3] and contained
Greek and Christian books about medicine, alchemy and
other disciplines.[7] Remarkably, the Umayyads also appropriated paper-making techniques from the Chinese
and joined many ancient intellectual centers under their
rule, and employed Christian and Persian scholars to

During the reign of al-Ma'mun, astronomical observatories were set up, and the House was an unrivaled center
for the study of humanities and for science in medieval
Islam, including mathematics, astronomy, medicine,
alchemy and chemistry, zoology, and geography and cartography. Drawing on Indian, Greek, and Persian texts,
the scholars accumulated a great collection of world
knowledge, and built on it through their own discoveries.
By the middle of the ninth century, the House of Wisdom
1

1 HISTORY

both translate works into Arabic, and to develop new

knowledge.[8] These were fundamental elements that contributed directly to the ourishing of scholarship in the
Arab world.[7]

translators to make a living and an academic life was a

symbol of status.[3] Wisdom was so valuable that books
and ancient texts were sometimes preferred as war booty
instead of other riches.[3] Indeed, Ptolemy's Almagest was
In 750, the Abbasid dynasty replaced the Umayyad as the claimed as a condition for peace after[10]a war between the
ruling dynasty of the Islamic Empire, and, in 762, the Abbasids and the Byzantine Empire.
caliph al-Mansur (r. 754 775) built Baghdad and made The House of Wisdom was much more than an academic
it his capital, instead of the old Damascus. Baghdads lo- center removed from the broader society. Its experts
cation and cosmopolitan population made the perfect lo- served several functions in Baghdad. Scholars from the
cation for a stable commercial and intellectual center.[7] Bayt al-Hikma usually doubled as engineers and archiThe Abbasid dynasty had a strong Persian bent,[9] and tects in major construction projects. They kept accurate
adopted many practices from the Sassanian Empire ocial calendars and were public servants. They were
among those, that of translating foreign works, except also frequently medics and consultants.[3][7]
that now texts were translated into Arabic. For this pur- Al-Ma'mun was personally involved in the daily life of the
pose, al-Mansur founded a palace library, modeled after House of Wisdom, regularly visiting its scholars and inthe Sassanian Imperial Library, and provided economic quiring about their activities. He would also participate in
and political support to the intellectuals working there. and arbitrate academic debates.[7] Furthermore, he would
He also invited delegations of scholars from India and often organize groups of sages from the Bayt al-Hikma
other places to share their knowledge of mathematics and into major research projects to satisfy his own intellecastronomy with the young Abbasid court.[7]
tual needs. For example, he commissioned the mapping
In the Abbasid Empire, many foreign works were translated into Arabic from Greek, Chinese, Sanskrit, Persian
and Syriac. The Translation Movement gained great
momentum during the reign of caliph al-Rashid, who,
like his predecessor, was personally interested in scholarship and poetry.[3] Originally the texts concerned mainly
medicine, mathematics and astronomy; but, other disciplines, especially philosophy, soon followed. Al-Rashids
library, direct predecessor to the House of Wisdom, was
also known as Bayt al-Hikma or, as the historian Al-Qifti
called it, Khizanat Kutub al-Hikma (Arabic for Storehouse of the Books of Wisdom).[3]

1.2

Under Al-Ma'mun

of the world, the conrmation of data from the Almagest

and the deduction of the real size of the Earth (see section
on the main activities of the House). He also promoted
Egyptology and participated himself in excavations of the
pyramids of Giza.[3]

Al Ma'mun sends an envoy to the Byzantine Emperor Theophilos

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. During this time, Sahl ibn Harun, a
Persian poet and astrologer, was the chief librarian of
the Bayt al-Hikma. Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809873) an
Assyrian Nestorian Christian physician and scientist, was
the most productive translator producing 116 works for
the Arabs. As Sheikh of the translators he was placed in
charge of the translation work by the caliph. The Sabian
Thbit ibn Qurra (826901) also translated great works
by Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid and Ptolemy. Translations of this era were superior to earlier ones, since the
Physician learning a complex surgical method.
new Abbasid scientic tradition required better and betUnder the sponsorship of caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813 ter translations, and the emphasis was many times put
new ideas to the ancient works being
833), economic support of the House of Wisdom and in incorporating
[7]
translated.
scholarship in general was greatly increased. Moreover,
Abbasid society itself came to understand and appreci- By the second half of the ninth century al-Ma'mums
ate the value of knowledge, and support also came from Bayt al-Hikma was the greatest repository of books in
merchants and the military.[7] It was easy for scholars and the world and had become one of the greatest hubs of

3
intellectual activity in the Middle Ages, attracting the
most brilliant Arab and Persian minds.[3] The House of
Wisdom eventually acquired a reputation as a center of
learning, although universities as we know them did not
yet exist at this time knowledge was transmitted directly from teacher to student, without any institutional
surrounding. Maktabs soon began to develop in the city
from the 9th century on, and in the 11th century, Nizam
al-Mulk founded the Al-Nizamiyya of Baghdad, one of
the rst institutions of higher education in Iraq.

the destruction of the House of Wisdom was not the sole

cause of the decay of Arab scholarship.[12]

2 Main activities

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.[7] Furthermore, linked to it were also astronomical observatories and other major experimental
endeavors.[3] Indeed, the House of Wisdom was much
1.3 Decline under Al-Mutawakkil
more than a library, and a considerable amount of origThe House of Wisdom ourished under al-Ma'muns suc- inal scientic and philosophical work was produced by
[3]
cessors al-Mu'tasim (r. 833842) and his son al-Wathiq scholars and intellectuals related to it.
(r. 842 847), but considerably declined under the reign
of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847861).[11] Although al Ma'mun,
al Mu'tasim, and al Wathiq followed the sect of Mu'tazili,
which supported mind-broadness and scientic inquiry,
al-Mutawakkil endorsed a more literal interpretation of
the Qur'an and Hadith.[11] The caliph was not interested
in science and moved away from rationalism, seeing the
spread of Greek philosophy as anti-Islamic.[11]

1.4

Destruction by the Mongols

Hulagu Khan's siege of Baghdad (1258)

The Mongol siege of 1258 CE began in mid-January

and lasted just two weeks. On February 13th, the Mongols entered the city of the caliphs, commencing a full
week of pillage and destruction. Along with all other libraries in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom was destroyed
by the army of Hulagu during the Siege of Baghdad. [12]
The books from Baghdads libraries were thrown into the
Tigris River in such quantities that the river ran black with
the ink from the books.[13] Nasir al-Din al-Tusi rescued
about 400,000 manuscripts which he took to Maragheh
before the siege.[14]

13th-century Arabic translation of Materia Medica

2.1 Translation

Over a century and a half, primarily Persian and Christian

scholars translated all scientic and philosophic Greek
texts available to them.[15][16] The translation movement at the House of Wisdom was inaugurated with
the translation of Aristotles Topics. By the time of alMa'mum, translators had moved beyond Persian astrological texts, and Greek works were already in their third
translations.[3] Authors translated include: Pythagoras,
Although the Mongol invasion is usually considered the Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Euclid, Plotinus, Galen,
sole cause of the sharp end of Arab science, by the sec- Sushruta, Charaka, Aryabhata and Brahmagupta.
ond half of the 13th century Baghdad was far from be- Furthermore, new discoveries motivated revised translaing the only academic center in the Abbasid Empire, so tions and commentary correcting or adding to the work

2 MAIN ACTIVITIES

of ancient authors.[7] In many cases names and terminology were changed; a prime example of this is the title of
Ptolemys Almagest, which is an Arabic modication of
the original name of the work: Megale Syntaxis.[7]

2.2

Original contributions

Drawing of Self trimming lamp in Ahmad ibn Ms ibn Shkir's

treatise on mechanical devices.

A page from al-Khwarizmis Kitab al-Jabr

Besides translation and commentary of earlier works,

scholars at the Bayt al-Hikma produced important original research. For example, famous mathematician alKhwarizmi worked in al-Ma'muns House of Wisdom
and is famous for his contributions to the development
of algebra.[3] He is also known for his book Kitab al-Jabr
in which he develops a number of algorithms.[3] The application of the word algebra to mathematics and the
etymology of the word algorithm can be traced back to
al-Khwarizmi the actual concept of an algorithm dates
back before the time of Euclid. Besides that, this mathematician is responsible for the introduction of the Hindu
decimal system to the Arab world, and through them
to Europe. There were also important breakthroughs in
cryptanalysis by Al-Kindi.[3]

Al-Idrisi's map of the world (12th). Note South is on top.

performed several physical experiments, mainly in optics,

achievements still celebrated today.[17]

Mohammad Musa and his brothers Ahmad and Hasan

(collectively known as the "Banu Musa brothers") were
also remarkable engineers. They are authors of the
renowned Book of Ingenious Devices, which describes
There were also many original contributions to astronomy about one hundred devices and how to use them. Among
the earand physics. Mohammad Musa might have been the rst these was The Instrument that Plays by Itself,
[18]
liest
example
of
a
programmable
machine.
person in history to point to the universality of the laws of
physics.[3] In the 10th century, Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) In medicine, Hunayn wrote an important treatise on

5
ophthalmology. Other scholars also wrote on smallpox, infections and surgery. Note that these works,
would later become standard textbooks of medicine in
the Renaissance.[19]

Muhammad ibn Ms al-Khwrizm (780850),

mathematician;
The Banu Musa brothers, engineers and mathematicians;

Under al-Mamuns lead science saw for the rst time

Sind ibn Ali (d. 864), astronomer;
bigger research projects involving large groups of
scholars.[20] In order to check Ptolemys observations, the
Abu Uthman, usually known as Al-Jahiz (781-861),
caliph ordered the construction of the rst astronomical
writer and biologist;
observatory in Baghdad (see Observatories section below). The data provided by Ptolemy was meticulously
Al-Jazari (11361206), physicist and engineer.
checked and revised by a highly capable group of geographers, mathematicians and astronomers.[7] Al-Mamun
also organized research on the circumference of the Earth
4 Other houses of wisdom
and commissioned a geographic project that would result
[20]
in one of the most detailed world-maps of the time.
Some consider these eorts the rst examples of large Some other places have also been called House of Wisdom, and should not be confused with Baghdads Bayt
state-funded research projects.[20]
al-Hikma:

2.3

Observatories

The creation of the rst observatory in the Islamic world

was ordered by caliph al-Mamun in 828. The construction was directed by scholars from the House of Wisdom: senior astronomer Yahya ibn abi Mansur and the
younger Sanad ibn Ali al-AlYahudi.[21] It was located
in al-Shammasiyya and was called Maumtahan Observatory. After the rst round of observations of Sun,
Moon and the planets, a second observatory on Mount
Qasioun, near Damascus, was constructed. The results
of this endeavor were compiled in a work known as
al-Zij al-Mumtahan, which translates as The Veried
Tables.[20][22]

In Cairo, Dar al-Hikmah, the House of Wisdom,

was another name of the House of Knowledge,
founded by the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr
Allah in 1004.[3]
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 is not the same building as the medieval
Bayt al-Hikma. It was damaged during the 2003 invasion of Iraq332032N 442301E / 33.3423N
44.3836E
The main library at Hamdard University in Karachi,
Pakistan is called 'Bait al Hikmah'.

People
5 See also
Round city of Baghdad
Brethren of Purity
Dar Al-Hekma
Dar Al-Hekma College

Banu Musa brothers

This is a list of notable people related to the House of

Wisdom, most of them are mentioned in the text above.
Besides the listed occupation, most of them were also
translators:
Sahl ibn Harun (d. 830), chief librarian;
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (809-873), physician;
Yaqub ibn Ishaq al-Kindi (801-873), philosopher
and polymath;

Astronomy in medieval Islam

6 Notes and citations

[1] Hyman and Walsh Philosophy in the Middle Ages Indianapolis, 1973, p. 204' Meri, Josef W. and Jere L.
Bacharach, Editors, Medieval Islamic Civilization Vol.1,
A-K, Index, 2006, p. 304.
[2] Meri, p. 451.
[3] Al-Khalili, pp. 67-78

REFERENCES

[4] Ferguson, Kitty Pythagoras: His Lives and the Legacy of

a Rational Universe Walker Publishing Company, New
York, 2008, (page number not available occurs toward
end of Chapter 13, The Wrap-up of Antiquity). It was
in the Near and Middle East and North Africa that the old
traditions of teaching and learning continued, and where
Christian scholars were carefully preserving ancient texts
and knowledge of the ancient Greek language.

Meri, Joseph; Bacharach, Jere (2006), Medieval

Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, Routledge,
ISBN 0415966906

[5] Kaser, Karl The Balkans and the Near East: Introduction
to a Shared History p. 135.

Koetsier, Teun (2001), On the prehistory of programmable machines: musical automata, looms,
calculators, Mechanism and Machine Theory (Elsevier) 36 (5): 589603, doi:10.1016/S0094114X(01)00005-2.

[6] Yazberdiyev, Dr. Almaz Libraries of Ancient Merv Dr.

Yazberdiyev is Director of the Library of the Academy of
Sciences of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat.

Hockey, Thomas (2007), The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, New York: Springer, ISBN
9780387304007

[7] Lyons, pp. 55-77

[8] Meri, Josef W. and Jere L. Bacharach. Medieval Islamic
Civilization. Vol. 1 Index A K. 2006, p. 304.

Micheau, Francoise, The Scientic Institutions in

the Medieval Near East, Missing or empty |title=
(help) in (Morelon & Rashed 1996, pp. 9851007)

[9] Wiet. Baghdad

[10] Angelo, Joseph (2009). Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy. p. 78. ISBN 9781438110189.
[11] Al-Khalili, p. 135
[12] Al-Khalili, p. 233
[13] The Mongol Invasion and the Destruction of Baghdad.
Lost Islamic History.
[14] Saliba, p.243
[15] Rosenthal, Franz The Classical Heritage in Islam The
University of California Press, Berkely and Los Angeles,
1975, p. 6
[16] Adamson, London Peter The Great Medieval Thinkers:
Al-Kindi Oxford University Press, New York, 2007, p.
6. London Peter Adamson is a Lecturer in Late Ancient
Philosophy at Kings College.
[17] Al-Khalili, pp. 152171
[18] Koetsier
[19] Moore
[20] Al-Khalili, pp. 79-92
[21] Hockey 1249
[22] Zaimeche, p. 2

References
Al-Khalili, Jim (2011), The House of Wisdom: How
Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave
Us the Renaissance, New York: Penguin Press,
ISBN 9781594202797
Lyons, Jonathan (2009), The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, New York: Bloomsbury Press, ISBN
9781596914599

Moore, Wendy (February 28, 2011), All the worlds

knowledge, BMJ 342, doi:10.1136/bmj.d1272
Morelon, Rgis;
Rashed, Roshdi (1996),
Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science
3, Routledge, ISBN 0415124107
George Saliba, 'Islamic science and the making of
the European Renaissance',
Zaimeche, Salah (2002), A cursory review of Muslim observatories, Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation, Manchester Missing or
empty |title= (help)

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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