HOUSE OF WISDOM

BAYT UL HIKAM

Presented by:
Fatima Noor
 BACKGROUND
 The preservation and development of human knowledge was a
cherished tradition of
Eastern Christians and Persian Zoroastrians.
 During the 4th through the 7th centuries scholarly work in the
Greek and Syrian languages
was either newly initiated or carried on from the Hellenistic
period.
CENTERS OF LEARNING:
 Centers of learning and transmission of classical wisdom included
colleges such as:
 School of Nisibis
 Later the School of Edessa
 The renowned hospital and medical academy of Jundishapur
libraries included:
 The Library of Alexandria
 The Imperial Library of Constantinople
 Bayt al- Hikma in Damascus

GATHERATION OF BOOKS
 The Umayyad Caliph Muawiyah I gathered books
in Damascus
 named as Bayt al- Hikma
 contained Greek and Christian books about medicine,
alchemy . 
DEVELOPING OF NEW KNOWLEDGE:
 Umayyad appropriated paper-making techniques from the
Chinese
 employed Christian and Persian scholars to translate works
into Arabic and to develop new knowledge .
  He was even fonder of learning, and expanded the role of
the Bayt al-Hikma.
 HOUSE OF WISDOM
The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) was
a library, translation institute and
research center established in Abbasid-
era Baghdad Iraq. It was a key institution
in the Translation Movement and is considered to
have been a major intellectual
hub during the Islamic Golden Age.
FOUNDER:
oHarun Al-Rashid (763-809 AD) was the Caliph of
the Abbasid Empire.
ohe set up a library called the Bayt al-Hikma. In
English it is called the House of Wisdom.

.
 ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL SUPPORT:
oAl-Mansur provided economic and
political support to the intellectuals
working.
oinvited scholars from India and other
places to share
their knowledge of mathematics and
astronomy with the young Abbasid court 
.
SCHOLARS FROM BAYT AL HIKMA:
oScholars from the Bayt al-Hikma usually
doubled as engineers and architects .
oThey kept accurate official calendars and were
public servants.
oThey were also frequently medics and
consultants .
oTranslating books to Arabic and preserving
them
 HOUSE OF WISDOM
MOST IMPORTANT CENTER OF LEARNING:
 one of the world’s most important centers of learning in its centuries.
 Its libraries contained the works of Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle,
Hippocrates, Euclid, Plotinus, Galen, Sushruta, Charaka, Aryabhata,
Socrates and Brahmagupta.
Main activities:
 included a society of scientists and academics
 translation department and a library that preserved the knowledge
acquired by the Abbasids over the centuries.
 astronomical observatories and other major experimental endeavors. 
 the House of Wisdom was much more than a library, and a
considerable amount of original scientific and philosophical work was
produced by scholars and intellectuals related to it.
 Translation Movement
The Translation Movement was a movement started in the House of
Wisdom in Baghdad which translated many Greek classics
into Arabic.

 The dynasty prior to the Abbasids, the Umayyad provides no

evidence of original science but the Abbasids inherited from the
Persians new wealth and power.
 The translation movement, was for two centuries, Greek, Indian,
 and Persian works were translated into Arabic.
END OF TRANSLATION MOVEMENT

 Stopped in the second half of the 10th century

 They were no longer required. All the great works had been
translated, retranslated, studied and commented on.
 Greek science was replaced by new Arabic texts.
 IMPORTANT BOOKS OF TRANSLATION
MOVEMENT
Three important Greek texts which were available in
Arabic translations by the middle of the 9th century CE

 Book entitled On Medical Matters by

Dioscorides, an army doctor who lived in the
1st century CE
 Book entitled On the Mixing and the Properties
of Simple Drugs by Galen, a physician who lived
in the 2nd century CE
 The book entitled On the Composition of
Medicinal Drugs by the same Galen
 IMPACT OF TRANSLATION
MOVEMENT
These texts not only broadened the horizon of the
Arabs for their actual contents, they also provided
patterns of formal arrangement and scientific
organization.
Arabs became acquainted with the so-called Summaria
Alexandrinorum
Summary of Galenic writings introduced to the Arabs
the concept of humoralism,
Which was to dominate all later medical and
pharmacological theories
Practical advantages in finance, agriculture,
engineering, and medicine.
IMPACTS ON WORLD
•library which helped to preserved the knowledge acquired by the
Abbasids over the centuries.
•having astronomical observatories and other major experimental
endeavors which helped to work on many new projects . 
•great amount of original scientific and philosophical work was
produced by scholars .
•during the dark age of Europe this library books played a great role
due to which later on renaissance started
 Al-Khwarizmi (780–850)CE

o worked as an astronomer and mathematician

o Inventor of the eponymous algorithm and introduced Hindu decimal
numerals, and algebra to Arabic Empire
o worked in al- Ma'mun's House of Wisdom and is famous for his
contributions to the development of algebra
INVENTION OF ZERO
o One digression is on the invention of zero, including its etymology.
o Arabic Sifre becoming Latin Cifra, then in English cipher, but the word
was not used for zero.
o Cipher was first used for any Hindu-Arabic numeral, and only later
for any secret symbol.
o Al- Uqlidisi was the first to use decimal fractions .
Al-Khwarizmi
 Omar Khayyam (1048–1131 CE)

o A Persian poet but also a mathematician worked on cubic equations.

o Khayyam’d solutions were accurate to six decimal places, and because of this accuracy
he was able to create a calendar that was correct to one day in 3,330 years.
Ishaq al- Kindi (800–873 CE)
o first philosopher of Islam known in the West as Alkindus.
o applied Aristotelian logic and philosophy to the Muslim religion,
o first to make the distinction between science and superstition (while still accepting of

astrology).
o Also worked on music theory.
 Ishaq al- Kindi
Omar Khayyam
AL-FARGHANI
 AL-FARGHANI
 Known by the name of Alfraganus.
 created a device used to measure the water level of the Nile, called the Nilometer,
which survives today in a museum in Cairo

  Banu Musa brothers

 Might have been the first person in history to point to the universality of the laws of
physics.
 Mohammad Musa and his brothers Ahmad and Hassan  were remarkable engineers.
 authors of the renowned Book of Ingenious Devices. Among these was "The Instrument
that Plays by Itself", the earliest example of a programmable machine

Drawing of Self trimming lamp in Ahmad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākirs

treatise on mechanical devices.
 JABIR IBN
HAYYAN

HUNAYN
  HUNAYN(809-873)

 In medicine wrote an important treatise on ophthalmology. Other scholars also wrote on

smallpox, infections and surgery. these works, later become standard textbooks of medicine
in the Renaissance
 He was placed in charge of the translation work by the caliph. In his lifetime, Ishaq translated
116 writings, including works by Plato and Aristotle, into Syriac and Arabic.

JABIR IBN HAYYAN

 known in the West as Geber the Alchemist
 success in expanding the science of practical metallurgy.
 His work translated into Latin in the 12th century.
 3,000 written works that have been attributed to Jabir.
 words in chemistry have Arabic roots, for example alcohol, alkali, and borax., Greek
chymeia becomes Arabic al-Kimiya then in Latin alchemia which, dropping the al, becomes
chemia the root word for chemistry.
 OBSERVATORIES
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Under Al- Mamun's lead science saw for the first time bigger research projects
involving large groups of scholar.

o Caliph ordered the construction of the first astronomical observatory in Baghdad

o Data provided by Ptolemy was meticulously checked and revised by a highly
capable group of geographers, mathematicians and astronomers.
o organized research on the circumference of the Earth and commissioned a
geographic project which resulted in one of the most detailed world-maps of the
time.
o The construction was directed by scholars from the House of Wisdom: senior
astronomer Yahiya ibn abi Mansur and the younger SANAD IBN ALI AL-
ALYAHUDI .
o It was located in AL-SHAMMASIYYA and was called MAUMTAHAN OBSERVATORY.
o After the first round of observations of Sun, Moon and the planets, a second
observatory on MOUNT QASIOUN, near Damascus, was constructed.
 MAJOR WORKS BY MUSLIMS IN THAT
ERA
 Along with astronomical observatories the Abassid Empire built
in Samarkand, in Central Asia, a paper mill.
 Much technology was created in this period for the production of
books including dyes, inks, glues, and book binding techniques,
but not the printing press.
 Arabic script is complicated and wasn’t completely typeset until
1727. The first text printed in Arabic was the Qu’ran. Printed in 1537
in Venice, the text had misspellings, was considered sacrilegious
because of this, and which probably lead to the delay of the
introduction of the printing press to the 18th century.
 Science in the Muslim Empire of the time also thrived for
geography and map production. The Muslim Empire hosted
archeological digs in Egypt, and sponsored translations of
hieroglyphics.
 WEAKENING OF ROMAN EMPIRE STARTING
OF DARK AGE IN EUORPE
 With the weakening of the Roman Empire at the start of the 5th
century, Europe slipped into the dark ages.
 The center of Roman power moved to Constantinople, the Capital
of the Byzantine Empire.
 The official language of the Byzantine Empire was Greek
 the dominant religion, Christianity.
 The region east of Byzantium was under Sassanid (Persian) rule.
 By the mid 6th century the battle between Byzantium and the
Sassanians over the area today known as Iraq and Iran had been
on going for a 100 years.
 Both empires were exhausted just in time to be conquered by
invading Muslim armies that were formed after Mohammed’s
death in 632.
 DARK AGE IN EUROPE

 lasted approximately 1000 years from ~400 to ~1400 CE.

 The timeline of European history shows no major
advances in science between the ancient Greeks and the
European renaissance.
 Agrarian Economy,Supremacy of The Church
 Class structure of Europe: Two classes only:

Upper Class (Clergy, Lords,)

Lower class ( Peasants )
 The language of science was Arabic for that 700 years .
 WHAT
.
IS RENISSANCE?
Causes of Renaissance
•Transfer of Eastern Knowledge and ideals to
Europe.
•Growth of trade between Europe and Middle East .
•Rise of Trading cities such as Florence, Venice and
Pisa.
•Rise of Middle Class.
 Destruction by Mongols
 Mongolian (and world) history changed forever during the rule of
Genghis Khan. He was a tribal chief for the Mongols from 1206-1227
  
 The Great Khan put his brother Hulagu Khan in charge of an army
whose goals were to conquer Persia, Syria, and Egypt, as well as to
destroy the Abbasid Caliphate.

 Baghdad had been established in 762 by the Abbasid Caliph. al-

Mansur
 capital of the Muslims. And house of wisdom was established after
the city was built.
 By the mid-1200s much of the glamour and importance of Baghdad
was gone and army was serving as body guard of caliph.
 Mongols arrived in 1258 with armyof 150,000 soldiers
 The siege began in mid-January and only lasted two weeks. On
February 13th, 1258, the Mongols entered the city of the caliphs.
A
 full week of pillage and destruction commenced. The Mongols showed no
discretion, destroying mosques, hospitals, libraries, and palaces.
The books from Baghdad’s libraries were thrown into the Tigris River in such

quantities that the river ran black with the ink from the books

WHY THE GOLDEN AGE OF MUSLIMS ENDED

1.There was no separation of church and state to prevent an anti-science stance.
2. The Mongol invasions of the 1200s, and the destruction of Baghdad in 1258 CE.
3.The reluctance to embrace the printing press.
 

 
 CONCLUSION
This all tells how the Arabic sciences saved ancient knowledge at
that period and gave renascence .That how Muslim scientists
worked and invented new methods by giving new discoveries.
These all were preserved in the form of text in house of wisdom
the great library of that time . which later on gave help in
renascence at the time of dark ages by Muslim knowledge.

THANK YOU