BAGHDAD
The Islamic Golden Age is traditionally
dated from the mid-7th century to the
mid-13th century at which Muslim rulers
established one of the largest empires in
history.
ORIGINS
• The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, related to previous settlements on the site
• Arab authors give different hypothetical
explanations: the most common of which is
“given by God” or “gift of God”
• Others tend to give the name an Aramaic
origin meaning, “the home or enclosure of
sheep”
Abbasid Caliph Mansur;
• Called his city “Madinat al-Salam” (city of peace).
This was the official name on documents, coins etc. Yhe city was built mainly of sun-burnt bricks
• The plan of Baghdad reflects social ideas. Each
quarter had a person in charge, and generally had a homogeneous group, ethnically or by vocation.
• Markets play a prominent part in the plan of
Baghdad.
• Baghdad was a great centre of culture. It was the home of the Hanafî and Hanbalî school of law. It was the centre for translations, in the Bayt al-Hikma and out side, and of some
scientific experimentation. Its mosques, especially the Jami’ al-Mansur, were great centres of learning. The large number of bookshops which were sometimes literary
salons, indicates the extent of cultural activities.
• Its poets, historians, and scholars are too
numerous to mention. Not only caliphs, but ministers and dignitaries gave every
encouragement to learning.
• The creative period of Islamic culture is
associated with the city
• During this period, artists, engineers, scholars, poets, philosophers, geographers and traders in the Islamic world contributed to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law,
literature,navigation, philosophy, sciences,
sociology, and technology, both by preserving
earlier traditions and by adding inventions and
innovations of their own.
• Also at that time the Muslim world became a major intellectual centre for science, philosophy, medicine and education. In Baghdad they established the
“House of Wisdom“, where scholars, both Muslim and non-Muslim, sought to gather and translate the world’s knowledge into Arabic in the Translation
Movement. Many classic works of antiquity that would otherwise have been forgotten were
translated into Arabic and later in turn translated into Turkish, Sindhi, Persian, Hebrew and Latin.
A Center for Learning
• As the city of Baghdad grew, it developed a
reputation for learning and research. Scholars from all across the Islamic world were
attracted to Baghdad, quickly turning it into an intellectual hub. This was no surprise because Islam puts so much emphasis on acquiring
knowledge.
House of Wisdom
• Caliph Haroon al-Rasheed is credited with expanding the glory of Baghdad to its greatest height during his reign from 786 to 809 C.E. He created an intellectual ambience by encouraging mathematicians, astronomers, scientists, and philosophers. His son, Caliph al-Mamoon went a step further by establishing the House of Wisdom in, an
academic institute devoted to translations, research, and education. It quickly became one of the most famous
centers of learning, attracting scholars from all over the world, from many cultures and religions. Here, teachers and students worked together to translate Greek, Persian, Syriac and Indian manuscripts.
• They studied the works of Aristotle, Plato,
Hippocrates, Euclid, Ptolemy, Pythagoras,
Brahmagupta and many others. Then, they
began building on and testing the knowledge
of the greatest ancient scholars, resulting in
the development of the scientific method of
observation and experimentation.
University
• During the later part of the 11th century, Baghdad introduced the precursor to the modern university in the form of a chain of madrasahs which housed students and a salaried faculty. They were known as the Nizamiyah, after their founder Nizam al-
Mulk, a Seljuk vizier. The largest and most splendid of these was located in Baghdad; the great
theologian al-Ghazali and the celebrated historian
of Saladin, Baha Eddin, were lecturers there.
• The al-Mustansiriyah college was established
in 1234 C.E. by Caliph al-Mustansir. It was a
large two-storied building, oblong in shape,
with a courtyard in the center. Housing and
food were provided for those students who
required it. The curriculum included religious
studies, mathematics, medicine, and history,
among other subjects.
The Scholars of Baghdad
• It is impossible to list and deal with all the
scholars who lived and worked in Baghdad in the centuries of Islamic scientific glory (7
th-
13
thcenturies CE). Thus, here we concentrate
on some who represented diverse disciplines.
Al-Fazari Muhammad ibn Ibrahim
• he was an astronomer that flourished around the second half of the 8th century CE in Baghdad. He is first heard of in connection with the building of
Baghdad in the latter half of 762, when he was associated with the other early scholars of Islam:
Nawbakht, Masha'Allah and Umar ibn Al Farrukhan Al-Tabari who were themselves involved in the
same task. The first work that Al-Fazari completed was the Zij Al-Sindhind Al-kabir which bore much Indian influence.
Yuhanna ibn Sarabiyun
• known in Latin as Ibn Serapion (beginning of 9th century) and not to be mistaken with the physician Yahia Ibn Sarafyun, was a geographer. He authored a book on geography containing a description of the various seas, islands, lakes, mountains and rivers of the world. His descriptions of the Euphrates and
Tigris and of the Nile are very significant. His
account of the canals of Baghdad is our main basis of the reconstruction of the medieval plan of that city.
Abu Al-Wafa Al-Buzjani (940-998)
• as his name indicates, he was born in Buzjan
(Quhistan) but he flourished in Baghdad where he
died. He was an astronomer and mathematician. Abu Al-Wafa was the greatest mathematician of the tenth century, according to Kattani. He wrote commentaries on Euclid, Diophantos and Al-Khwarizmi (all lost);
astronomical tables (zij Al-wadih) of which we possibly have a later adaptation; a practical
arithmetic; "the complete book" (Kitab Al-kamil) and a book of applied geometry (Kitab al handasa).
Al Karaji (sometimes spelt as Al-Karkhi)
• Abu Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Al-Husayn (Al-Hasan) (ca.
1000) was a mathematician active in Baghdad. Virtually nothing is known of his origins, teachers or education, except what he himself wrote:
• "When I arrived in Iraq and saw how both small and great people loved and venerated science, I began to write
works on arithmetic and geometry, one quickly after
another, until I went back to the mountain countries [cities located between Azerbaijan, Iraq, Kurdistan, Persia, and the lands bordering on the Caspian Sea] where I came to stay."
Al-Ghazali
• known in Europe as Algazel, was one of the most
illustrious Muslim scholars. He was born in 1058 near the city of Tus and died in 1111. He was the son of a poor, illiterate man and as a youth he studied law, theology and philosophy before becoming a teacher of law. He became famous throughout Islam for his eloquence and learning. Al-Ghazali spent much of his life teaching and writing, staying in Jerusalem,
Damascus and Baghdad where he flourished and where he taught at the Nizamiyyah College.
'Ali ibn 'Isa
• He was a notable oculist (kahhal) of Baghdad whose life falls in the first half of the 11th century. His main work is Tadkirat Al-kahhalin (Manual for Oculists or Note-book of the Oculists). It is the classical
handbook of Muslim ophthalmology, translated once into Hebrew and twice into Latin, and was printed with the title of Tractatus de oculis Jesu Halis in Venice in 1497, 1499 and 1500. It is the oldest Muslim work on ophthalmology that is complete and survives in the original state.
