HOUSE OF WISDOMBAYT 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:o Harun Al-Rashid (763-809 AD) was the

Caliph of the Abbasid Empire. o he set up a library called the Bayt al-Hikma.

In English it is called the House of Wisdom.

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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

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 .

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 MovementThe 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 mathematiciano Inventor of the eponymous algorithm and introduced Hindu

decimal numerals, and algebra to Arabic Empireo worked in al- Ma'mun's House of Wisdom and is famous for his

contributions to the development of algebraINVENTION 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.

Omar Khayyam Ishaq al- Kindi

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.

HUNAYN

JABIR IBN HAYYAN

 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

Baghdado 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 ChurchClass structure of Europe: Two classes only: Upper Class (Clergy, Lords,)

Lower class ( Peasants )The language of science was Arabic for that 700

years .

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.

.WHAT IS RENISSANCE?

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 ENDED1. 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