The History Book

88

dropping brass balls onto cymbals

at the mechanism’s base. This

sophisticated timepiece was just

one of the advances the Arabs had

made—advances that left their

European counterparts far behind.

The rise of the Abbasids

After the death of the Prophet

Muhammad in 632, his successors

ruled over a growing Islamic empire

(or caliphate). Following the murder

in 744 of the caliph al-Walid, a

member of the Umayyad family that

had ruled from Damascus since 661,

civil war broke out, ending only

when the Abbasid dynasty came to

power in 750. The Abbasids spent

their first decade pacifying the

empire, with the help of troops from

Khurasan in northeastern Iran.

These troops, a mixture of Arab-

speakers, Persians, and central

Asians, had been among the

Abbasids’ principal backers and

had provided them with a power

base independent of the Arab

tribes based in northern Arabia,

Syria, and Iraq who had supported

the Umayyads.

It was in part to provide land

for his Khurasani soldiers that

al-Mansur, the second Abbasid

caliph, established the city of

Baghdad in 762. He chose the site

for its mild climate and its location

on the trade routes between Persia,

Arabia, and the Mediterranean.

It was also just 20 miles to the

southeast of the Persian royal seat

at Ctesiphon, which it soon eclipsed,

enabling the new dynasty to portray

themselves as masters of a culture

that stretched back to Cyrus the

THE FOUNDING OF BAGHDAD

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Islamic society and science

BEFORE

711 A Muslim Arab and

Berber army conquers the

Visigothic Kingdom of Spain.

756 Umayyad prince Abd

ar-Rahman I establishes a

court at Cordoba in Spain.

AFTER

800 The first Islamic hospital

is established in Baghdad.

825 Al-Khwarizmi introduces

decimal notation (derived from

India) to the Islamic world.

1138 – 54 Al-Idrisi compiles a

world map for Roger II of Sicily.

1258 The sack of Baghdad

marks the end of the Abbasid

caliphate.

1259 An astronomical

observatory is founded at

Maragha.

I

n 762 the second ruler of the

newly ascendant Abbasid

dynasty moved the capital of

the powerful Islamic Caliphate from

Damascus to the newly-founded

city of Baghdad. The move is often

seen as marking the beginning of

an Islamic golden age in which

science, art, and culture flourished.

The extent of Muslim technological

development was demonstrated in

802 when the Abbasid caliph Harun

al-Rashid dispatched an embassy

to the Frankish ruler, Charlemagne,

which included the gift of a water

clock that chimed the hours by

Al-Mansur founds

Baghdad and the city

becomes a centre of

Muslim science and

learning.

Islamic conquests result

in many collections of Greek

manuscripts being held in

Arab-controlled areas.

Translation of Greek

scientific texts in the House

of Wisdom in Baghdad leads

to Arab scientific advances.

Arabic translations

of Greek authors appear

in Europe where they are

translated into Latin, so

diffusing knowledge of lost

classical texts.

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89

Great in the 6th century bce. The

heart of the new capital was a mile-

wide, circular enclosure in which

sat the caliphal palace and main

government offices.

Search for knowledge

The Abbasids laid claim not only

to their predecessors’ political

heritage, but also to their cultural

and scientific achievements.

Although the Umayyad Empire

had included ancient seats of

Greek learning such as Alexandria

in Egypt, under their rule there had

been little sponsorship of scientific

endeavor. This changed under the

Abbasids, who spent their time

consolidating Islamic rule rather

than on campaigns of conquest.

They sponsored scholars to explore

knowledge gained from foreign

works, rather than relying solely on

the guidance found in the Koran

and the hadiths (the sayings of the

Prophet Muhammad).

The earliest advances were

made in medicine. During the mid-

to late 6th century, a philosophical

school at Gondeshapur in south-

western Iran became a center of

medical scholarship. It was staffed

mainly by Christians from the

Nestorian sect, which had been

persecuted in the Byzantine

Empire. In 765, al-Mansur is said

to have summoned staff member

Jurjis ibn Jibril ibn Bukhtishu to

Baghdad to diagnose a stomach

complaint. So pleased was the

caliph with his treatment that he

prevailed upon Jurjis to stay on as

See also: Siddartha Gautama preaches Buddhism 40–41 ■ The palace at Knossos 42–43 ■ The conquests of

Alexander the Great 52–53 ■ Muhammad receives the divine revelation 78–81 ■ Mansa Musa’s Hajj to Mecca 110–11 ■

The Arab advance is halted at Tours 132 ■ The conquests of Akbar the Great 170–71 ■

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

Harun al-Rashid Harun (763–809) succeeded as

caliph in 783 after the mysterious

death of his older brother al-Hadi,

who had reigned for just one year.

For the first 20 years of his reign,

the Barmakid family, who helped

strengthen a powerful central

administration, dominated court.

Under Harun’s rule, Baghdad

became the most powerful city in

the Islamic world, and flourished

as a center of knowledge, culture,

invention, and trade. Even so, for

almost two decades Harun based

himself at Raqqa, closer to the

frontiers of the Byzantine Empire,

against which he launched a raid

in 806, personally commanding

an army of many thousands.

Harun’s gift of an elephant to

Charlemagne in 802 was part of

a series of diplomatic exchanges

with the Frankish court that

were intended to put further

pressure on the Byzantines.

Harun’s House of Wisdom,

a translation bureau, library,

and academy for scholars and

intellectuals from across the

empire, contributed to his

nickname al-Rashid (“the Just”).

He died in 809 while on an

expedition to Khurasan in the

northeast of Iran.

In addition to his profound

knowledge of logic and law

[al-Mansur... was] very

interested in philosophy and

observational astronomy.

Said al-Andalusi

Islamic historian (c.1068)

his personal physician, and for

eight generations until the mid-11th

century, members of the Bukhtishu

family occupied the position at the

Baghdad court, bringing with them

knowledge of Greek and Hellenistic

texts and medical practices. In 800,

Caliph Harun al-Rashid asked Jibril

ibn Bukhtishu, Jurjis’s grandson, to

head the new hospital in Baghdad,

the first in the Islamic world.

Al-Mansur established a library

in Baghdad to house his collection

of manuscripts. This venture was

made easier by the Arab adoption

of paper as a medium for books,

and the establishment in Baghdad

in 795 of a paper mill. However,

since Arabic speakers had no

access to this learning, the library

did little to advance an indigenous

Arab scientific tradition.

House of Wisdom

To remedy this, Harun al-Rashid

(caliph from 786 to 809) and

al-Mamun (reigned 813–833)

established the Bayt al Hikma

(House of Wisdom), which not only

housed the growing library, but ❯❯

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