The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) in Baghdad

The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikma) is one of the most mythologized institutions in history, but what do the actual medieval sources say? In this video, we separate legend from evidence, tracing what the House of Wisdom really was in Abbasid Baghdad & what role it played in the translation movement.

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Sources/Recommended Reading:

Dodge, Bayard (translated by) (1970). "The Fihrist of al-Nadim: A Tenth Century Survey of Muslim Culture". Columbia University Press.

El-Hibri, Tayeb (2021). "The Abbasid Caliphate". Cambridge University Press.

Gutas, Dimitri (1998). "Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasaid Society (2nd-4th/5th-10th c.)". Routledge.

Kennedy, Hugh (2006). "When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam's Greatest Dynasty". Da Capo Press.

The Encyclopedia of Islam. Brill.

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