The Origins of the House of Wisdom

Happy Friday folks,

Welcome to the first edition of The House of Wisdom.

Today, we look at the origins of the real House of Wisdom, an intellectual hub that has influenced mankind’s progress for centuries to come.

And (of course) our newsletter.

Sit Back. Relax. And grab your cup of tea. Let’s dive in:

In the heart of the Abbasids, stood Baghdad — a center of trade and knowledge, attracting scholars, merchants, and thinkers from across the world. In the 8th century, during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) was established, a royal library, initially used for translating ancient texts.

It was instrumental in translating works from Greek, Persian, Indian, and Syriac into Arabic, preserving and expanding on the knowledge of these civilizations. And it didn’t just stop at acquiring the works of Plato "Republic”…

The next leader of the Abbasids, Al-Mamun, supported the growth of the library immensely. Al-Ma'mun sent emissaries to the Byzantine Empire to acquire rare manuscripts, including Aristotle’s "Organon," "Nicomachean Ethics," and "Metaphysics," and Plato’s "Timaeus".

The works of Greek scientists weren’t ignore either:

Ptolemy's "Almagest,"

Euclid's "Elements,"

and Galen's medical treatises were just some of the most famous names to be translated.

These texts formed the bedrock of the Islamic Golden Age.

Al-Khwarizmi, the founding father of algebra, was a key scholar at the House of Wisdom and he wrote "Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala," one of the foundational texts of modern mathematics.

But it didn’t stop there. The introduction of paper-making from China around 751 CE revolutionized book production. Baghdad became a major center for paper manufacturing, enabling the proliferation of books and the wide dissemination of knowledge across the Islamic world.

Al-Ma'mun’s commitment to knowledge was exemplified by his dream in which Aristotle allegedly appeared to him, urging the pursuit of wisdom. He established a translation bureau at the House of Wisdom, led by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, who translated works like Galen’s "On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Body."

For context, Galen of Pergamon (216 CE) was a Greek physician and most famously a surgeon who served as a physician to Roman emperors, including Marcus Aurelius. He was the one to advance the theory of the four humors —blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, which remained the dominant medical theory in both the Islamic world and Europe for over a millennium.

Hunayn ibn Ishaq was one of the geniuses of the House of Wisdom — he alone translated nearly 100 works of Galen, Hippocrates, Plato, and Aristotle. But he wasn’t the only one...

Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian scholars worked together, sharing and expanding on knowledge. Thabit ibn Qurra, for example, translated Archimedes' works and made original contributions to geometry and astronomy.

The knowledge preserved and developed in Baghdad eventually reached Europe through Spain and Sicily. Works like Avicenna’s 1 million-word book: "The Canon of Medicine" was used in English Universities all the way up to the 14th century and Alhazen’s "Book of Optics" was also translated into Latin, playing a crucial role in the European Renaissance.

But just as a Golden Age happens, (unfortunately) so does the period of darkness…

By the 10th century, the Abbasid Caliphate faced internal strife and financial difficulties — support for the House of Wisdom waned as political instability grew. The slow and gradual decline had begun.

Eventually, The House of Wisdom met its tragic end when the Mongols, led by Hulagu Khan, sacked Baghdad in 1258.

To give you a real sense of how much knowledge was stored: the Tigris river was said to have ran black from the ink of the thousands of manuscripts that had been thrown in by the Mongols.

As you may have thought, this was a monumental loss for world knowledge. Countless texts, many of which were unique and irreplaceable, were lost forever, severing a key link in the transmission of ancient wisdom.

But the works translated and created there continued to influence scholars in both the Islamic world and the Renaissance, which are the foundations of our modern societies.

The House of Wisdom symbolizes nothing less but what the peak of what knowledge can look like. A library that doesn’t just impact its readers but the world for generations to come.

With this in mind, The House of Wisdom was a fitting name for our Newsletter: a center of eternal knowledge that impacts all generations, covering the beauty of our culture, history and tradition.

Yes, The House of Wisdom was an incredible emblem of our ancestors. But in ancient Egyptian, a rival stands for the title of the greatest library of mankind. Its name: Alexandria.

Until Next Time,

World Scholar