The House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom PDF Author: Jonathan Lyons
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608191907
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
For centuries following the fall of Rome, western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse of the scientific advances coming from Baghdad, Antioch, or the cities of Persia, Central Asia, and Muslim Spain. T here, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge and revitalizing the works of Plato and Aristotle. I n the royal library of Baghdad, known as the House of Wisdom, an army of scholars worked at the behest of the Abbasid caliphs. At a time when the best book collections in Europe held several dozen volumes, the House of Wisdom boasted as many as four hundred thousand. Even while their countrymen waged bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid Christian scholars, thirsty for knowledge, traveled to Arab lands and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine, and philosophy that laid the foundation for the Renaissance. I n this brilliant, evocative book, Lyons shows just how much "Western" culture owes to the glories of medieval Arab civilization, and reveals the untold story of how Europe drank from the well of Muslim learning.

The House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom PDF Author: Jonathan Lyons
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1608191907
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 261

Get Book Here

Book Description
For centuries following the fall of Rome, western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse of the scientific advances coming from Baghdad, Antioch, or the cities of Persia, Central Asia, and Muslim Spain. T here, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge and revitalizing the works of Plato and Aristotle. I n the royal library of Baghdad, known as the House of Wisdom, an army of scholars worked at the behest of the Abbasid caliphs. At a time when the best book collections in Europe held several dozen volumes, the House of Wisdom boasted as many as four hundred thousand. Even while their countrymen waged bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid Christian scholars, thirsty for knowledge, traveled to Arab lands and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine, and philosophy that laid the foundation for the Renaissance. I n this brilliant, evocative book, Lyons shows just how much "Western" culture owes to the glories of medieval Arab civilization, and reveals the untold story of how Europe drank from the well of Muslim learning.

The Abbasid House of Wisdom

The Abbasid House of Wisdom PDF Author: Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000736288
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
This volume examines the library of the Abbasid caliphs, known as "The House of Wisdom" ("Bayt al-Hikma"), exploring how this important institution has been misconceived by scholars’. This book places the palace library within the framework of the multifaceted cultural and scientific activities in the era of the caliphs, Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma’mun, generally regarded as the Golden Age of Islamic civilization. The author studies the first references to the House of Wisdom in European sources and shows how misconceptions arose because of incorrect translations of Arabic manuscripts and also because of how scholars overlooked the historical context of the library in ways that reflected their own cultural and national ambitions. The Abbasid House of Wisdom is perfect for scholars, students, and the wider public interested in the scientific and cultural activities of the Islamic Golden Age.

The House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom PDF Author: Jim Al-Khalili
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101476230
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
A myth-shattering view of the Islamic world's myriad scientific innovations and the role they played in sparking the European Renaissance. Many of the innovations that we think of as hallmarks of Western science had their roots in the Arab world of the middle ages, a period when much of Western Christendom lay in intellectual darkness. Jim al- Khalili, a leading British-Iraqi physicist, resurrects this lost chapter of history, and given current East-West tensions, his book could not be timelier. With transporting detail, al-Khalili places readers in the hothouses of the Arabic Enlightenment, shows how they led to Europe's cultural awakening, and poses the question: Why did the Islamic world enter its own dark age after such a dazzling flowering?

The Abbasid House of Wisdom

The Abbasid House of Wisdom PDF Author: Ekmeleddin Ihsanoğlu
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781003323679
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This volume examines the library of the Abbasid caliphs, known as 'The House of Wisdom' ('Bayt al-Hikma'), exploring how this important institution has been misconceived by scholars'. This book places the palace library within the framework of the multifaceted cultural and scientific activities in the era of the caliphs, Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun, generally regarded as the Golden Age of Islamic civilization. The author studies the first references to the House of Wisdom in European sources and shows how misconceptions arose because of incorrect translations of Arabic manuscripts and also because of how scholars overlooked the historical context of the library in ways that reflected their own cultural and national ambitions. The Abbasid House of Wisdom is perfect for scholars, students and the wider public interested in the scientific and cultural activities of the Islamic Golden Age"--

1001 Inventions

1001 Inventions PDF Author: Salim T. S. Al-Hassani
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426209347
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Modern society owes a tremendous amount to the Muslim world for the many groundbreaking scientific and technological advances that were pioneered during the Golden Age of Muslim civilization between the 7th and 17th centuries. Every time you drink coffee, eat a three-course meal, get a whiff of your favorite perfume, take shelter in an earthquake-resistant structure, get a broken bone set or solve an algebra problem, it is in part due to the discoveries of Muslim civilization.

The Caliph's Splendor

The Caliph's Splendor PDF Author: Benson Bobrick
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416568069
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
The Caliph’s Splendor is a revelation: a history of a civilization we barely know that had a profound effect on our own culture. While the West declined following the collapse of the Roman Empire, a new Arab civilization arose to the east, reaching an early peak in Baghdad under the caliph Harun al-Rashid. Harun is the legendary caliph of The Thousand and One Nights, but his actual court was nearly as magnificent as the fictional one. In The Caliph’s Splendor, Benson Bobrick eloquently tells the little-known and remarkable story of Harun’s rise to power and his rivalries with the neighboring Byzantines and the new Frankish kingdom under the leadership of Charlemagne. When Harun came to power, Islam stretched from the Atlantic to India. The Islamic empire was the mightiest on earth and the largest ever seen. Although Islam spread largely through war, its cultural achievements were immense. Harun’s court at Baghdad outshone the independent Islamic emirate in Spain and all the courts of Europe, for that matter. In Baghdad, great works from Greece and Rome were preserved and studied, and new learning enhanced civilization. Over the following centuries Arab and Persian civilizations made a lasting impact on the West in astronomy, geometry, algebra (an Arabic word), medicine, and chemistry, among other fields of science. The alchemy (another Arabic word) of the Middle Ages originated with the Arabs. From engineering to jewelry to fashion to weaponry, Arab influences would shape life in the West, as they did in the fields of law, music, and literature. But for centuries Arabs and Byzantines contended fiercely on land and sea. Bobrick tells how Harun defeated attempts by the Byzantines to advance into Asia at his expense. He contemplated an alliance with the much weaker Charlemagne in order to contain the Byzantines, and in time Arabs and Byzantines reached an accommodation that permitted both to prosper. Harun’s caliphate would weaken from within as his two sons quarreled and formed factions; eventually Arabs would give way to Turks in the Islamic empire. Empires rise, weaken, and fall, but during its golden age, the caliphate of Baghdad made a permanent contribution to civilization, as Benson Bobrick so splendidly reminds us.

Greek Thought, Arabic Culture

Greek Thought, Arabic Culture PDF Author: Dimitri Gutas
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415061322
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
With the accession of the Arab dynasty of the 'Abbasids to power and the foundation of Baghdad, a Graeco-Arabic translation movement was initiated, and by the end of the tenth century, almost all scientific and philosophical secular Greek works that were available in late antiquity had been translated into Arabic. This book explores the social, political and ideological factors operative in early 'Abbasid society that sustained the translation movement.

The Early Abbasid Caliphate

The Early Abbasid Caliphate PDF Author: Hugh Kennedy
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317358074
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
The early Abbasid Caliphate was an important period for Islam. The dynasty, based in Baghdad, ruled over a vast Empire, stretching from the Indus Valley and Southern Russia to the East to Tunisia in the West; and presided over an age of brilliant cultural achievements. This study, first published in 1981, examines the Abbasid Caliphs from their coming to power in 750 AD, to the death of the Caliph al-Ma’mun in 833 AD, when the period of Turkish domination began. It looks at the political history of the period, and also considers the social and economic factors, showing how they developed and influenced political life. The work is designed as a unique introduction to the period, and will prove invaluable to all students involved with Islamic, Byzantine and Mediterranean history and culture.

Muslim Philosophy

Muslim Philosophy PDF Author: Hamid Naseem
Publisher: Sarup & Sons
ISBN: 9788176252300
Category : Islam and science
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
Muslims Have Been Provided By Allah A Complete Code Of Conduct In The Form Of Holy Quran. In Quran There Are Two Types Of Verses I.E. Allegorial (Mutashabiat) And Categorical (Mukhamat). The Mutashabiat Verses Of Quran Are Mostly Pertaining To The Essence Of Allah And His Attributes, Predestination, Soul And Life Here After Death Etc. Etc. Since These Verses Are Outside The Purview Of Human Reasoning, Much Hair Splitting And Question Begging Has Not Been Encouraged In This Regard. Yet Many Of The Muslim Thinkers And Philosophers Have Ventured To Enter Into Detailed Discussions In These Matters.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam PDF Author: Salim Ayduz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199812578
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 1149

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Book Description
The main reference source for questions of Islamic philosophy, science, and technology amongst Western engaged readers and academics in general and legal researchers in particular.