To many modern day humans, its that unimportant city riddled with conflict, turmoil, unrest, and despair. I am working on a book project at the moment and the history of Baghdad came to the fore in my research and I couldn’t help but share the fascinating and forgotten tale of this deeply misunderstood city.
When Europe descended in the abyss of the dark ages in the seventh century, Baghdad was reaching for the stars. Founded in 762 by Islam’s spiritual leader, the ‘Caliph’ (equivalent to the Pope in Islam), Jaffar al Mansour; Baghdad lays on the Tigris river and became the capital of the newly created Islamic empire under the rule of the Abbasid dynasty. Baghdad’s remoteness offered solace from the growing factions in Islam following Prophet Muhammad’s death, and the city’s proximity to the water made it a suitable location for trade and agriculture. In addition, Baghdad’s location between Asia and Europe made it central to the trade routes between the two continents. The Abbasids built the city from the ground-up with two giant semi-circles of twelve-mile diameter by the banks of the Tigris. This tastefully poetic urban plan allowed the rulers to adorn the city with many carefully curated gardens, courtyards, fountains, and protected residences inside the city walls.
By the ninth-century, residents of Baghdad could all read and write, and the city attracted scholars from all over Arabia. Chief among Baghdad’s attractions was Bayt al-Ḥikmah, House of Wisdom, a great library and academy that flourished during the golden age of Islam. The House of Wisdom of Baghdad served as the centerpiece of the ‘translation movement’ that translated works from Greek, Persian, Indian, and Syriac languages to Arabic. Later Caliph, al-Ma’mun greatly expanded the scope of the House of Wisdom allowing for unparalleled contributions to the fields of mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and astronomy. Al-Mamun was inspired by Aristotle and oversaw philosophical debates about Islamic beliefs and doctrines in an open and intellectual atmosphere, a rare departure from the deeply conservative practices observed by historians of Islam. Al-Mamun commissioned the mapping of the world and oversaw the development of the first astronomical observatories in Baghdad. The thirst for knowledge and intellectual advancement in medieval Baghdad was boundless and unparalleled.
In the ninth century, Bayt al-Hikma amassed the greatest repository of books in the world and attracted the most brilliant minds at the center of intellectual activity in the Medieval era. Over 150 years, Syriac Christian scholars had translated all scientific and philosophical Greek scripture into Arabic at the House of Wisdom – this included works of Aristotle, Plato, and Hippocrates. Perhaps no single library of the modern era can maintain an acclaim so profound as the House of Wisdom of Baghdad. The development of algebra took place at the House of Wisdom by Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi who was a brilliant mathematician and astronomer. In fact, the etymology of the word ‘algorithm’ can be traced back to al-Khwarizmi. Al-Khwarizmi was also a geographer and created a ‘Picture of the Earth’ by arranging coordinates of hundreds of cities in the world and created instructions for drawing a new map of the world. Al-Khwarizmi was also responsible for introducing the Hindu decimal system to Arabia and subsequently to Europe. Though famous scientists like George Sarton attribute al-Khwarizmi’s indelibe contributions to the field of mathematics and science, one rarely hears of his name compared to the pervasiveness of the Pythagoras theorem or Newton’s law in science and mathematics textbooks. History gets rewritten and every new/later empire holds its acclaim on contributions to progress.
Later academics at the House of Wisdom included Mohammad Musa who is argued to have been the first person in history to point to the universality of the laws of physics. Musa’s brother Hunayn completed a treatise on ophthalmology which ultimately led to the cure for cataract. “These contributions later became standard textbooks of medicine during the European Renaissance”.
During the Golden Age of Islam, Ibn al-Haythm invented the first camera and was able to form an explanation of how the eye sees. Doctor and philosopher Avicenna wrote the Canon of Medicine, a masterpiece in the field of medicine that among many contributions, helped physicians recognize the contagious nature of tuberculosis, and the spread of disease from soil and water. Avicenna also completed a treatise on cardiac drugs and cardiac therapy, a first of its kind at the time [1].
At the dawn of the first Gulf War and the second Gulf War, the history of Baghdad carried no significance. The great minds and inventions that originated from the city bear little mention by the media – Baghdad’s former-self existed as though it never really existed. All that exists in the modern era Baghdad are hum of mortar and residue from thousands of explosions that have pummeled its historical buildings aground.
Some historians argue that the real destruction of Baghdad took place nearly a thousand years ago. In the thirteenth century, when the Mongols destroyed the House of Wisdom during the siege of Baghdad, the Tigris river formed a bridge from the befallen books for horses to pass. Submerged in water, the ink from the books dissipated and darkened the color of the river water. To amplify the gravity of their pillaging, the Mongol invaders repurposed book covers to create thousands of sandals. What was once the epitome of intellectual prowess, now reduced to dirt at the heel of the Mongols. Interestingly, approximately 400,000 manuscripts were rescued prior to the siege by Persian polymath and philosopher, Nasir a-Din al-Tusi who was rescued by Hulagu Khan, the leader of the invading Mongol army at the sacking of the Assassins. The Assassins were a cult group that terrorized the Middle East and Europe by conducting assassinations of notable public figures that included kings, and princes. It is believed, that even the fearless and chivalrous conqueror, Saladin, shuddered at the mention of the Assassins. In an interesting turn of events, Tusi was able to convince the Mongol pillager Hulagu Khan, to help him build a costly observatory where he was able to provide the first scientific explanation of a rainbow. For Baghdad though, the intellectual rainbow that had towered over the city for decades was now diminished by the billowing smoke from the destruction of buildings and manuscripts. Never again would Baghdad recover from such destruction or come close to its former self as the intellectual center of the world. Baghdad in a sense is the manifestation of the fabled city of Atlantis whereby no architecture from the magical time of the Abbasids exists since the destruction laid forth by Hulagu Khan and his forces.
Conclusion
I do not mind a sad story with a happy ending. Sadly, that cannot be said about Baghdad. Sometimes I wonder what its founder al-Mansour would make of the city’s current state. What was his intention for Baghdad for the next thousand years? The centuries following its destruction in 1258 have found nothing but despair. But if the city once held such powerful gravity towards intellectual discovery and progress, perhaps by some miracle it may be rekindled. Baghdad did at one point in its history tried to reach for the stars; reaching for the stars can take light years.
References and Disclaimer: Khan Academy, The New Yorker, BBC, Islamicity.org, and World History. Please note that this briefing contains paraphrased summaries and attributes the original content to the news and research sources. Readers are encouraged to visit the online links to access the full article/paper in its original form for a thorough and complete view. You may need to subscribe to the news agency and source for access. This blog entry contains figures and statistics that may be inaccurate. The post also makes broad generalizations that must be reviewed with caution and demands further research.
Photo Credit: Karim Sahib (Getty Image).