4573 AM · 813 CE · world history
The House of Wisdom and the translations
In Baghdad, Greek, Persian and Indian books are translated into Arabic.
Under the caliph al-Mamun, translation in Baghdad becomes a business of state: manuscripts are collected, translators paid, versions collated. The Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his school render Galen and Hippocrates into Arabic; Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, the Persian chronicles and Indian astronomy follow. So there survived works whose Greek originals are lost; through the Arabic translations and their Latin renderings they will return to Europe. On these same books Jewish philosophy will be raised—from Saadia Gaon to Maimonides.
Sources
Documents of the period
- Arabic translations of Galen, Euclid and Ptolemy — the translations themselves — a bridge from antiquity to Europe
Scholarship
- Arabic and Ottoman chronicles — Baghdad as the meeting point of Greek, Persian and Indian learning
Basis: documents and evidence.