Baghdad in the Middle Ages. Beacon of the World

Words fail to capture this city’s historical stature. Baghdad, home to eight million people and the largest city in the Middle East after Cairo, has a glory and a history few other cities can match. Let us return to the Middle Ages, when much of the world was mired in ignorance and fanaticism, to see Baghdad as a beacon of civilization and to draw from its past the nostalgia that still shines above prejudice and ignorance. Here is the story of Baghdad... a thousand years ago.

Baghdad is the greatest city and the city of medieval dreams

Words fail to capture this city’s historical stature. Baghdad, home to eight million people and the largest city in the Middle East after Cairo, has a glory and a history few other cities can match. Let us return to the Middle Ages, when much of the world was mired in ignorance and fanaticism, to see Baghdad as a beacon of civilization and to draw from its past the nostalgia that still shines above prejudice and ignorance. Here is the story of Baghdad... a thousand years ago.

Going back a thousand years to the past

In the eighth century AD, between 762 and 764, the Baghdad we know was founded by the Abbasid caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur. He built the city and made it the largest inhabited city in the world at the time, with more than a million people, turning it into a center for science and the arts. He gave it four gates—Khorasan, Bab al-Sham, Bab al-Kufa and Bab al-Basra—and surrounded it with an impressive circular wall, traces of which still stand today. Baghdad reached the height of its power and beauty under Caliph Harun al-Rashid and rightly earned the title of capital of the ancient world. The city was also known by other names, including the Round City, al-Zawra and Dar al-Salam.

The best eras of Baghdad

When Harun al-Rashid became caliph in 786 AD, he granted a general amnesty to fugitives and the oppressed, with exceptions for certain heretics, and he established the House of Wisdom. He gathered large numbers of books and ordered translations of the most important scientific works of his time into Arabic—for example, Euclid’s Elements. He encouraged and rewarded scholars and inventors, which helped science flourish, especially in physics, astronomy, medicine and engineering. One notable example was a water clock he sent as a gift to Charlemagne, king of the Franks. The clock, about four meters high, released a number of metal balls every hour; the falling balls marked the hours so precisely that Charlemagne and his court thought it was the work of magic, saying, "Our magic is Harun." This clock highlights the technological gap between the Arabs and Europeans in Harun al-Rashid’s era.

Industry and Art in Baghdad

Harun al-Rashid welcomed scholars and poets from three continents, and his era produced remarkable works of art and literature, including the tales collected in One Thousand and One Nights and the fables of Kalila and Dimna. Many medical and astronomical books were translated into Arabic from Persian, Sanskrit and other languages. He also transferred the technology of papermaking from China to Baghdad and established the first paper factory, which proved far cheaper and easier than parchment made from animal skins. With the fusion of many sciences and cultures under Baghdad’s roofs, the city became the most advanced and civilized in the world. This development also contributed to the spread of the numeral system we now call Arabic numerals—and to the influential concept of zero, which had a profound impact on the advancement of mathematics worldwide.

House of Wisdom is the center of science in the heart of Baghdad

The Abbasid caliph Abu Ja'far al-Mansur loved books on medicine, astronomy, engineering and literature and collected many of them in the caliphal palace. When Harun al-Rashid succeeded him, he turned that collection into a public library and added many books translated during his reign, naming it the House of Wisdom and making its knowledge available to everyone. He also ordered the careful preservation and transfer of books taken during campaigns, such as those from the conquests of Amorium and Ankara. The House of Wisdom reached its finest period under Caliph al-Ma'mun, who prioritized translating Greek and Latin works. He turned the House into a global center for study and translation and produced many notable scholars. Al-Ma'mun even negotiated for Greek manuscripts from defeated Romans in exchange for peace treaties or the release of prisoners. He paid translators by the weight of what they translated in dinars, which made translation work flourish. Translators such as Hunayn ibn Ishaq advanced the process from literal, word-for-word rendering to translation that captured meaning, making the works richer and more eloquent. Hunayn ibn Ishaq alone is said to have had more than one hundred pupils.

What we have described about medieval Baghdad gives the reader a simple sense of that city’s development and of how much Baghdad’s civilization contributed to progress in science and the arts. Baghdad earned—and still deserves—credit for these achievements, despite the tragedies and suffering it has endured over time.