The House of Wisdom was a highly respected library that not only contained books, but collected and preserved them. The main purpose of this vast library was to translate Persian books into Arabic, which later expanded into the translation Persian, Indian and Greek texts. It was built during the 800s and was founded by the Caliph Al-Ma’mun . He was born in 786 and died in 833 after leading a life full of passion for knowledge. He was a Caliph during the time the Abbasid Caliphate strived to intregrate ethnic and religious minorities into their culture, which is what gave brith to the Islamic Golden Age. As a young man, al-Ma’mun was very invested in learning, he studied anywhere from arithmetic to poetry and was a brilliant student of philosophy and theology. Even though he was not the only caliph to support scholarship, al-Ma’mun was by far the most cultured and passionate; he created an environment that supported original thinking and free debate. Long before his reign, al-Ma’mun’s great grandfather, al-Mansur, began the translation movement. This movement was the foundation of the House of Wisdom; it spread the idea that seeking knowledge is a necessary factor of life to society.
Among the many scholars working in the House of Wisdom, there was Al-Khawarizmi, known as the father of algebra. Born around 800 in Baghdad, al-Khwarizmi worked in the House of Wisdom as a scholar. Being involved in the center’s translation of ancient scientific knowledge helped him develop a unique knowledge of the accumulated wisdom of the world. His importance lies in his discoveries of mathematical knowledge which was later transferred to Arab and European scholars. His masterpiece, a book of clear explanations of what would become al...
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...y lost their power in the wake of Mongol invasions, the wisdom contained in the vast library was destroyed along with the entire city of Baghdad. However, because of the vast networks of learning that were established during the Islamic Golden Age, the academic knowledge was saved and deposited in various parts of the Islamic culture.
Works Cited
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2004/sep/23/research.highereducation1
Tom Sizgorich, Abbasid dynasty (
Jim Al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance (London: Penguin Books, 2010), 6.
Al-Khalili, The House of Wisdom, 4.
Ibid., 37-38
Tom Sizgorich, al-Khwarizmi
Stockdale, Nancy, Abbasid Caliphate: The Abbasids: Patrons of the Islamic Golden Age, In World History: Ancient and Medieval Eras. ABC-CLIO, 2004. http://ancienthistory.abc-clio.com/.
...y by compiling a summary of Islamic history, and, by doing so, creates a complete Islamic history that can go toe to toe with European history. As a result, his argument stands to be thorough, suggesting that Islamic history indeed plays a role in today’s international world
Print. Doak, Robin. Empire of the Islamic World. Rev. ed.
Ibn Khaldun. “Il Muqaddimah.” Ed. Paul Davis. Gary Harrison. David M. Johnson. John F. Crawford. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Page Range:1732-1739. Print.
Ansary, Tamim. Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes. New York: PublicAffairs, 2009.
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
The Islamic Empire explored natural philosophy and employed these understandings in instrumentality. They accumulated the natural philosophy of other cultures and expanded on their ideas in accordance with practicality. The Islamic Empire was the most advanced scientific nation for 500 years but declined because there was not much need for improvement in functioning. Career scientist only existed amongst the rich. The Islamic Empire is focused on the instrumentality of science, but even with the pronounced focus of instrumentality, the Islamic Empire experienced a dynamic between the dichotomy of instrumentality and natural philosophy, each seemingly distinct branch of science ebbing and flowing with the support and advancement of one another.
Islamic civilization began in Arabia, but it spread to many areas in the proximity of the peninsula. It spread as far as Spain, as well as many areas between the two locations. The civilization reached the Eastern Roman Empire, Persia, Egypt, and Africa. The Muslim warriors were extremely courageous, and their religious zeal aided in the conquests of many empires surrounding Arabia. However, the weakn...
Adas, Michael, Marc Jason Gibert, Peter N. Stearns, and Stuart B. Schwartz. “Abbasid Decline and the spread of Islamic civilization to south and south Asia.”World civilizations. The Global Experience. 6th ed.Vol combined. New Jersey: Longman, 2011. 270-90. Print.
The Muqaddimah is a thirteenth century historical and sociological work that was written by one of the greatest historians at the time, Ibn Khaldun. His work was used all the way up until the 19th century because no other work has given so much in-depth detail to the history and society of the Middle East in the Middle Ages and prior to that. Ibn Khaldun has read more first-hand references to what really did happen, and understands how the Caliphates fell within the Middle East. He is very critical of other historians, but this is what makes him so accurate at this point in time. He comes up with theories that emphasize the importance of accurate references, science, politics, dynasties, and religion.
HISTORYThe Library of congress was established by an act of congress on April 24, 1800. It was originally housed in the United States capitol. The collection, which stared out small at 740 volumes, slowly increased to over 3,000 volumes by 1814. That year, though, the British along with the capitol burned those books during the assault on Washington.To rapidly replace the collection, Thomas Jefferson offered his personal library to congress at no cost, describing the nature of his books like so: "I do not know that it contains any branch of science which Congress would wish to exclude from the collections; there is, in fact, no subject to which a Member of Congress may not have occasion to refer." This changed the library from a tiny legislative workplace to the largest national institute that it was about to become.Jefferson’s more or less 6,500 volumes formed the heart of the library, and grew speedily in the nineteenth century. The new copyright law of 1870 demanded that two copies of every single book copyrighted had to be given to the library in order to receive protection.
In conclusion, it is clear that while their ancient civilization perished long ago, the contributions that the Egyptians made to mathematics have lived on. The Egyptians were practical in their approach to mathematics, and developed arithmetic and geometry in response to transactions they carried out in business and agriculture on a daily basis. Therefore, as a civilization that created hieroglyphs, the decimal system, and hieratic writing and numerals, the contributions of the Egyptians to the study of mathematics cannot and should not be overlooked.
Mathematics in Islamic Civilization - Dr. Ragheb Elsergany - Islam Story. (n.d.). Islam Story - Supervised by Dr. Ragheb Elsergany. Retrieved April 26, 2011, from http://en.islamstory.com/mathematics-islamic-civilization.html
Burton, D. (2011). The History of Mathematics: An Introduction. (Seventh Ed.) New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The history of math has become an important study, from ancient to modern times it has been fundamental to advances in science, engineering, and philosophy. Mathematics started with counting. In Babylonia mathematics developed from 2000B.C. A place value notation system had evolved over a lengthy time with a number base of 60. Number problems were studied from at least 1700B.C. Systems of linear equations were studied in the context of solving number problems.
Ibn al Haytham was a Muslim innovator born in 965 in Basra. He is also known as Alhazen and The First Scientist. In his time, Alhazen was able to invent the first pinhole camera and a camera obscura. Before Alhazen, scientists believed that they did not have to scientifically prove their findings, however, he knew better. Every experiment or hypothesis Alhazen came up with, he submitted it to a physical test and/or proof using mathematic equations. (“Arab Inventors”)