Kinlore
750–1258

The Abbasid Caliphate and Baghdad's Golden Age

The Abbasids found Baghdad, and scholars across the Islamic world translate Greek learning and lead the world in mathematics, medicine and philosophy.

  • Abbasid caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society — Dimitri Gutas, Routledge (1998)
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • A History of the Arab Peoples — Albert Hourani, Faber and Faber (1991)
  • The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization — Marshall G. S. Hodgson, University of Chicago Press (1974)

Well established empireknowledgeculture

The Abbasids, descended from the Prophet’s uncle al-Abbas, moved the centre of the empire east. In 762 the caliph al-Mansur founded Baghdad on the Tigris, a round city that within decades was one of the largest in the world.

  • Abbasid caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
The famous caliph Harun al-Rashid (786–809), remembered in the Thousand and One Nights, ruled at its height.
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • A History of the Arab Peoples — Albert Hourani, Faber and Faber (1991)

From the late eighth century, patrons in Baghdad paid for the translation of Greek works of philosophy, medicine, astronomy and mathematics into Arabic, often by Christian scholars. The caliph al-Ma’mun (813–833) is linked to the Bayt al-Hikma, the “House of Wisdom”. Historians such as Dimitri Gutas caution that it was probably a palace library rather than the great academy of legend, and that the translation movement was driven by a whole society of patrons, not one institution.

  • Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early 'Abbasid Society — Dimitri Gutas, Routledge (1998)
  • Abbasid caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica
Out of this came figures such as al-Khwarizmi, whose book gave us the word “algebra” and whose name gave “algorithm”; and later, across the Muslim world, the physician-philosopher Ibn Sina (Avicenna, 980–1037), whose Canon of Medicine was used in European universities for centuries.
  • A History of the Arab Peoples — Albert Hourani, Faber and Faber (1991)
  • Avicenna — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization — Marshall G. S. Hodgson, University of Chicago Press (1974)

The same centuries shaped religion itself. The four Sunni schools of law took form, the great hadith collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim were compiled, and Sufi mysticism grew.

  • An Introduction to Islamic Law — Wael B. Hallaq, Cambridge University Press (2009)
  • Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World — Jonathan A. C. Brown, Oneworld (2009)
  • Mystical Dimensions of Islam — Annemarie Schimmel, University of North Carolina Press (1975)
Politically, the caliphs’ real power faded after the ninth century, as regional dynasties, rival caliphates in Cairo (the Fatimids) and Córdoba, and Turkish sultans took over. But the caliph in Baghdad stayed a symbol of Sunni unity until 1258.
  • Abbasid caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica
  • The Prophet and the Age of the Caliphates — Hugh Kennedy, Longman (1986)
  • Caliphate — Encyclopaedia Britannica

Why it matters today

Islam

Many Muslims look back to this era with pride as proof that faith and science went hand in hand. Words like algebra and algorithm, and the "Arabic" numerals used worldwide, carry its memory. It was also when Islamic law, theology and the great hadith collections took the shape they still have.