This report has been produced in response to the task set in Research Skills 2 to research a topic.My topic was Early Muslim Libraries and I was focusing on past and present libraries in Baghdad.
Baghdad history
Baghdad was intended to be the very hart of the Muslim world.
The origin of the name "Baghdad" is under some dispute. Some say it comes from an Aramaic phrase that means "sheep enclosure" (not very poetic...). Others contend that the word comes from ancient Persian: "bagh" meaning God, and "dad" meaning gift. "The gift of God...." .Al-Mansur named the city Madinat al-Salam ("City of Peace").
The capital and largest city of Iraq is Baghdad. Located along historic trade routes, it has been an important city in the Middle East for thousands of years. Baghdad has historically been a center of Islamic culture, but fighting has damaged some of its landmarks.Several centuries-old mosques still stand in the city, as does the Iraq Museum, known for its archaeological collection. The al-Awqaf Library Central Library and the University of Baghdad are resource centers for Arabic history and literature.People have lived on the site of Baghdad for some4,000 years. A Persian village on the site became famous in AD 762 when the Arabs made it the capital of their empire. The population rapidly grew to 2 million, making it the largest city in the world at that time. The city became a center of learning, especially in the sciences.
In the centuries that followed, however, Baghdad slowly declined. It faced civil wars and foreign invasions. In 1258 the Mongols overran the city, massacred its inhabitants, and killed the caliph. The destruction begun by the Mongols was completed by the conquering Turks in 1534. Baghdad was part of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire until World War I, when British troops captured the city. After the war, Great Britain was granted control of Iraq. In 1921 the British created the kingdom of Iraq, and Baghdad became the capital.
Islamic Golden Age
Islamic Golden Age, also known as the Islamic Renaissance, is a period of cultural and intellectual growth and activity that persisted throughout the Islamic world (from Morocco and Spain in the west to Afghanistan and Pakistan in the east) between the 8th and 13th centuries. The Islamic Golden Age began when the Abbasid Caliphate, followers in the tradition of Muhammad, transferred its capital from Damascus in Turkey to Baghdad in Iraq. The leaders of the Abbasid Caliphate were lovers of knowledge and they encouraged the establishment of numerous academic and public institutions to further that knowledge.Some institutions founded during the Islamic Golden Age include the public hospital, psychiatric hospital, public libraries, academic degree-granting universities, and the astronomical observatory as a research institute.Today, the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco is regarded as the world’s oldest degree-granting university, founded in 859.
By the 10th century, key Islamic cities such as Baghdad, Tripoli, Cairo, and Cordoba had huge libraries with between 600,000 and 3 million books, many of which were destroyed in subsequent centuries. The corpus of knowledge generated during this time exceeds the combined works of ancient Greece and Rome, and represents the first scientific works in history. Fundamental findings in optics, mechanics, physics, agriculture, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, and thousands of other fields were achieved during this golden time in Islam history.
The video below is talking about some of the contributions of the Islamic golden age to the science and mathematics.
House of Wisdom and Al-Ma'mun
Al-Ma'mun born 786, Baghdad, Iraq — died August 833, Tarsus, Cilicia) Seventh caliph (r. 813 – 833) of the 'Abbasid dynasty. He was the son of the celebrated Harun al-Rashid. He was the greatest patron of philosophy and science in the history of Islam.
Under his rule the famous 'Bayt al-Hikmah' (House of Wisdom), was built, and it became a center of research where scholars came to translate and interpret great works of cultures into Arabic. The library contained books on all subjects, such as literature, natural sciences, and logic. The House of Wisdom served as a museum, library, translation office, school, and meeting centre. Under the sponsorship of caliph al-Ma’mun House of Wisdom took on new functions related to mathematics and astrology. The focus also shifted from Persian to Greek science. Muslim scholars began to make their own unique contribution to the fields of chemistry, medicine, geography, arithmetic and astronomy. Along with all other libraries in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258. It was said that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river.
The video below talks about House of Wisdom, and Islamic world contribution to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, sociology, and technology.
National Library and Archive
The National Library and Archive is the oldest heritage institution in Iraq. It contained 45,000 rare printed books of which 6,000 were in the Ottoman script as well as a number of special collections. British colonial administration constructed original Iraq National Library and achieve in Baghdad, Iraq in 1920.It started as one of many capital and social projects, which was intended to create a sense of national identity among the diverse groups of people in the state. Millions of new books were created through a free press system, this in turn caused literacy and education rates to rise sighificantly "Much of the new nationalism was directed squarely against the British occupation. In 1930 Britain agreed to guarantee complete independence for Iraq within two years. In 1932 Iraq did indeed receive its independence and was admitted into the League of Nations in 1976, during the the INLA was moved and rebuilt in a different location, which is its most recent location. As Saddam Hussein came into power the library weaken along with other significant institutions.
A Man-Made Disaster
Fire and Destruction Gallery
Looting in Iraq
Under his rule the famous 'Bayt al-Hikmah' (House of Wisdom), was built, and it became a center of research where scholars came to translate and interpret great works of cultures into Arabic. The library contained books on all subjects, such as literature, natural sciences, and logic. The House of Wisdom served as a museum, library, translation office, school, and meeting centre. Under the sponsorship of caliph al-Ma’mun House of Wisdom took on new functions related to mathematics and astrology. The focus also shifted from Persian to Greek science. Muslim scholars began to make their own unique contribution to the fields of chemistry, medicine, geography, arithmetic and astronomy. Along with all other libraries in Baghdad, the House of Wisdom was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Baghdad in 1258. It was said that the waters of the Tigris ran black for six months with ink from the enormous quantities of books flung into the river.
The video below talks about House of Wisdom, and Islamic world contribution to agriculture, the arts, economics, industry, law, literature, navigation, philosophy, sciences, sociology, and technology.
National Library and Archive
The National Library and Archive is the oldest heritage institution in Iraq. It contained 45,000 rare printed books of which 6,000 were in the Ottoman script as well as a number of special collections. British colonial administration constructed original Iraq National Library and achieve in Baghdad, Iraq in 1920.It started as one of many capital and social projects, which was intended to create a sense of national identity among the diverse groups of people in the state. Millions of new books were created through a free press system, this in turn caused literacy and education rates to rise sighificantly "Much of the new nationalism was directed squarely against the British occupation. In 1930 Britain agreed to guarantee complete independence for Iraq within two years. In 1932 Iraq did indeed receive its independence and was admitted into the League of Nations in 1976, during the the INLA was moved and rebuilt in a different location, which is its most recent location. As Saddam Hussein came into power the library weaken along with other significant institutions.A Man-Made Disaster
Fire and Destruction Gallery
The National Library and Archives a priceless treasure of Ottoman historical documents, including the old royal archives of Iraq were turned to ashes. Immediately after the downfall of Saddam's regime, some arsonists set fire to various parts of the INLA's building, damage. Almost all the equipments were destroyed or carried away serious damage was inflicted upon the archival collections. The reason why the arsonists were so easily able to burn and loot the INLA was that American soldiers withdrew from the site, leaving it without any protection whatsoever. Within the space of three days, the INLA lost a large portion of its archival collections. The INLA lost around 60% of its archival collections, and 25% of its library collections, including rare books, maps and photos. The remaining collections were in very bad condition, as they were exposed to high temperature and covered by thick soot and dust. The rebuilt National Library and Archives in Baghdad opened in December 2006, this was made possible by various donations and help for many international libraries such as Library of Congress.
Looting in Iraq
This video is really good to see. It talks about Looting of the cultural places in Iraq and how Americans maybe cloud have helped but they didn't. One of the comments that will stay with me is "NOW WE DO NOT HAVE NATIONAL HERITAGE ", this comment sounded familiar to me because I come from the country where there was war and unstable conditions ,I know the feeling when you louse important pieces of your people and ancestors.
Making Diference
Saad Eskander (born 1962) is a academic and researcher. He was born in Baghdad,. He received his B.A. in modern history from the University of North London and his PhD in international relations and history from the London School of Economics. Through his own free will, Saad decided to return to his home city of Baghdad in 2003 after 23 years of absence. After Sadaam had been removed, Saad and a group of Iraqi artists, writers and academics from the UK returned to their country to see what they could do. The entire group except for Saad returned to London almost immediately because they were so shocked by the security situation. Saad alone was prepared to risk his life in order to assist with the rebuilding of the nation that he loves. Since 2003 he has served as the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive. During the height of civil war in Iraq, he wrote a blog diary about the experience of living in Baghdad, which was subsequently published on the British Library's website.
The diary was written between November 2006 and July 2007(his last entry).It is quite good to know that the National Heritage of Iraq is still preserved even after the war. Iraq, especially the City of Baghdad was a prosperous city in the trade route between Asia and Europe. So, this archive not only house the documents related to the Arab world but also the whole Europe and Asia.
Bibliography:
Kennedy, Hugh 2004, 'The Court of the Caliphs: When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World', Phoenix, London.
Hill, James, Fred & Awde Nicholas 2003, ‘A History of the Islamic World’, Hippocrene Books, New York.
Islam and Mathematics 2009,28 May, viewed 26 April 2010,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzcHatLa-CU
Muslim heritage 2009, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization, viewed 25 April 2010,
http://www.muslimheritage.com/
Golden age, viewed 25 April 2010,
http://www.islamcity.com/mosque/ihame/sec7.htm
Kennedy, Hugh 2004, ‘The Court of the Caliphs: When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World’, Phoenix, London.
Hill, James, Fred & Awde Nicholas 2003, ‘A History of the Islamic World’, Hippocrene Books, New York.
Kennedy, Hugh 2007, ‘The Great Arab Conquests: How the spread of Islam changed the world we live in’, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.
Jordan, Michael, 2002, ‘Islam: an illustrated history’, Carlton, London.
Douglas, Susan 2009,’Early Baghdad’ Calliope; Jan2009, Vol. 19 Issue 4, p6-9, 4p, 4 color, EBSCOhost, viewed 30 April, 2010.
Kennedy, Hugh 2004, ‘The Court of the Caliphs: When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World’, Phoenix, London.
Lyons, Jonathan 2010, The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc,London.
Ma'mun, al 2010,” Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Library Edition,viewed 5 May 2010,
http://www.library.eb.com.au.ezproxy.slv.vic.gov.au/all/eb/article-4540
Abbasid 2007, Info please, viewed 5 May 2010,
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0802047.html
BAYT al-HIKMA, 1999, Muslim philosophy, viewed 5 May 2010,
http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ei2/hikma.htm
Islam, Philosophy and Science in Baghdad-Islamic Golden Age 2010,19 April, viewed 5 May 2010,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUkyOjl4YJ4
Polastorn, Lucien X 2007, ‘Books on fire: The tumultuous story of the world’s great libraries’ Thames & Hudson, London
Al-Naqshbandi, Zain, 2004,’ Report on the Central Awqaf Library ‘viewed 10.05.2010,
http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/IRAQ/mela/melairaq.html
Eskander, Seed,(no year), ‘Records and Archives Recovery in Iraq: Past, Present and Future’,viewed 10.05.2010,
http://www.iraqnla.org/fp/art/art1.htm
Looting in Iraq, 2007,11,November, viewed 15 May 2010,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVSIwv_XNHE
Cohen Patricia 2007,” Baghdad Day to Day: Librarian’s Journal” , vieved 21 May 2010,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/books/07libe.html?_r=2&th=&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&emc=th&adxnnlx=1170866346-+uBqalT0NVEF/ownjX4hcw
