i thinker s slumber with the weakening of the roman empire at the beginning of the fifth century western europe slipped rapidly into what is now known as the dark ages from which it would not emerge for a thousand years jim al khalili the house of wisdom scornful dogma withering era silence in sight treasures of cognition have ceased to be destructive minds turning life to ashes relentlessly despotic hands on recollection restraining man from recollection ii wandering times progress through reason and rationality is by definition a good thing knowledge and enlightenment are always better than ignorance ibid wandering times crawling thoughts abandoned at dusk thinker s dream lost in doubts streams of lore concealing in drought wandering times scripted thoughts emerging at dawn scholars dream starts to blink streams of lore submerging with ink glimpse of light in sight dazzling minds are turning the page on darker times iii within the rounded walls like the city of alexandria founded a thousand years earlier by alexander the great baghdad grew from nothing to become the world s largest city just fifty years after the first brick was laid and just like alexandria it became a centre for culture scholarship and enlightenment that attracted the world s greatest minds ibid nightfall unfurls its sky whispers of waves mesmerised nightfall s canvas unfolds frame in time the stars have told mighty circle of stone standing strong on the sands alone rounded walls once foreseen standing tall to the thinker s realm all roads shall lead iv pearls of translation the success of a spectacularly massive translation movement a process that lasted for two centuries during which much of the wisdom of the earlier civilisations of the greeks persians and indians was translated into arabic the translation movement owes its beginnings to the appeal of persian culture along with the development of paper making technology they have learned from the chinese but once it began this obsession with translating ancient texts sparked the beginning of a golden age of scientific progress by the mid ninth century it had evolved into a new tradition of original scientific and philosophical scholarship that further fuelled the demand for more translations both in quantity and quality ibid enthralling thirst for ideas led by translation s quill searching the world with no fear paving the way for curious minds roaming the land for ideas led by translator s will reading the world becomes clear paving the way for golden times v compendiums he was well aware of the treasures to be found in the ancient texts of the greek philosophers he would send emissaries great distances to get hold of these scientific texts often foreign rulers defeated in battle would required to settle the terms of surrender to him with books from their libraries rather than in gold al ma mun was almost fanatical in his desire to collect all the world s books under one roof translate them into arabic and have his scholars study them the institution he created to realize his dream epitomizes more than anything else the blossoming of the scientific golden age it became known throughout the world as the house of wisdom by the middle of the ninth century the house of wisdom would have become the largest repository of books in the world ibid word by word scribing compendiums page by page crafting compendiums book by book gathering compendiums library filled with compendiums embracing texts from the past hints of knowledge are grasped concepts in fragments scholars will craft sheltered on paper ideas shall last vi stranded minds on the shores of doubt by the end of the tenth century the translation movement was coming to an end the abbasid empire was crumbling less enlightened caliphs were cracking down on freedom of speech and rationalist enquiry and the great names associated with the house of wisdom were already a distant memory but to infer from this that the golden age of arabic science was on the wane would be utterly wrong for the best was yet to come it was during the second half of the tenth century that we saw the three most outstanding thinkers in the history of islam arriving on the scene ibid vii besieged it was in 1258 that the accomplishments of the house of wisdom and the islamic golden age were brought to a cruel halt during the mongol invasion of baghdad the mosques libraries homes and hospitals of the great city were all destroyed the family of the last abbasid caliph al musta sim as well as thousands of the city inhabitants were slaughtered and the extensive collection of books and manuscripts at the house of wisdom were thrown in the tigris it is said that for days afterwards the river ran black with the ink of books and red with the blood of scholars it was a tragic ending for one of the most advanced diverse and progressive cities of the age and an ending from which it would take baghdad centuries to recover isabella bengoechea iraq s golden age the rise and fall of the house of wisdom winds of dogma have reached the rounded walls the flame of lore has been blown arrows will soon be thrown darkened era will fill the land and souls as life turns black as ink a chapter starts to sink rising storm from the east circle of archers intruding beast trampled furrows of memory seeds of invasion sowed by enemies blindly burning to decimate pages to ashes cognition s fate drowned in despotic waters treasures from minds are lost forever stream of lore destroyed at last running for days from red to black scornful dogma withering era
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