Timeline Explorer · Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom · Stop 1 of 5
c. 790 CE · c. 174 AH† approximate debated before the Hijra
Harun al-Rashid laid the nucleus of the Khizānat al-Ḥikma at Baghdad: Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh set over the translation of the ancient medical books with skilled scribes, al-Faḍl ibn Nawbakht rendering Persian into Arabic and ʿAllān al-Shuʿūbī copying .
Al-Rashid lays the nucleus of the House of Wisdom — c. 790 CE · c. 174 AH†
Harun al-Rashid laid the nucleus of the Khizānat al-Ḥikma at Baghdad: Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh set over the translation of the ancient medical books with skilled scribes, al-Faḍl ibn Nawbakht rendering Persian into Arabic and ʿAllān al-Shuʿūbī copying .
Al-Ma'mun's embassy for the Greek books — c. 820 CE · c. 204 AH†
Al-Maʾmūn wrote to the Byzantine king for leave to fetch the ancient sciences stored in his lands, and sent out for them al-Ḥajjāj ibn Maṭar, Ibn al-Biṭrīq and Salm, master of the Bayt al-Ḥikma .
The Algebra composed — c. 825 CE · c. 210 AH†
At the House of Wisdom in Baghdad under al-Maʾmūn, al-Khwārizmī composed his Algebra — rules and geometric demonstrations for solving linear and quadratic equations; its Latin translation gave Europe the word algebra .
The Cyprus library comes to Baghdad — c. 830 CE · c. 215 AH†
When al-Maʾmūn made a truce with the lord of Cyprus he asked for the island's collected Greek library — kept in a house no one had opened — and it was sent to him, Sahl ibn Hārūn made its keeper .
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translation circle — c. 835 CE · c. 220 AH†
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and the translators of his circle carried through the greatest rendering of Greek books into Arabic under al-Maʾmūn and after him, making the Bayt al-Ḥikma the head of the translation movement .
