21 April 2021
The House of Wisdom
You might find it interesting to read about this particular public library.
A consideration of the House of Wisdom in 8th to 12th century Baghdad.
What is the "House of Wisdom"?
"Hi class! We are going to reverse time for an hour or so and explore a very old Islamic library called the 'bayt al-hikmah, or "House of Wisdom." Conceived and built by the early caliphs of the Abbasid Empire in Baghdad, Iraq, the House of Wisdom was once one of the largest and most complex libraries in the world. It not only held thousands of hand-written manuscripts, providing a congenial atmosphere for leading academics to do research and writing, it also exported scholarship across the Muslim world and well beyond. The House of Wisdom's influence is very much part of the development of libraries in the Islamic world, but also within the Western world as well, extending into the structure of our very own Master's Program.
Why?
Since the historical and political background of the House of Wisdom is not generally known beyond Middle Eastern studies students and scholars, I'm also encouraging us to think about what we imagine this ancient Islamic library to be like!
Since the Abbasid Empire ended nearly 800 years ago, and since much of the House of Wisdom's content and structure was erased, conjecture is a valid means of thinking about the relationship between pre-modern, non-Western library systems (architecture, location, "outreach," funding, etc.) and our own time-frame's methods and practices in these areas.
What?
This little 2-page article is a great historical introduction to the House of Wisdom without being laborious reading or require much background knowledge on the Abbasid period.
House of wisdom. (2012). In S. T. S. Al-Hassani, & S. T. S. Al-Hassani (Eds.), 1001 inventions: The enduring legacy of muslim civilization (3rd ed.). National Geographic Society.
This article is longer and is more academic in tone and density, and is written by fellow graduate students in Malaysia, but I would encourage the class to read the Introduction, Section 1.1, and Section 5 to the Conclusion. It discusses the historical impact of the House of Wisdom library model on other library systems in the medieval and early modern Muslim world, as well as ideas about the actual functions of the House of Wisdom as a "library" in the sense that we understand it.
Algeriani, Adel & Mohadi, Mawloud. (2017). The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) and Its Civilizational Impact on Islamic libraries: A Historical Perspective. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. 8. 10.1515/mjss-2017-0036.
There are three longish scholarly readings about it in Sakai that you may choose to look at, should you wish.
- Scholarly Self-Fashioning in the Islamic Golden Age: Al-Khwarizmi and the House of Wisdom, a 2014 MS thesis by Mai Mansouri
- The House of Wisdom (Bayt al-Hikmah) and Its Civilizational Impact on Islamic libraries: A Historical Perspective, a 2017 research article by Adel Abdul-Aziz Algeriani and Mawloud Mohadi.
- Towards Intercultural Dialogue, Synthesis, and Pluralism: Revisiting Baghdad’s House of Wisdom, a journal article by Wisam Kh. Abdul-Jabbar
Questions to ponder for your considerations
- What kind of similarities can you observe between the function of the House of Wisdom and modern libraries in terms of "services" that each entity provides?
- What kind of differences between these entities are most noticeable to you?
- Are these differences primarily shown in terms of the House of Wisdom's function, or are they closer to differences in organizational structure, funding, access to information, or the content of the information provided?
I hope that this presentation can also be a small primer into Islamic history for everyone, and generate scholarly curiosity about a learned, literate, and cosmopolitan civilization that amassed incredible scientific, religious, and geopolitical successes long before the ascendancy of the West.
Guest speaker
Our guest comes to us from the Wake County Public Library System. Since graduation from SILS with an MSLS in 2008, they haveworked in the Wake County system, in a variety of positions.
- Readers' Services Library Assistant at Cameron Village Regional Library
- Adult Services Librarian at North Regional Library
- Adult Services Manager at North Regional Library
- Library Experience Manager at Library Admin
- Management and Policy Analyst at Library Admin
- Senior Library Manager for Facilities and Operations at Library Admin
This wide-ranging list of challenging roles has given them a broad, and deep, understanding of the challenges involved in operating a large and sophisticated public library system.