You probably can’t help but notice Baghdad has been in the news
quite a lot lately.
Iraq’s historic election this Sunday will in many dramatic ways
determine the future course of this troubled Middle Eastern
country.
You probably can’t help but notice Baghdad has been in the news quite a lot lately.
Iraq’s historic election this Sunday will in many dramatic ways determine the future course of this troubled Middle Eastern country. And much of America’s own political fate for the rest of the 21st century will also be tied to the Iraqi election – especially if it ignites a bloody civil war as some U.S. military officials predict. So ground-zero for the world’s attention this weekend is Iraq’s capital city. Amazing place, Baghdad. It’s equally amazing how ignorant we Americans are about the city’s huge impact on our own Western culture – particularly in the areas of science, medicine and technology. Look around the South Valley region and you’ll find the subtle influence of Baghdad on our daily lives.
Baghdad’s roots go back to about 1800 B.C. when it was a minor settlement of Babylon. Some scholars say its name comes from the Aramaic phrase for “sheep enclosure.” Perhaps it started as a shepherd’s village, goes one theory.
But there’s a more probable – and poetic – explanation for the city’s name. In Persian “bagh” means God and “dad” means gift. So “Baghdad” in a literal sense means “a gift from God.”
Indeed, Baghdad has been a most valuable gift to civilization since 762 A.D., the year the Abbasid dynasty made it the new capital of the rapidly growing Muslim empire. Over the next five centuries – a period called “the Golden Age of Islam” – Baghdad served as the scientific and cultural heart of the world.
In Baghdad, Abbasid scholars truly respected ancient writings. They aimed to preserve knowledge found in scientific and philosophical works by Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Pythagoras and others. Works by ancient doctors Hippocrates and Galen served as a foundation for Baghdad’s medical research. While Europeans prayed to the venerated bones of saints for healing, in Baghdad, hospitals were established where doctors treated people by using herbal pharmaceuticals and performing delicate surgery such as the removal of eye cataracts.
The legend goes that one night in the year 830, Baghdad’s Caliph al-Ma’mum had a dream. In it, the Greek philosopher Aristotle assured him that scientific reason and religious revelation did not conflict in the pursuit of truth. The dream inspired al-Ma’mum to establish the Bayt al-Hikmah – “the House of Wisdom.” This famous institution served as an important academic research center. Here scholars translated and discussed ancient texts – which prompted major discoveries of their own.
Based on a Chinese invention, Baghdad built a paper mill to supply the pages upon which these translated texts could be copied and publicly disseminated in bookstores. Some libraries in the city numbered more than 500,000 volumes. Baghdad’s citizens had an unquenchable zest for knowledge.
The result was Baghdad became the most intellectual – and wealthiest – city of its time. Trade and Islamic art flourished here in the world’s second largest metropolis of the Middle Ages. Only Constantinople was larger.
From its origin, this remarkable city poured out a cornucopia of scientific knowledge and technology that still enriches humanity. South Valley students taking algebra, trigonometry or integral calculus courses in high school or at Gavilan Community College can blame Baghdad mathematicians.
Our arithmetic number system is based on Arabic numerals (evolved from an earlier Indian system) established in the House of Wisdom. Baghdad also gave us the concept of “zero,” without which our computers and other high-tech digital gadgets would just be electronic junk.
Astronomy was also widely studied in Baghdad, which boasted the honor of having the world’s first scientific observatory. The city’s astronomers discovered new stars and accurately measured the diameter of the Earth, as well as the distance from our planet to the moon and the sun. This more accurate understanding of our globe helped Arabic cartographers produce the best maps of their age. Christopher Columbus later used these maps in 1492.
The scholars of Baghdad also revolutionized physics – particularly in the field of optics. They studied the human eye and discovered humans see things because light rays enter the lens (not shoot out from our eyes as previous cultures believed). Their optical experimentation led to the invention of the camera obscura – the basis for modern photography. Baghdad scholars also were the first to explain the optical science creating a rainbow.
Based on work done by Archimedes, they considerably improved the measurement of specific weights of objects. Breaking ground for Isaac Newton, they developed ideas of impetus and momentum. And beating Albert Einstein by centuries, one ancient Baghdad physicist theorized if an atom could be split, it would release vast amounts of energy – the basis of our modern nuclear weapons of mass destruction.
But the House of Wisdom’s most important scientific achievement was simply the concept of relentlessly questioning the wisdom of ancient authorities. Muslim scholars reasoned knowledge should not be taken at face value just because Aristotle or some other famous Greek said it was so. All knowledge must be put to the test. So Baghdad’s scientists are credited with developing what we now call the experimental method – the basis for virtually all scientific research today. The scholars of the House of Wisdom would be astonished how so many of their discoveries influence our modern world. Unfortunately, much of the scientific and mathematical knowledge they shared with us helps create our devastating weapons of modern war.
President Bush this week announced his request for an additional $80 billion this year (on top of the $25 billion Congress already budgeted) to continue America’s bloody conflict with Iraq.
I imagine Baghdad’s ancient scholars might advise a better use of our national treasure chest. Perhaps to uphold the enlightened ideals of ancient Baghdad, they might suggest we question the wisdom of our authorities and instead use the $80 billion as seed money to create a new golden age of science and peace in Iraq’s war-torn capital. Such a noble pursuit would be the best thank-you we can give a city that’s truly “a gift from God.”
