The world: 830s

c. 830 · Middle East · Science

House of Wisdom

The House of Wisdom, also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, was a major Abbasid-era public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad. In popular reference, it acted as one of the world's largest public libraries during the Islamic Golden Age, and was founded either as a library for the collections of the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century or as a private collection of the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur to house rare books and collections in the Arabic language. During the reign of the seventh Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun, it was turned into a public academy and a library.