). the Golden Age of Arab and Islamic

). THE GOLDEN AGE OF ARAB AND ISLAMIC CULTURE "BAGHDAD,AT THE coNFLUENcE oF Two cuLTUREs, Aramaean and Greek, became,in the tenth century, the intellectual center of the world." As capital of the caliphate,Baghdad rvasalso to becomethe cultural capitalof the Islamic world. Our purposeis to show,as briefly aspossible, the role that this region played in the transmissionof the knowledge of antiquity, in the evolution of religious attitudes,and in the flowering of Arabic literature.We shall no[ try to flnd out, any more than did the caliphs of the period, whether the actorsrvere Iranians, Arabs, Moslems,Christians, or |ews. Mcn of lettersand of sciencehad gatheredin this city either through cultural affinityor becausethey had beensummoned to the caliph'scourt for their worth or their competence. An effort was made to keep the languageand the religion at an indispensablecultural level.In reality, there was but a single aim: It was necessary to study the structureand the rules of the language of the Koran in order to have the languagerespected and understood.We shall not spendtoo much time on the grammaticalwork, sincewe want to fol- low the more universal tendencies,especially in their in- fluenceon medievalEurope. We shall mention only Khalil, the inventor of Arabic prosody,the first author of a diction- 64 THE GOLDEN AGE ary, and especiallyhis pupil Sibawaih, who has the dis- tinction of having codified definitively all the problems of grammar. Later, Mubarrad wrote a work which is not only didactic but a valuablecollection of poetic quotations. He also shareswith his rival and contemporary,Tha'lab, the honor of having contributedto the philological training of severalpoets. Some authors wrote the biography of Mohammed in the broad sense,by including the literature of the hadith, "The Conversationsof the Prophet."The namesof two of the first authorsin this categoryshould be remembered:Muhammad ibn Ishaqand Ibn Hisham. Two of the foundersof the four schoolsof jurisprudence lived in Baghdad and exerteddecisive influence there for a long time. Abu Hanifa is alreadyknown to us becauseof his material participation in the founding of the city. He had the merit of integrating into the formalism of the law a living element,which consistedof both an analogicalmeth- od and, when necessary,personal common sense.His tomb is still veneratedin Baghdad.Opposed to this type of thought stands Ibn Hanbal, whose followers were talked about a great deal during the early centuriesof the Mesopotamian city. This austeretraditionalist was perhapsthe victim of his own work, which is nothing more than a collectionof. hadith. Indeed,he cameto considertradition, after the Koran, as the only sourceof law. A fierce enemy of all innovation, Ibn Hanbal createda puritan schoolwithin Islam, which still in our day inspiresthe peopleof the Saudi kingdom. His tomb rvasin Baghdadtoo, but it has disappeared. The first commentarieson the Koran were written in Baghdadbut we shall not spendmuch time on them. Reli- gious circles were affectedby a contemplativemovement begun by the Mutazilites, etymologically"those who keep 65 BAGHDAD to themselves,"as they did during the political quarrels which divided the Moslemsthe century before.The Mutazi- lites, preachingessentially that God was a Perfect Being took no attributesother than his unity into account.This conviction led the believersto deny the eternity of God's lvord; thus,for them,the text of the Koran becamea creation of the Divinity. This doctrine,with its appealto reason,is particularly important becausethree caliphs imposed it officially upon the people in a particularly unpleasant way. The religious spirit, moreover,was to be undermined by lahiz and, even more violently, by Razi. It was during this time that the doctor of laws, Ash'ari, sprang up from the Mutazilite ranks. He dominatedand definitively unified all the future beliefsof Islam. He is mentionednow becausehe lived during this period,but his influencewill be seenin the discussionof the Seljuk period when his ideas had official approval. During the two hundredyears after ^,D.75o,theintellectual ferment did not lessenfor a single moment. Even limited to the namesof thosescholars, writers, and poetswho abso- lutely should be known, the list is an impressiveone. Even beforethe founding of Baghdad,whose well-earned fatne grew for at leastfour centuries,the caliph Mansur sul- lied his own reputationby having Ibn Muqaffa', the creator of secularArabic prose,put to deathfor what were probably political reasons.The writer was only thirty-six years old when he wasexecuted in 757.The caliph thus did away with the reputed translator of the Fables of Bidpai, known today under the title of.Kalila and Dimna.It is a masterpieceof Arabic prose,whose literary qualitieshave never been denied by Arab writers. Mamun was the caliph who was largely responsiblefor cultural expansion.An Arab historian statesthe following: 66 THE GOLDEN AGE "He lookedfor knowledgewhere it was evident,and thanks to the breadth of his conceptionsand the power of his intel- ligence,he drew it from placeswhere it was hidden. He en- tered into relationswith the emperorsof Byzantium, gave them rich gifts, and askedthem to give him booksof philoso- phy which they had in their possession.These emperors senthim thoseworks of Plato,Aristotle, Hippocrates, Galen, Euclid, and Ptolemy which they had. Mamun then chose the most experiencedtranslators and commissionedthem to translatethese works to the bestof their ability. After the translatingwas done asperfectly as possible, the caliph urged his subjectsto read the translationsand encouragedthem to study them. Consequently,the scientific movement be- camestronger under this prince'sreign. Scholarsheld high rank, and the caliph surroundedhimself with learnedmen, legal experts,traditionalists, rationalist theologians,lexicog- raphers, annalists,rnetricians, and genealogists.He then ordered instrumentsto be manufactured." Astronomical observationwas begun in Baghdad in an observatoryin the Shammasiyasection, on the left bank of the Tigris, eastof Rusafa.The stafl set to work measuring the ecliptic angle and fixing the position of the stars.In addition, the caliph ordered that two terrestrial degreesbe calculatedin order to determinethe length of the solaryear. (This work was not to be taken up again for sevencen- turies.) The engineerIbrahim Fazari, who helped plan the founding of Baghdad,was the first in the Arab world to make astrolabes.(The BibliothbqueNationale in Paris has perhapsthe oldestinstrument of this type, one dating from the year 9o5.It was probably made in Baghdad,since it has on it the name of an heir apparentto the caliphate,a son of the caliphMuktafi.) Peopleof the West shouldpublicly expresstheir gratitude 67 BAGHDAD to the scholarsof the Abbasidperiod, who were known and appreciatedin Europe during the Middle Ages.There were the astronomer al-Khwarizmi (85o), from whose name comes the word "algorithm"; Farghani, whom we call Alfraganus(about 85o) ; the physicianYahya ibn Masawayh, calledMesua in the West; the astronomerAbu Ma'shar,the Albumasar of the Europeans (about 996). The caliph Mamun was responsiblefor the translationof Greek works into Arabic. He founded in Baghdad the Academv of Wisdom. which took over from the Persian universiiy of Jundaisapurand soon becamean active scientific center.The Academy'slarge library was enrichedby the translationsthat had been undertaken.Scholars of all racesand religions were invited to work there. They were concernedwith preservinga universalheritage, which was not specificallyMoslem and was Arabic only in language. The sovereignhad the best qualified specialistsof the time colne to the capitalfrom all parts of his empire. There was no lack of talentedmen. The rush toward Baghdad\.vas as impressiveas the horsemen'ssweep through entire lands during the Arab conquest.The intellectualsof Baghdad eagerlyset to lvork to discoverthe thoughtsof antiquity. Harun al-Rashid,Mamun's father, was particularly inter- estedin the physiciansbrought to his capital.The physicians rvho had becomejustly famous under the firsc caliphs of tsaghdadhad been studentsat the Persian school of fun- daisapur.The first representativeof the famous Bakhtyashu family came from this school,too. The family furnished physiciansto the Abbasidcourt for more than z5oyears. The biographyof one of them indicatesthat the examinationof urine was a common practice. The Nestorian Christian, Yahya ibn Masawayh, wrote malry works on fevers,hygiene, and dietetics.His was the 68 THE GOLDEN AGE first treatiseon ophthalmology,but he was soon surpassed in this field by his famous pupil, Hunain ibn Ishaq. Their booksare of specialvalue sincethere is no Greek treatiseon the subject. Particular mention should be made of the man to whom Arab scienceowes so much, the man who could be called the father of Arab medicine,Hunain ibn Ishaq,also a Chris- tian.In medievalLatin translationshe was known as Johan- nitius. For him the caliph Mutawakkil restoredthe transla- tion bureau, which had been originally establishedby Mamun. Not only did Hunain work at translations,but he directeda team of scholars.His enthusiasmwas responsible for great progress.FIe can be credited with having gready increasedthe scientificknowledge of the Arabs. By inventing medicaland philosophicalterms, he waslargely instrumental in forming a scientificlanguage. Thanks to him and his col- laborators,Arab writers formed the cultural avant-gardefor a centuryor two. In the field of

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