[5] More recently, the narrative of the Abbasid House of Wisdom acting as a major intellectual center, university, and playing a sizable role during the translation movement has been understood by some historians to be a myth, constructed originally over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by Orientalists and, through their works, propagated its way into scholarship and nationally-oriented works until more recent re-investigations of the evidence.

[9] This translation movement lent momentum to a great deal of original research occurring in the Muslim world, which had access to texts from Greek, Persian, and Indian sources.

The rise of advanced research into mathematics, astronomy, philosophy, and medicine was the beginning of Arabic science, and drove demand for more and updated translations.

[10] The House of Wisdom was made possible by the consistent flow of Arab, Persian, and other scholars of the Islamic world to Baghdad, owing to the city's position as capital of the Abbasid Caliphate.

[11][9] The fields to which scholars associated with the House of Wisdom contributed include, but are not limited to, philosophy, mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and optics.

[17] Books written in Greek, Latin, and Persian in the fields of medicine, alchemy, physics, mathematics, astrology and other disciplines were also collected and translated by Muslim scholars at that time.

[18] The Umayyads also appropriated paper-making techniques from the Chinese and joined many ancient intellectual centers under their rule, and employed Christian and Persian scholars to both translate works into Arabic and to develop new knowledge.

The Translation Movement gained great momentum during the reign of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, who, like his predecessor, was personally interested in scholarship and poetry.

It was a common trait amongst Muslim poets, scientists, and authors to memorize their original texts for public lectures, which were typically done inside a mosque.

[18] It was easy for scholars and translators to make a living, and an academic life was indicative of high status in society; scientific knowledge was considered so valuable that books and ancient texts were sometimes preferred as war booty rather than riches.

Scholars from the Bayt al-Hikma usually doubled as engineers and architects in major construction projects, kept accurate official calendars, and were public servants.

[18] Al-Ma'mun was personally involved in the daily life of the House of Wisdom, regularly visiting its scholars and inquiring about their activities.

For example, he commissioned the mapping of the world, the confirmation of data from the Almagest and the deduction of the real size of the Earth (see section on the main activities of the House).

[26] Al-Ma’mun built the first astronomical observatories in Baghdad, and he was also the first ruler to fund and monitor the progress of major research projects involving teams of scholars and scientists.

Hunayn ibn Ishaq translated the entire collection of Greek medical books, including famous pieces by Galen and Hippocrates.

[17] The House of Wisdom eventually acquired a reputation as a center of learning, although universities as they are modernly known did not yet exist at this time—knowledge was transmitted directly from teacher to student without any institutional surrounding.

The House of Wisdom flourished under al-Ma'mun's successors al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842) and his son al-Wathiq (r. 842–847), but considerably declined under the reign of al-Mutawakkil (r. 847–861).

Although al-Ma'mun, al-Mu'tasim, and al-Wathiq followed the sect of Mu'tazili, which supported broad-mindedness and scientific inquiry, al-Mutawakkil endorsed a more literal interpretation of the Qur'an and Hadith.

[32] According to a 16th century chronicle about the siege from Quṭb al-Dīn al-Nahrawālī, "So many books were thrown into the Eufrates River that they formed a bridge that would support a man on horseback."

[35] The House of Wisdom included a society of scientists and academics, a translation department, and a library that preserved the knowledge acquired by the Abbasids over the centuries.

[2] The Translation Movement lasted for two centuries and was a large contributing factor to the growth of scientific knowledge during the golden age of Arabic science.

Ideas and wisdom from other cultures around the world, Greece, India, and Persia, were translated into Arabic contributing to further advances in the Islamic Empire.

Over a century and a half, primarily Middle Eastern Oriental Syriac Christian scholars translated all scientific and philosophic Greek texts into Arabic language in the House of Wisdom.

[1] Authors translated include: Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Euclid, Plotinus, Galen, Sushruta, Charaka, Aryabhata and Brahmagupta.

For example, the noted mathematician al-Khwarizmi worked in al-Maʾmun’s House of Wisdom and is famous for his contributions to the development of algebra.

[41] In his book, al-Jāḥiẓ argued that animals like dogs, foxes, and wolves must have descended from a common ancestor because they shared similar characteristics and features such as four legs, fur, tail, and so on.

Among these was "The Instrument that Plays by Itself", the earliest example of a programmable machine,[43][citation needed] as well as the Book on Measurement of Plane and Spherical Figures.

Mohammad Musa and his brothers Ahmad and Hasan contributed to Baghdad's astronomical observatories under the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun, in addition to House of Wisdom research.

The data provided by Ptolemy was meticulously checked and revised by a highly capable group of geographers, mathematicians and astronomers.

[18] Al-Ma'mun also organized research on the circumference of the Earth and commissioned a geographic project that would result in one of the most detailed world-maps of the time.