Book Review: The House of Wisdom

Title: House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient and Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance (Amazon link)

Author: Jim Al-Khalili

Summary in One Sentence: “If I have seen further it is by standing on ye sholders of Giants.”- Sir Isaac Newton

History/Commentary:

I can’t speak for everyone, but I live in the United States. Throughout my entire public school attendance I was taught that Rome was sacked by Goths then the whole world was devoured by the Dark Ages until 1066, well except for that guy Charlemagne and some Arab guys that created Algebra and invented zero and VIKINGS. I understand that we like to pretend that England is our cultural forebear, but I live in a society made up of totally different cultures and ethnicities other than Western European and I am trying to be vigilant in acknowledging those too.

In fact, some of the greatest civilizations of the world existed during this time. This was the height of the Mayan Classical period, the start of the Khmer Empire, Heian Japan, Tang Dynasty China and the civilization this book begins with, the Abbasid Caliphate.

The Abbasid Caliphate peaked during the reign of Harun Al-Rashid and continued on during the reigns of his sons Al-Amin and Al-Ma’mun (well, except for the civil war and all.) It was a time of Islamic philosophic debates, advances in science and mathematics, art, and licentiousness (which I’ll be talking about more in future posts in my blog.) During this time, the House of Wisdom, a giant library and research facility, was founded. There was a strong Persian influence at court during the Abbasid period, in fact most of the great minds of the House of Wisdom were of Persian or Central Asian descent. This coupled with the fact that Al-Ma’mun himself was the son of a Persian concubine decreased some of the discrimination towards Non-Arabs during that time (There was still a ton of favoritism and racism going on, but it had been much worse under the Umayyads.)

The Post-Rant, Totally Biased Book Review:

I wish this book went into more detail about everything. It was entertaining to read and the author (who’s a physicist) is not afraid of presenting mathematical concepts, which was very refreshing. All too often authors refrain from placing even the simplest of equations or diagrams in their history of science books in fear that they will scare readers off. For a person like me (the first time in college I studied physics, this time around I changed my major to biology), it’s usually insufficient. This book reaches a good balance. The concepts introduced are not overly difficult and are only introduced in order to describe exactly what the scientific/mathematical discovery was.

I also enjoyed the author’s perspective. Jim Al-Khalili is half Iraqi, half White British, so essentially he’s relating the history of his people. Being half Syrian, Half White American I instantly related to his point of view. There is definetly pride for the monumental acheivements, but also criticism of faulty ideas and philosophies and regret for missed opportunities.

I wish there was more social history, but then again, this is a book about the history of science and how the translations and discoveries during the middle ages affected future scientists and philosophers, particularly the  great thinkers of the Renaissance and early Enlightenment. It is not a book about the affect of this scientific revolution on the normal everyday people in Abbasid Iraq or what was being discussed in the salons of the Qiyan during that time.

Rating: 4.75 out of 5