What was the House of Wisdom?

In an age of explosive productivity in the sciences and literature, one institution stood in the forefront of this era –the Bayt al-Hikma or the House of Wisdom.

Scholars at an Abbasid Library in Baghdad
by Yahya al-Wasiti

Founders: Who were Caliphs as-Saffah and al-Mansur?

In 749, in the city of Kufa, the Islamic world founded another Caliphate – the Abbasids. And the foundation and security of this new Caliphate rested in its first 2 Caliphs, both considered founders of the new dynasty – Caliph As-Saffah and Caliph al-Mansur.

Proclamation of as-Saffah as Caliph in Kufa

Who was Harun al-Rashid?

Ruled as the 5th Abbasid Caliph (r. 785 – 809), Harun al-Rashid ibn Muhammad al-Mahdi (763/766 – 809) presided over an explosive era of great achievements for the Islamic civilization, but his reign also began the decline of the Abbasid Caliphate.

Conquest of Tariq ibn Ziyad

In the southern tip of Spain stands a giant monolith that became known as the European side of the Pillars of Hercules where the Mediterranean Sea met the Atlantic. This monolith, the Rock of Gibraltar, bears a legacy of Muslim Spain. In fact, it bears the name of the man who started the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula – Tariq ibn Ziyad.

Lindisfarne Attack: Dawn of the Viking Age

As the monks of Lindisfarne lived out their pious lifestyle in a June day in 793, a group of Scandinavians desperate for riches and plunder rushed into their shores and dashed into their monastery and into history. Explore what happened in Lindisfarne at the dawn of the Viking Age?