The Golden Pen
How the House of Wisdom Made Knowledge a Form of Worship
It was 830 CE and Baghdad was a light city.
Not the light of fire or conquering - but of knowledge.
Its domes were shining on the river Tigris, within its walls were scholars, traveling with the same footsteps as brothers all the far corners of the world.
The very core of this city was a great marble edifice with its doors open to any one who needed truths.
It was referred to as Bayt al-Hikmah -The House of Wisdom.
In it, within the Library, it smelled of ink and parchment. The walls were lined with shelves of books which had gone further than an army-- books, books of Athens and Alexandria, and Persia and India.
The ideas were not dreaded here there they were welcome.
In addition to that, Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Persians sat together to translate ancient manuscripts into Arabic. They discussed astronomy, medicine and philosophy by the dim light of oil lamps.
They trusted, with their heart and soul that inquiring knowledge was an act of faith.
It is the blood of the martyr, said they, which is nothing in comparison with the ink of the scholar.
One day a young scholar by the name Ahmad ibn Musa was sitting at a long table as hedelicately copied Greek diagrams in the clean parchment.
His master, Al-Khwarizmi, bending over him-- a tolerant smile on his face.
"You see these numbers?" Al-Khwarizmi alluded, with reference to the symbols.
"They are not just marks. Language of creation they are his.
Ahmad nodded.
but master, what meaning can numbers have?
Al-Khwarizmi immersed his pen in ink.
Since Allah created the universe in balance- there is day and night, heaven and earth is equal, justice and mercy. The depiction of that balance is in the form of numbers. Knowing them is the only way to know His design.
The equations in a day on that day would be copied by Ahmad and they would be referred to as al-jabr - algebra.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Christian doctor who spoke four languages, was in the courtyard where he was translating medical works of Galen and Hippocrates into Arabic.
He labored silently, his hands being smeared with ink, his eyes prostrated and cheerful.
When it was inquired why he had devoted his life to translation of the works of other men, he replied:
Since truth is a religionless thing. Happiness in any wise is common to the whole of mankind.
It was with his pen that the science of healing was resurgent-- and would be taken to Europe, centuries after the Company of Baghdad domes had seen the beginning of darkness.
The house of wisdom was not unlike a library. It was a collegium that preceded the knowledge of the world.
The professionals watched the stars, constructed observatories, and calculated the circle of the Earth with the unbelievable accuracy.
They charted the sky, naming the stars, which could be found in present day astronomy Aldebaran, Altair, Vega and Betelgeuse.
The Caliph Al-Maumun who reigned in this golden age adored knowledge more than authority.
He used to go up to the roof of his palace every evening and with his astronomers where he could look up in the sky.
He once said: Every star, that is a verse in the book of Allah, and is awaiting to be read.
but it might well be the miracle of the House of Wisdom that they learned and not what they had found.
Religion walls and language borders were non-existent.
A man might cite Aristotle in Greek, discuss it in Arabic and polish it with Persian argumentation all in a single sitting.
They thought the command of the Quran:
Say, are the people who know, and those that do not know, equal? (Surah Az-Zumar, 39:9)
To learn was to worship.
Writing was the remembrance of Allah.
To think was to praise.
But no light lasts forever.
Mongols ransacked Baghdad in the year 1258 CE.
They burned books, mosques and houses and when they came to the House of Wisdom, they dumped the books into the Tigris River.
The water ran black with ink.
They say that the river took away centuries of human brilliance.
Yet knowledge cannot drown.
The copies already taken to copying houses in Cairo, Damascus, Cordoba and Toledo in earlier years had already given rise to the European renaissance - a new born burst of wisdom whose origins dated back to the House of Wisdom in Baghdad.
Hundreds of years later a westerner, walking among the ruins of the ancient city, in a low voice was saying, Here was the light of the world.
And though the structure was not there any longer its spirit still remained-- in all the laboratories, all the classrooms, all the observatories which strove to know the universe.
The men and women of the House of Wisdom had taught the world one thing only, because it was a thing immortal:
Knowledge is not power. It is worship.
And the pen, in the right hand is more powerful than the sword.
About the Creator
Nusuki
I am a storyteller and writer who brings human emotions to life through heartfelt narratives. His stories explore love, loss, and the unspoken, connecting deeply with listeners and inspiring reflection.
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