2011/02/28 by Wendy Moore · 1 citation
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · #Health Sciences Research and Education #Ophthalmology and Visual Health Research #Health and Medical Research Impacts #Gloom #Empire #Ottoman empire #Value (mathematics) #History #Islam #Capital (architecture) #Roman Empire #Ancient history #Classics #Law #Political science #Psychology #Archaeology
paper · doi:10.1136/bmj.d1272
openalex publication_date 2011/02/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Years spent buried in medical textbooks have taught doctors the value of libraries. Yet few appreciate that the Western medical tradition owes its survival entirely to history’s greatest ever library—the Bayt al-Hikma. The fall of the Roman empire was not just bad news for decent roads and central heating. The principles of scientific inquiry and learning in medicine, championed by Hippocrates and Galen, were similarly enveloped in the dark ages. It took an enlightened Islamic empire to dispel the gloom. The Bayt al-Hikma, or House of Wisdom, was founded in Baghdad, the capital of the Islamic empire, in 832, under …