House of Wisdom (Cairo)
The House of Wisdom ( Arabic دار الحكمة, DMG dār al-ḥikma ) or House of Science (دار العلم dār al-ʿilm ) was a kind of academy and center of theological and philosophical studies with an extensive library in Cairo in the era of the Shiite-Ismaili Fatimid dynasty.
It was founded by the Fatimid Imam - Caliph Hakim on March 24, 1005 (395 AH ). Arabic, philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, medicine and astrology were taught there.
Many dāī (missionaries) of the Fatimids received at least part of their training at this institution, which served the Ismaili daʿwa (mission).
During the looting in late 1068 as a result of the collapse of the Fatimid Empire under al-Mustanṣir , the library was emptied in November 1068. A larger part of the books came into the possession of the Alexandrian ʿImād ad-Daula Abū al-Faḍl ibn al-Muḥtariq. After his death they were abducted or destroyed because they were supposed to be the teachings of the Ismailis.
The historian al-Maqrīzī has given a description of the library.
Hakim was the 6th Fatimid Caliph and 16th Ismailite Imam of the Fatimids, the first to be born in Egypt . He also ordered the construction of another mosque in Cairo next to the already existing Azhar Mosque , the religious center of the Ismailite school. This new mosque is called al-Hakim Mosque (مسجد الحاكم بأمر الله). At the same time he built a Koran school (halqa) where the principles of legal thought and theology of the Shiite Ismailis were taught.
See also
literature
- Farhad Daftary : Intellectual Traditions in Islam . 2000 Excerpt in the Google book search
- Ulrich Haarmann , Heinz Halm (Hrsg.): History of the Arab world . Beck, Munich 2001 ( excerpt in the Google book search)
- Heinz Halm: The Fatimids and Their Traditions of Learning . 2001 ( excerpt from Google book search)
- Heinz Halm: The caliphs of Cairo: the Fatimids in Egypt 973-1074 . Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 978-3-406-48654-8 , pp. 206-209, 412 f .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Farhad Daftary, p. 99