The House of Wisdom and the Barmakids

a Barmak, high priest of the fire cult according to Zoroastrian precepts in the Nowbahar area, probably heir to a Buddhist tradition. Subsequently, with Khalid ibn Barmak, the family united its destiny with the Abbasid caliphate, occupying positions of prominence in the political and economic government of the empire. Khalid's son, Yahya, then became the tutor of the caliph al-Mahdi's son, namely Harun al-Rashid, who rewarded him with unlimited powers over his empire until 803 - that is, 6 years before his own death - when, for reasons still completely obscure, al-Rashid had him imprisoned along with most members of the Barmakid family. Raised under the influence of the Barmakids, Harun al-Rashid had from childhood a strong inclination toward the study of the Greeks and sympathy toward the Persian cultural environment. Thus he actively favored the study and translation of Greek and Persian authors, gathering a large number of scholars and translators capable of bringing together in one place the Arabic translations of various manuscripts found from Byzantium and India. In this place, therefore, began the critical translations of the Siddhanta and subsequently of Ptolemy's Almagest as well as Euclid's Elements, to name a few. The Bayt al-Hikma quickly became a cultural center of great importance, especially during the caliphate of al-Mamun, son of Harun al-Rashid. Here the foundations were laid for the Arab cultural-scientific revolution, starting from translations of Greek classics such as Galen, Hippocrates, Ptolemy, Euclid, Aristotle, Plato, Archimedes, and then arriving at the actual production of new writings. The House of Wisdom hosted all the great Arab mathematicians, astronomers, inventors, and scientists of the period. The House of Wisdom was frequented by al-Khwarizmi, inventor of algebra and discoverer of solutions to quadratic equations, the Banu Musa brothers, al-Kindi, Thabit ibn Qurra, and numerous others. At the moment of its maximum splendor, the House of Wisdom contained more than half a million volumes classified through a thematic index by genre and categories, at a time when the most well-supplied European libraries contained barely a few thousand volumes. The work was also made possible by the introduction in this context of a new type of support alternative to papyrus and parchment, namely paper, which was introduced thanks to the help of some Chinese prisoners captured during the Battle of Talas in Central Asia fought between the Abbasid caliphate and the Chinese Tang dynasty. However, already toward the end of the 10th century, the influence of the House of Wisdom began to slowly decline, and the Arab cultural and scientific epicenter moved to Cordoba in the caliphate of al-Andalus. Nevertheless, it continued to exert its influence until at least 1258, the year in which the Mongols brought down the caliphate. THE SABEANS OF HARRAN
A role not entirely clarified in the process of Arab Hellenization that took place at the House of Wisdom is played by the people of the Sabeans of Harran, a people with a cult having strong astrological connotations and heirs to various traditions both Hellenic and archaic. These could have been the custodians of a large number of Hellenic writings and manuscripts of hermetic and Neoplatonic character that would have had a role in the formation of young scholars at the House of Wisdom like al-Kindi. The Platonic Academy, after being closed in 500 AD, moved to Alexandria, Egypt, where it remained very briefly before moving again precisely to Harran. Here the Hellenic tradition merged with a very ancient local astrological cult that the Sabeans traced back even to Terah, father of Abraham, who was heir to knowledge dating back even to the Tower of Babel. Indeed, if you read in Genesis the chapter on the Tower of Babel, first of all it is written that the purpose of the tower was to ascend to the summit of the heavens (this gave rise to the idea that behind the Tower of Babel there were astrological worship practices) and then the collapse is described, and then at the end of the chapter appears Terah: "Then Terah took his son Abram and Lot, son of Haran, that is, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, wife of Abram his son, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; but when they came to Haran, they settled there. And the time that Terah lived was two hundred and five years; then Terah died in Haran." Genesis 11:31-32. And here in Harran this astrological cult remained, there were indeed various temples dedicated to the planets, the stone on which Abraham meditated, in short they were proud of this cult and did not want to leave it. So much so that they practically pretended to be another people to escape persecution. Indeed, the people of the Sabeans derive their name from a very curious episode. According to the Fehrest of Ibn al-Nadim, a treatise composed toward the end of the 10th century, the caliph al...