Abbasid Caliphate · about 800-900

The House of Wisdom

In Abbasid Baghdad, scholars translated Greek, Persian and Indian books into Arabic and added ideas of their own. Students explore the House of Wisdom and how knowledge traveled between cultures.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
12–15
On the map
3 steps, AD 830 to AD 814
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

In Abbasid Baghdad, scholars translated Greek, Persian and Indian books into Arabic and added ideas of their own. Students explore the House of Wisdom and how knowledge traveled between cultures.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Explain what the translation movement in Baghdad was.
  • Locate the regions whose books were translated into Arabic.
  • Describe how this knowledge later reached Europe.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 830

A capital of learning

Open the map in 830 and turn on Historical Events. Find the event for the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. Why might a caliph pay scholars to translate books?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 830

Where the books came from

Zoom out until you see Greece, Egypt, Iran and India. Scholars in Baghdad translated books from Greek, Persian and Sanskrit. Find where each language was spoken.

Open this view on the map
c

AD 814

An old map of 814

Turn on the Historical Maps layer and choose the map of the Carolingians, Byzantium and the Caliphate, 814. Which three great powers share the Mediterranean world?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Why would a caliph pay large sums for translations of Greek, Persian and Indian books?
  2. Many translators, like Hunayn ibn Ishaq, were Christians. What does that tell us about Baghdad?
  3. Historians debate whether the House of Wisdom was mainly a library or also an academy. What evidence would help us decide?
  4. Arabic translations later reached Europe and were translated into Latin. Why does it matter that knowledge passes through many hands?
  5. Which would you save first from a burning library: a book of medicine, of mathematics or of history? Why?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Charlemagne, who lived at the same time as caliph Harun al-Rashid and also gathered scholars at his court in Aachen. Discuss: why did rulers in both Aachen and Baghdad pay for learning?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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