Under the Umaiyah K͟halīfahs, the genius of Greece began to obtain an influence over the minds of the Muslims.
ʿAbdu ʾl-Mālik, the fifth K͟halīfah of the Umaiyah dynasty (A.H. 65), was himself a poet, and assembled around him at his court the most distinguished poets of his time. Even the Christian poet, al-Ak͟ht̤al took his place in the front rank of the literary favorites of the Court.
But it was especially under al-Manṣūr, the Abbaside K͟halīfah (A.H. 136), that the golden age of Arabian literature in the East commenced. Accident brought him acquainted with a Greek physician named George, who was invited to court, and to whom the Saracens are indebted for the study of medicine.
The celebrated Hārūnu ʾr-Rashīd, the hero of the Arabian Nights, was specially the patron of learning. He was always surrounded by learned men, and whenever he erected a mosque he always established and endowed a school of learning in connection with it. It is related that amongst the presents he sent to the Emperor Charlemagne was an hydraulic clock. The head of his schools and the chief director of the education of his empire, was John ibn Massua, a Nestorian Christian of Damascus.
The reign of Maʾmūn (A.H. 198) has been called the Augustan period of Arabian literature. The K͟halīfah Maʾmūn himself was a scholar, and he selected for his companions the most eminent scholars from the East and West. Bag͟hdād became the resort of poets, philosophers, historians, and mathematicians from every country and every creed. Amongst the scholars of his court was al-Kindī, the Christian author of a remarkable treatise in defence of Christianity against Islām, side by side with al-Kindī, the philosopher, who translated numerous classical and philosophical works for his munificent and generous patron, and wrote a letter to refute the doctrine of the Trinity. [[KINDI].] It is said that in the time of Maʾmūn, “literary relics of conquered provinces, which his generals amassed with infinite care, were brought to the foot of the throne as the most precious tribute he could demand. Hundreds of camels might be seen entering the gates of Bag͟hdād, laden with no other freight than volumes of Greek, Hebrew, and Persian literature.” Masters, instructors, translators, and commentators, formed the court of Bag͟hdād, which appeared rather to be a learned academy than the capital of a great nation of conquerors. When a treaty of peace was concluded with the Grecian Emperor Michael III., it was stipulated that a large and valuable collection of books should be sent to Bag͟hdād from the libraries of Constantinople, which were translated by the savans of his court into the Arabic tongue; and it is stated that the original manuscripts were destroyed, in order that the learning of the world might be retained in the “divine language of the Prophet!”
The K͟halīfah al-Wās̤iq (A.H. 227), whose residence had been removed by his predecessor, al-Muʿtaṣim, from Bag͟hdād to Saumara, was also a patron of letters. He especially patronised poetry and music.
Under al-Muʿtamid (A.H. 256), Bag͟hdād again became the seat of learning.
Al-Mustanṣir (A.H. 623), the last but one of the Abbaside K͟halīfahs, adorned Bag͟hdād by erecting a mosque and college, which bore his name, and which historians tell us had no equal in the Muslim world. Whilst the city of Bag͟hdād, in the time of the Abbaside dynasty, was the great centre of learning, al-Baṣrah and al-Kūfah almost equalled the capital itself in reputation, and in the number of celebrated authors and treatises which they produced. Damascus, Aleppo, Balk͟h, Ispahan, and Samarcand, also became renowned as seats of learning. It is said that a certain doctor of science was once obliged to decline an invitation to settle in the city of Samarcand, because the transport of his books would have required 400 camels!
Under the Fāt̤imide K͟halīfahs (A.D. 910 to 1160), Egypt became for the second time the asylum of literature. Alexandria had more than twenty schools of learning, and Cairo, which was founded by al-Muʿizz (A.D. 955), soon possessed a royal library of 100,000 manuscripts. A Dāru ʾl-Ḥikmah, or school of science, was founded by the K͟halīfah al-Ḥākim (A.D. 996), in the city of Cairo, with an annual revenue of 2,570 dīnārs. The institution combined all the advantages of a free school and a free library.
But it was in Spain (Arabic Andalus) that Arabian literature continued to flourish to a later period than in the schools of Cairo and Bag͟hdād. The cities of Cordova, Seville, and Granada, which were under Muslim rule for several centuries (Cordova, from A.D. 755 to 1236; Granada, to A.D. 1484), rivalled each other in the magnificence of their academies, colleges, and libraries. Muslim historians say that Cordova alone has produced not fewer than 170 eminent men, and its library, founded by al-Ḥakam II. (A.D. 961), contained 400,000 volumes; and the K͟halīfah himself was so eminent a scholar, that he had carefully examined each of these books himself, and with his own hand had written in each book the genealogies, births and deaths of their respective authors.