The House of Wisdom (Bayt al Hikmah) was a state of the art research center set up by the Abbasid ruler Harun Ar Rashid in the 8th century. This was the closest we can get to a contemporary research center. Various sciences were studied, state funded research and translation of foreign texts was conducted that directly fed into the cultural and intellectual growth of the society. So in a sense we can say that Muslims pioneered the idea of research centers and advanced education.
Some of the great achievements of the house of wisdom include Al Farghani's estimation of the earth's circumference that was later used by Columbus in his trans-atlantic journey. Also important medical texts were translated from Greek to Arabic. Even the great scientist and father of Chemistry Jabir bin Hayyan also must have been associated with the House of Wisdom. Now the big question we ask today is Can we as Muslims in the 21st century revive this heritage?
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