Science Institutionalization in Early Islam: Bayt al-Hikma of Baghdad as a Model of an Academy of Sciences

Abstract

This paper aims to introduce facets of academy-type institutions of the pre-Islamic era. To illustrate the ascendance of the Islamic tradition of science institutionalisation, founding and patronage of academies, the example of Baghdad’s Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) which flourished in the ninth century AD is examined closely in the light of primary Arabic sources on the subject as well as contemporary international literature. Moreover, the perception that Bayt al-Hikma of Baghdad was an ‘academy of sciences’ of its day will be elaborated on.