Database: Translation Movement
In the eighth century, a well-funded and sustained effort to acquire manuscripts of various cultural origins and translate them into Arabic began in Baghdad. Led by scholars working in the city's House of Wisdom, this movement contributed to the preservation and spread of ancient knowledge while facilitating new discoveries.
The Abbasid caliphs sponsored these translations and some even took a personal interest in the work of the translators. They seem to have given special attention to astrology and astronomy, which were believed to be useful in providing auspicious dates for important undertakings, as well as to medicine, which was of course necessary for their own survival. Their example was followed by other important members of the social elite. Administrators wished to acquire mathematical skills to assess revenues and maintain irrigation systems. Muslim theologians found it helpful to translate Greek dialectical texts (especially Aristotle's) to support Islamic beliefs in the face of non-Muslim critiques. Courtiers wanted to establish or solidify their intellectual credibility by reading historical and military books in order to shine in public events.
The translations were often carried out by Persians or Syrians, who spoke both their native tongue as well as Arabic and often used Middle Persian or Syriac as an intermediary language. The translators would send for manuscripts from Greek-speaking Byzantium;. or they would go there themselves to look for books. Some texts were also acquired through diplomatic channels, such as the Zij as-Sindhind, astronomical tables brought by an envoy from India to the court of al-Mansur.
The translated works were then copied and read all around the Abbasid empire and even beyond its borders. Some Greek philosophical works and Indian mathematical books, translated and reworked in Baghdad, went on to be very influential in twelfth and thirteenth-century Europe, for instance.