Baghdad in History

Meaning of the Name "Baghdad"
The origin of the name "Baghdad" is under some dispute. Some say it comes from an Aramaic phrase that means "sheep enclosure" (not very poetic...). Others contend that the word comes from ancient Persian: "bagh" meaning God, and "dad" meaning gift. "The gift of God...." During at least one point in history, it certainly seemed so.
The Capital of the Muslim World
In about 762 A.D., the Abbasid dynasty took over rule of the vast Muslim world and moved the capital to the newly-founded city of Baghdad. Over the next five centuries, the city would become the world's center of education and culture. This period of glory has become known as the "Golden Age" of Islamic civilization, when scholars of the Muslim world made important contributions in both the sciences and humanities: medicine, mathematics, astronomy, chemistry, literature, and more. Under Abbasid rule, Baghdad became a city of museums, hospitals, libraries, and mosques. (Check out the links to the right for the Baghdad Photo Gallery, which has pictures of some of these great monuments.)
Most of the famous Muslim scholars from the 9th to 13th centuries had their educational roots in Baghdad. One of the most famous centers of learning was Bayt al-Hikmah (the House of Wisdom), which attracted scholars from all over the world, from many cultures and religions. Here, teachers and students worked together to translate Greek manuscripts, preserving them for all time. They studied the works of Aristotle, Plato, Hippocrates, Euclid, and Pythagoras. The House of Wisdom was home to, among others, the most famous mathematician of the time: Al-Khawarizmi, the "father" of algebra (which is named