How did the traditions and religious views of pre-Islamic peoples become integrated into the culture shaped by Islam?
How did the Muslim community of the time of Muhammad differ from the society that developed after the Arab conquests?
Was the Baghdad caliphate really the high point of Muslim civilization?
How did regional diversity affect the development of Islamic civilization?
Knowledge of papermaking, which spread from ¦
China to the Middle East after Arab conquests in the seventh century c. e. established an Islamic caliphate stretching from Spain to Central Asia, provided ¦ a medium that was superior to papyrus and parchment and well suited to a variety of purposes. Maps, miniature paintings, and, of course, books became increasingly common and inexpensive. With cheaper books came bookstores, and one of the most informative manuscripts of the period of the Islamic caliphate is a Fihrist, or descriptive catalog, of the books sold at one bookstore in Baghdad.
Abu al-Faraj Muhammad al-Nadim, a man with good connections at the caliph's court, compiled the catalog, though his father probably founded the bookstore. Its latest entry dates to ca. 990, al-Nadim's death date. Superbly educated, al-Nadim wrote such well-informed comments on books and authors that his catalog presents a detailed survey of the intellectual world of Baghdad.
The first of the Fihrist’s ten books deals with Arabic language and sacred scriptures: the Quran, the Torah, and the Gospel. The second covers Arabic grammar, and the third writings from people connected with the caliph's court: historians, government officials, singers, jesters, and the ruler's boon companions. Al-Nadim means “book companion,” so it is assumed that he knew this milieu well. After dealing with Arabic poetry, Muslim sects, and Islamic law in Books 3 through 6, he comes to Greek philosophy, science, and medicine in Book 7.
Most things we would find today in a bookstore are relegated to the final three chapters. Book 8 divides into three sections, the first being “Story Tellers and Stories.” Here he lists a Persian book called A Thousand Stories, which in translation became The Arabian Nights. Al-Nadim's version no longer survives. The collection we have today comes from a manuscript written five hundred years later.
Then come books about “Exorcists, Jugglers, and Magicians,” followed by “Miscellaneous Subjects and Fables.” These include books on “Freckles, Twitching, Moles, and Shoulders,” “Horsemanship, Bearing of Arms, the Implements of War,” “Veterinary Surgery,” “Birds of Prey, Sport with Them and Medical Care of Them,” “Interpretation of Dreams,” “Perfume,” “Cooked Food,” “Poisons,” and “Amulets and Charms.”
Non-Muslim sects and foreign lands—India, Indochina, and China—fill Book 9, leaving Book 10 for a few final notes on philosophers not mentioned previously.
All together, the thousands of titles and authors commented on by al-Nadim provide both a panorama of what interested book buyers in tenth-century Baghdad and a saddening picture of how profound the loss of knowledge has been since that glorious era.
World History
