Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq an-Nadīm (Arabic: ابو الفرج محمد بن إسحاق النديم), also Ibn Abī Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the nasab (patronymic) Ibn an-Nadīm; died 17 September 995 or 998), was an important Muslim bibliographer and biographer of Baghdad who compiled the encyclopedia Kitāb al-Fihrist (The Book Catalogue).
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👉 Ibn al-Nadim in the context of House of Wisdom
The House of Wisdom (Arabic: بَيْت الْحِكْمَة Bayt al-Ḥikmah), also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, was believed to be a major Abbasid-era public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad. In popular reference, it acted as one of the world's largest public libraries during the Islamic Golden Age, and was founded either as a library for the collections of the fifth Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid (r. 786–809) in the late 8th century or as a private collection of the second Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775) to house rare books and collections in the Arabic language. During the reign of the seventh Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun (r. 813 – 833 AD), it was turned into a public academy and a library.
It was destroyed in 1258 during the Mongol siege of Baghdad. The primary sources behind the House of Wisdom narrative date between the late eight centuries and thirteenth centuries, and most importantly include the references in Ibn al-Nadim's (d. 995) al-Fihrist.
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Ibn al-Nadim in the context of Al-Fihrist
The Kitāb al-Fihrist (Arabic: كتاب الفهرست) (The Book Catalogue) is a compendium of the knowledge and literature of tenth-century Islam compiled by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 998). It references approx. 10,000 books and 2,000 authors. A crucial source of medieval Arabic-Islamic literature, it preserves the names of authors, books and accounts otherwise entirely lost. Al-Fihrist is evidence of Ibn al-Nadim's thirst for knowledge among the sophisticated milieu of Baghdad's intellectual elite. As a record of civilisation transmitted through Muslim culture to the Western world, it provides unique classical material and links to other civilisations.