false 83368 0 0 6006458 1596914599 9781596914599 2 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6006458.The_House_of_Wisdom_How_the_Arabs_Transformed_Western_Civilization 4.00 10
For centuries following the fall of Rome, western Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to catch even a glimpse of the scientific advances coming from Baghdad, Antioch, or the cities of Persia, Central Asia, and Muslim Spain. There, philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge and revitalizing the works of Plato and Aristotle. I n the royal library of Baghdad, known as the House of Wisdom, an army of scholars worked at the behest of the Abbasid caliphs. At a time when the best book collections in Europe held several dozen volumes, the House of Wisdom boasted as many as four hundred thousand.  Even while their countrymen waged bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid Christian scholars, thirsty for knowledge, traveled to Arab lands and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine, and philosophy that laid the foundation for the Renaissance. I n this brilliant, evocative book, Lyons shows just how much “Western” culture owes to the glories of medieval Arab civilization, and reveals the untold story of how Europe drank from the well of Muslim learning.]]> 83368 3.83 23 4 2008 986268 1554041791 9781554041794 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180017798m/986268.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180017798s/986268.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/986268.Machina 3.25 4 83368 3.83 23 4 2004 2284397 1583454438 9781583454435 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2284397.Burn 3.50 2 Soon Cage's path is littered with the burnt remains of a seemingly unconnected group of people. Only James' ex-girlfriend, the inhumanly lovely Jonny Cache, can shed any light on the victims who have been made to burn....

]]> 83368 3.83 23 4 2000 919091 0805072993 9780805072990 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179450532m/919091.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179450532s/919091.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/919091.Answering_Only_to_God_Faith_and_Freedom_in_Twenty_First_Century_Iran 4.33 3 83369 3.73 70 16 83368 3.83 23 4 2003 6280859 0747594007 9780747594000 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6280859.The_House_of_Wisdom_How_the_Arabs_Transformed_Western_Civilization 5.00 1 83368 3.83 23 4 2009 6404336 1408800314 9781408800317 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6404336-the-house-of-wisdom 4.00 1 83368 3.83 23 4 2009 7162485 1608190587 9781608190584 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7162485-house-of-wisdom 0.0 0 83368 3.83 23 4 2010