The influence of the Academy of Gondishapur on the formation of the House of Wisdom in Baghdad and the science of the Golden Age of Islam

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the role of the Academy of Gondishapur in the formation of the Bayt al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) in Baghdad and the emergence of Islamic science in the 8th-10th centuries. The methodology combines comparative-historical and biographical analysis with a study of institutional continuity based on primary sources and contemporary scholarly literature. The results demonstrate that Gondishapur, the foremost scientific and medical centre of late Sasanian Iran, constituted the primary human, methodological, and institutional source for the Abbasid Bayt al-Hikma. The migration of specialists, especially the Bukhtishu dynasty, Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, and Hunayn ibn Ishaq, transferred Gondishapur's medical traditions, hospital organisation (bimaristans), and translation methodology to Baghdad. Gondishapur's experience also shaped the development of medical education and the compilation of pharmacopoeias within the Bayt al-Hikma. A comparative structural analysis of the two institutions reveals both institutional borrowings and the original features of the Baghdad model. The article concludes that the transmission of Gondishapur's heritage to the Bayt al-Hikma constituted sustained institutional continuity, laying the foundations for the large-scale synthesis of Greek, Persian, and Indian knowledge in the Arabic language.